Workshop Prep & Scenario
Read before the microhack | Scenario brief and team role cards
The Scenario: Nordic Fresh Foods
Section titled “The Scenario: Nordic Fresh Foods”Your Challenge: Design and deploy Azure infrastructure for a farm-to-table delivery platform.
The Business
Section titled “The Business”Nordic Fresh Foods is a growing farm-to-table delivery company based in Stockholm, Sweden. They connect local organic farmers with restaurants and consumers across Scandinavia.
| Fact | Details |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2022 |
| Partner Restaurants | 500+ |
| Active Consumers | 10,000 |
| Current Tech | Spreadsheets, WordPress, manual processes |
| Funding | €2M Series A (just secured) |
The Problem
Section titled “The Problem”The CEO has secured €2M in Series A funding and needs to modernize operations before peak season (3 months away). Current pain points:
-
Order chaos: Staff manually enters orders from phone, email, and web forms into spreadsheets. They lose ~8% of orders to errors.
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No real-time inventory: Farmers update stock levels via WhatsApp. The team often oversells products that are no longer available.
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Delivery scheduling: Routes are planned manually. Drivers often arrive at farms when produce isn’t ready, wasting time and fuel.
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Customer visibility: Restaurants have no way to track orders or see estimated delivery times. They call constantly for updates.
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Seasonal scaling: During summer and December, order volume triples. They currently hire temp staff and work overtime — it’s unsustainable.
The Vision
Section titled “The Vision”The CTO (newly hired) has outlined a vision for “FreshConnect” — a cloud-based platform that will:
- Accept orders from a web portal and mobile app
- Show real-time inventory from connected farms
- Automatically schedule and optimize delivery routes
- Provide order tracking for restaurants and consumers
- Scale seamlessly during peak periods
- Generate analytics for business decisions
Your Mission
Section titled “Your Mission”Design and deploy the Azure infrastructure for the FreshConnect MVP (Minimum Viable Product).
⚠️ You are NOT building application code. You are designing and deploying the cloud infrastructure that the development team will use.
MVP Requirements
Section titled “MVP Requirements”Functional:
| Capability | Description |
|---|---|
| Web Portal | Restaurant and consumer order entry (expect 500 concurrent users at peak) |
| API Backend | RESTful APIs for mobile apps and integrations |
| Database | Store orders, customers, inventory, delivery schedules |
| File Storage | Product images, invoices, delivery receipts |
| Secrets Management | API keys, connection strings, certificates |
| Monitoring | Application health, performance metrics, alerts |
Constraints:
| Constraint | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Budget | ~€500/month | Infrastructure only (increases to €700 after Challenge 4) |
| Compliance | GDPR | Customer PII must stay in EU |
| Region | swedencentral | Primary region (Stockholm proximity) |
| Timeline | 3 months | MVP for peak season |
| Team | 3 devs, 1 DevOps | Small team, needs managed services |
Out of scope (MVP):
- Mobile app infrastructure (Phase 2)
- AI/ML for route optimization (Phase 2)
- Multi-region disaster recovery (initially — see Challenge 4!)
- Real-time IoT from delivery vehicles (Phase 3)
Non-functional:
| Requirement | Target |
|---|---|
| SLA | 99.9% |
| RTO | 4 hours (initially) |
| RPO | 1 hour (initially) |
| Peak Load | 500 concurrent users |
| Seasonal Spike | 3x normal volume |
| Authentication | Azure AD (internal), Azure AD B2C (external) |
| Network | Public endpoints acceptable for MVP |
Key stakeholders:
| Role | Priorities |
|---|---|
| CEO | On-time delivery, budget control |
| CTO | Scalability, modern architecture |
| CFO | Cost optimization, ROI |
| Operations | Reliability, easy maintenance |
The MicroHack Journey
Section titled “The MicroHack Journey”8 challenges across a 1-day hackathon:
- Requirements — Capture business needs using the Requirements agent
- Architecture — Design Azure solution aligned with Well-Architected Framework
- Implementation — Generate IaC templates for deployment
- DR Curveball — Adapt to multi-region disaster recovery requirements
- Load Testing — Validate performance under stress
- Documentation — Create operational guides and runbooks
- Diagnostics — Build troubleshooting procedures
- Team Showcase — Present your solution professionally
Not all teams will complete all challenges — the goal is mastering the platform engineering workflow.
