Assessment toolkit · 2026
Assessing an AI Control Plane Project
Methodology, templates and a worked example for gathering requirements, designing the architecture and phasing an AI control plane project for early value
About this toolkit
This toolkit helps architects and project teams run an AI control plane assessment: a short, structured engagement, led by a lead architect and an engagement lead, that takes one priority use case from an idea to a funded, phased plan. It follows The AI Control Plane Handbook step for step. The handbook explains why an enterprise needs a control plane, what the north-star architecture looks like and how MuleSoft Agent Fabric and Informatica realize it. This toolkit turns that thinking into the questions to ask, the assets to find, the templates to fill and the readout to give.
Everything here is built around the handbook’s reference use cases. Use case 1, engagement launch at a global audit, tax and advisory firm, runs through the whole toolkit as the worked example, so every template has a finished answer to learn from.
Download the templates
All thirteen templates, T1 to T13, are in one Word document to fill in offline or copy into your working papers. Part 1 has the blank templates, each with its note on how to use it. Part 2 has the same templates filled in for use case 1, each with a note on why it is filled that way. Appendix G describes what is in it and how to use it.
John Fisher works for Salesforce. The views here are his own, not Salesforce’s, and are drawn from public information; this toolkit is not affiliated with or endorsed by Salesforce. Product names are trademarks of their owners. Illustrative figures are not results from any customer. Appendix E gives the full notices, including the license and the additional permissions to use the toolkit with clients and to adapt the Word templates.
What is inside
- Part 1: Methodology. How the assessment runs in six steps (frame, discover, define, design, phase, decide), who does what, and how to find the assets, write the requirements, design the architecture and put ROI and business value on every milestone.
- Part 2: Templates. Thirteen templates (T1 to T13), each with a note on how to use it: use case at a glance, business case, asset inventory, requirements, security, KPIs, north-star architecture, a day in the life, component interaction, realization with MuleSoft Agent Fabric and Informatica, phased value, decisions, and the operating model and adoption plan.
- Part 3: Worked example. Use case 1 with every template filled in, and a note on why each one is filled the way it is.
- Part 4: Presenting. How to present use case 1 to a client, common questions and their answers, and how to use the client-facing report template.
- Appendices. A discovery question bank, workshop agendas, a glossary, the sources cited, the notices and disclosures, a note about the author, and the templates to download (Appendix G).
- Templates to download. All thirteen templates in one Word document, blank in Part 1 and filled in for use case 1 in Part 2: download the templates , or see Appendix G for what is in the document.
Companion pages
- The AI Control Plane Handbook. The architecture, the research and the three reference use cases. Sections 6 to 13 are the basis for this toolkit.
- The executive deck. The briefing for CTO and CIO audiences.
- The client deck. Part 1 presents use case 1 as a finished client readout, and Part 2 is the same storyline as a template.
- The client report template. The client-facing report, with prompts to replace.
Conventions
- Figures for use case 1 and for any client before discovery are illustrative, and are labeled that way wherever they appear.
- Products are described by what they do, using public information only.
- Protocol versions and regulation dates are kept in one table, Standards and regulation dates, in Section 5, matching the handbook’s Section 7 and the appendix slide in both decks. Check it before every readout.
- Superscript numbers refer to the shared endnote list in The AI Control Plane Handbook (Appendix B). The sources this toolkit cites are listed in Appendix D with the same numbers.
- Integration capabilities are called MuleSoft (APIs, connectors, MCP Bridge). The control plane is MuleSoft Agent Fabric, and the data foundation is Informatica.
Quick start
- Read Part 1 once, end to end (about 30 minutes).
- Before the first workshop, send the data request in Section 3 and the handbook’s executive summary as a pre-read.
- Fill the templates in Part 2 as the workshops run. Use the Part 3 answers for use case 1 as the model.
- Build the readout from Part 2 of the client deck, and the report from the client-facing template.
- Rehearse with Part 4: the engagement lead opens and closes, and the lead architect presents the architecture.
Contents
- •Part 1: Methodology
- 1The assessment at a glance
- 2Framing the use case and the value hypothesis
- 3Discovering assets and baselining the current state
- 4Defining requirements and security
- 5Designing the north star and realizing it
- 6Phasing for early value
- •Part 2: Templates
- 7The templates and how to use them
- •Part 3: Worked example
- 8Use case 1 with every template filled in
- •Part 4: Presenting
- 9Presenting use case 1 to the client
- 10Using the client-facing report template
- ADiscovery question bank
- BWorkshop agendas
- CGlossary
- DSources
- ENotices and disclosures
- FAbout John Fisher
- GTemplates to download
- •Client report template
- •Client deck, Part 1: worked example
- •Client deck, Part 2: template