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TreeNodes
People. Data. Processes. Software systems, digital products and applied AI for business operations.
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Services
Business analysis, technology evaluation, software architecture, web and native app development, APIs, databases, data processing and visualisation, applied AI and scoped technical support.
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How we work
How a project moves from understanding the business to working software and operation. Compare discovery and scope, architecture review and an initial build, with deliverables, planning…
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How TreeNodes designs systems
Business context becomes working software through analysis, system modelling, architecture, implementation and validation.
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About TreeNodes
Business and systems analysis, technology evaluation, software architecture, hands-on development and applied AI for clearer workflows, connected information and dependable applications.
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What we build
Custom web platforms, native apps, APIs and business software. Explore projects in file collection, project management and personalised learning.
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FileTRX workflow case study
A detailed look at the FileTRX request workflow, product design decisions and screenshots, from defining required files to tracking partial completion.
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Projects: platforms, websites and volunteering
Explore TreeNodes platforms, commerce and corporate websites, professional services projects and volunteering, with the delivery scope described for each project.
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Applied AI
AI recommendations, document processing and workflow integration, from requirements and architecture to implementation, evaluation and support.
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Articles
Browse systems design, applied AI, approach and computer fundamentals.
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Article reading paths
Guided reading on designing an AI system, improving business workflows and making architecture decisions.
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Practical resources
Prompts, code, worksheets and models to try with the articles.
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Discuss a project
Prepare an enquiry, then review and submit it using the contact form.
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Search TreeNodes
Find articles, practical resources, services and authors by topic or title.
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For AI readers
Read public TreeNodes pages as Markdown, find original sources, and use supported browser tools.
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Privacy policy
How TreeNodes handles contact enquiries, subscriptions and website data.
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Terms of use
Terms for using the TreeNodes website, articles and downloadable materials.
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Business & systems analysis | TreeNodes services
Understand the operation, map workflows and agree requirements, responsibilities and business rules before committing them to software.
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Software architecture | TreeNodes services
Clarify system boundaries, responsibilities and dependencies. Make the important design decisions before a difficult change or a new build.
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Web, mobile & business software | TreeNodes services
Build web and mobile applications and business systems, with the frontend, backend, APIs and databases they need. Take the agreed design through testing, release and handover.
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Workflow automation | TreeNodes services
When work depends on copying, chasing or re-entering information, connect the steps and give exceptions a clear route.
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Database & technical support | TreeNodes services
Support the software already in use, including database work, technical issues and new requests. Agree priorities, scope and response arrangements around your operation.
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Designing an AI system
Choose the parts, define the task, give the agent useful context, then apply it to a changing design. A clearer system design and a task brief you can try with an AI model.
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Improving business workflows
Understand the work people actually do before changing the software that supports it. A map of hidden rules, responsibilities and exceptions, with a small improvement to test.
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Making architecture decisions
Understand what software architecture means, model the system, choose useful views, then trace what happens at runtime.
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Nermien Barakat
Software Architect & Engineer | Web & Mobile Applications | Business Systems & Applied AI. I design and build web and mobile applications, business systems and applied AI.
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FileTRX | TreeNodes projects
A product for collecting client files through a structured request, with requirements, outstanding items and progress visible in one place.
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Infinitely Big | TreeNodes projects
A complete project management platform connecting projects, client files and file sending, planning and team coordination, with continuing technical support and improvements.
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Music learning platform | TreeNodes projects
A complete music learning platform across web, iOS, iPad and Android, connecting course information, data processing and visualisation with personalised learning paths and certification.
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Eyeking Marketplace | TreeNodes projects
An eyewear marketplace delivered from the initial idea through analysis, architecture and complete software implementation.
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2View.COM | TreeNodes projects
A website and backend for a real estate photography and marketing business.
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ManUp → Hoottle | TreeNodes projects
A social network for American football fans, connecting member activity, conversations and shared interests. ManUp developed into Hoottle.
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MIDI | TreeNodes projects
An interactive Case Studies section for a product development website, connecting category browsing with project details and imagery.
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MedImmune | TreeNodes projects
A corporate website project delivered from the initial idea through analysis, architecture and complete implementation.
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Eliquis e-library | TreeNodes projects
A resource portal connecting category navigation with document and media discovery.
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Capital Contractors | TreeNodes projects
A facilities-services website delivered from the initial idea through analysis, architecture and complete implementation.
