What is the purpose of creating Proof of Concepts (POCs) during the architecture design phase?

Creating Proof of Concepts (POCs) during the architecture design phase primarily serves to demonstrate the feasibility of a technical approach or integration. This process allows teams to explore and validate specific ideas or technologies in a controlled environment before fully committing to them. By building a working model, developers and stakeholders can evaluate different architectural decisions, assess potential risks, and identify any technical challenges that may arise.

POCs provide a tangible example that showcases whether a proposed solution can meet the business requirements and how well it performs in terms of functionality and integration with existing systems. This early-stage evaluation helps inform subsequent design choices, ensuring that the final architecture is not only theoretically sound but also practical and implementable within the project’s constraints.

In contrast, the other options do not accurately reflect the primary purpose of POCs. Thorough testing and validation encompass a broader process that typically occurs after the initial development rather than being replaced by a POC. Providing a polished user interface for feedback is more related to usability testing than to the technical feasibility that POCs are meant to address. Lastly, finalizing the database schema and deployment strategy comes after validating the core technical approaches and is not the focus of a POC, which is more exploratory in nature.