Evaluating LLM Systems: Metrics That Matter is often discussed in broad terms, but engineering and architecture teams require specificity. This article takes a technically-oriented view, focusing on patterns, trade-offs and integration concerns that tend to surface in real projects.
It walks through the core building blocks involved, highlights where complexity typically appears, and suggests reference patterns that have proven resilient across multiple environments. Rather than advocating a single stack, the emphasis is on understanding constraints so that appropriate design choices can be made.
Engineering leaders can use these concepts to review existing implementations, shape technical backlog, and hold more substantive conversations with vendors and internal stakeholders about what is required for a robust solution.
The ideas here are deliberately technology-agnostic and are intended to remain relevant as individual frameworks and platforms change.