Team Role Cards
Section titled “Team Role Cards”Print and distribute to each team member (up to 5 per team).
Team Structure
Section titled “Team Structure”| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Team Size | Up to 5 members per team |
| Number of Teams | Maximum 4 teams |
Note: With 5 members, one person can float across roles or two can share the Architect role (one on security, one on cost).
🚗 Driver
Section titled “🚗 Driver”Primary Responsibility: Hands on keyboard
You Will:
- Type all commands and code
- Navigate VS Code and Azure Portal
- Execute agent prompts when team agrees
- Run deployments and tests
Tips:
- Share your screen so team can follow
- Verbalize what you’re doing: “I’m about to invoke the Architect agent…”
- Pause before executing — wait for team consensus
- Ask “Should I run this?” before deployments
Collaboration is Key:
- Don’t make decisions alone — this is team-based discovery
- Embrace pauses for discussion — silence means thinking!
- When stuck, ask: “What question should I ask the agent?”
🧭 Navigator
Section titled “🧭 Navigator”Primary Responsibility: Guide strategy and next steps
You Will:
- Read challenge instructions aloud
- Guide Driver on what to type/click next
- Watch for errors and typos
- Keep team focused and on time
Tips:
- Have the challenge doc open on your device
- Call out the next step before Driver finishes the current one
- Track time per challenge — 8 challenges in one day means the pace stays tight
- In Challenge 4 (DR Curveball): Help team pivot quickly
Coaching Mindset:
- When team is stuck, ask questions: “What are we trying to achieve?”
- Guide exploration: “Have we considered…?”
🏗️ Architect
Section titled “🏗️ Architect”Primary Responsibility: Technical decisions and quality
You Will:
- Review agent suggestions before team approves
- Validate architecture against WAF pillars
- Make SKU and service choices
- Ensure security best practices
Tips:
- Have the quick reference card handy
- Question each agent recommendation: “Why this service?”
- Check: “Does this meet our NFRs?”
- Watch the budget! (€500 → €700 after Challenge 4)
Critical Questions to Ask:
- “Is this the right SKU for our SLA?”
- “Are we using managed identities?”
- “Does this handle the DR requirement?”
- “What’s the cost impact of this choice?”
📝 Documenter
Section titled “📝 Documenter”Primary Responsibility: Capture decisions and prepare showcase
You Will:
- Note key decisions and rationale
- Track which challenges are complete
- Document blockers and solutions
- Prepare for Challenge 8: Team Showcase
Tips:
- Keep a running log in a text file or notepad
- Screenshot interesting outputs and architectures
- Prepare 2-minute summary for final presentation
- In Challenge 4: Document ADR (Architecture Decision Record) reasoning
- In Challenges 6-7: Lead documentation agent interactions
Capture These Details:
- “We chose X because…” (business justification)
- “The agent suggested Y but we changed to Z because…”
- “We got stuck on… and solved it by…”
Role Rotation (Optional)
Section titled “Role Rotation (Optional)”For 8 challenges, consider rotating every 2 challenges:
| Challenges | Driver | Navigator | Architect | Documenter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-2 | A | B | C | D |
| 3-4 | B | C | D | A |
| 5-6 | C | D | A | B |
| 7-8 | D | A | B | C |
Suggested Leads:
- Challenge 6 (Documentation): Documenter leads
- Challenge 7 (Diagnostics): Architect leads
- Challenge 8 (Showcase): Documenter presents, everyone supports
Team Agreement
Section titled “Team Agreement”Before starting, agree on:
- Who plays which role initially
- Will we rotate roles? After which challenges?
- How do we make decisions when we disagree? (Vote? Discuss? Architect decides?)
- Break strategy (together or staggered? Lunch 12:00-12:45, Break 15:00-15:15)
- How do we support each other when stuck?
Team Name: ________________
| Role | Name |
|---|---|
| 🚗 Driver | |
| 🧭 Navigator | |
| 🏗️ Architect | |
| 📝 Documenter | |
| 🔄 Floater (opt.) |
Coaching Philosophy: We discover solutions together through questions, not by following prescriptive steps!