tractorjuice--arckit-gemini/docs/guides/finops.md

FinOps Strategy Playbook

Guide Origin: Official | ArcKit Version: [VERSION]

/arckit:finops creates a cloud financial management strategy covering cost visibility, optimization, governance, and forecasting.

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Inputs

Artefact	Purpose
Requirements (ARC-<id>-REQ-v1.0.md)	Scale and budget constraints from NFRs
Architecture diagrams	Resource topology and cloud estate
DevOps strategy	Infrastructure patterns and cloud usage
Stakeholder drivers	Business value and ROI targets

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Command

/arckit:finops Create FinOps strategy for <initiative>

Output: projects/<id>/ARC-<id>-FINOPS-v1.0.md

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Strategy Structure

Section	Contents
FinOps Overview	Strategic objectives, maturity level, team structure
Cloud Estate Overview	Providers, accounts, workloads, current spend, trends
Tagging Strategy	Mandatory/optional tags, enforcement policies
Cost Visibility & Reporting	Allocation model, dashboards, attribution
Budgeting & Forecasting	Budget setting, types, forecasting methodology
Showback/Chargeback	Allocation methodology, shared costs, unit economics
Cost Optimization	Rightsizing, reserved instances, spot usage, storage tiering
Commitment Management	RI inventory, Savings Plans, utilization targets
Anomaly Detection	Thresholds, alerts, investigation workflow
Governance & Policies	Approval workflows, quotas, exception handling
FinOps Tooling	Native cloud tools, third-party, automation
Sustainability & Carbon	Carbon footprint, green practices, sustainability reporting
UK Government Compliance	Spending controls, Treasury Green Book, G-Cloud tracking
Operating Model	Review cadence, stakeholder engagement, escalation
Metrics & KPIs	Cost efficiency, unit economics, optimization targets

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FinOps Maturity Levels

Level	Characteristics	Cost Visibility
Crawl	Basic tagging, monthly reports	Limited
Walk	Automated reports, budgets, alerts	Moderate
Run	Real-time visibility, optimization automation, forecasting	Full

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Tagging Strategy Example

Tag	Type	Purpose
cost-center	Mandatory	Financial allocation
environment	Mandatory	Dev/staging/prod differentiation
owner	Mandatory	Accountability
project	Mandatory	Project-level cost tracking
team	Optional	Team-level attribution
data-classification	Optional	Compliance tracking

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One-Page Workflow

Phase	Key Activities	ArcKit Commands
Discovery	Understand cloud estate and spend patterns	/arckit:requirements, /arckit:stakeholders
Architecture	Design infrastructure and deployment topology	/arckit:diagram, /arckit:devops
Strategy	Create FinOps strategy	/arckit:finops
Implementation	Implement tagging, dashboards, alerts	/arckit:backlog
Operations	Ongoing optimization and governance	/arckit:operationalize

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Review Checklist

• Tagging strategy covers all cost attribution needs.
• Reporting cadence meets stakeholder requirements.
• Optimization strategies align with workload patterns.
• Governance framework matches organizational structure.
• Budget alerts configured at 50%, 75%, 90%, 100%.
• Commitment management plan defined (RI/Savings Plans).
• UK Government spending controls addressed (if applicable).

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Key Metrics

Metric	Description	Target
Tagging Coverage	% of resources with required tags	>95%
Commitment Coverage	% of spend covered by commitments	60-80%
Commitment Utilization	% of commitments actually used	>90%
Waste Identified	% of spend on idle/unused resources	<5%
Unit Cost	Cost per transaction/user/request	Trending down

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Key Principles

1. Cost Visibility First: You cannot optimize what you cannot see.
2. Shared Accountability: Engineering teams own their cloud spend.
3. Real-Time Decision Making: Cost data should be timely and accessible.
4. Variable Cost Model: Cloud spend should scale with business value.
5. Continuous Optimization: Optimization is ongoing, not one-time.