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Mavrides Moyal & Associates | TreeNodes projects
A public website for a legal practice, delivered from the initial idea through analysis, architecture and complete implementation.
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Women’s discussion forum | TreeNodes projects
A women’s community discussion website, delivered through requirements analysis, website and data structure, and software implementation.
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Women’s support app | TreeNodes projects
A completed iOS app bringing daily records, chemotherapy and medication planning, diary entries and trend charts together.
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Volunteer learning platform | TreeNodes projects
A platform connecting young people aged 11–17 with verified volunteer teachers and university students for supervised, recorded online classes.
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Drama school website | TreeNodes projects
A completed WordPress website helping a drama school present its classes online.
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Volunteering
Our team has contributed software skills to women’s support, young people’s learning and the arts.
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Skills, MCP, RAG and Memory: How an AI Agent Investigates a 500 Error
A post will not publish. Follow one 500 error from the server logs to a missing database update, and see how skills, MCP, RAG and memory support the investigation.
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Jira and Confluence: From a Business Question to a Working Feature
Follow the work. Make its logic visible. Three scenarios connect a map of current operations to shared decisions, scoped Jira work and validation.
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What is software architecture?
How a system’s parts fit together, why the design matters, and how to think about the choices behind it.
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If AI can build the software, what is the architect for?
A convincing portal demo leaves important decisions open. Follow a delivery-change request to see how architecture connects business rules, system ownership and recovery when AI helps…
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How AI systems fit together
LLMs, RAG, fine-tuning, workflows, agents, MCP and WebMCP: what each contributes, when to use it, and how to combine them in a working system.
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What is Astra, and when would I use it?
Where OpenAI’s Astra fits in architecture and delivery: compare models and pricing, then work through a booking-system migration as the requirements change.
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The exception path is the real workflow
An invoice needs approval. A reviewer is away. A payment times out. Each needs a different next step. Here is how to design for those cases.
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The person missing from the diagram
The diagram shows a handoff. Someone still has to chase it, check it and make it happen. How to design for the human work your system depends on.
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What the spreadsheet knows that the system does not
The new system is live. Why does the team still need a spreadsheet? Look at its columns, formulas and workarounds before deciding what to replace.
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What happens when you press a computer’s power button?
From the first light to the login screen: how power, firmware and the operating system bring a computer to life, and where startup can stop.
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The C4 model: architecture at the right level
Explain a software system without putting everything on one diagram. A practical guide to C4 views, examples, AI-assisted documentation and tools.
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Give AI agents a design reference
“Make it look modern” leaves too much to guess. Give your coding agent the colours, type, spacing and component rules it needs to build consistently.
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Kaizen, applied to software
A small daily workaround can waste hours over time. How to spot one, try a manageable improvement and check whether it actually helped.
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Modelling the system before the code
Sales, Finance and Fulfilment may mean different things by “order”. Find those differences before they become database fields and API rules.
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Giving AI a job description
Before AI reads an invoice or drafts a reply, decide what it should do when it gets stuck. Define the task, the review and the fallback.
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Software should follow the business
Follow one order, invoice or client request from start to finish. The waits, decisions and workarounds tell you what the software needs to support.
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Diagnose the publishing failure
Use a small, fictional evidence pack to check whether an explanation follows from the records.
From Skills, MCP, RAG and Memory: How an AI Agent Investigates a 500 Error
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Can a colleague follow the change?
Pick one requirement that changed recently. Give a colleague its Jira story and ask them to find the reason, decision owner, impacted work and validation evidence.
From Jira and Confluence: From a Business Question to a Working Feature
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Try it in five minutes
Identify the parts, responsibilities and connections in a fictional shared task application.
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Recover an uncertain delivery change
Use the article’s hypothetical supplier and a delivery-change request whose response never arrived. Compare the proposed customer state and recovery process with the business rules.
From If AI can build the software, what is the architect for?
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Review a supplier using supplied evidence
Two prompts, fictional supplier evidence, a review policy and expected outcomes.
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Design the booking migration
Use the same four-location business and the same launch constraint. First plan the staged migration; then add customer credits that must work across locations.
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Make an uncertain payment recoverable
A timeout leaves the payment outcome unknown. This small state machine makes the next action explicit and keeps a repeated event from changing the case twice.
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Review a handoff before automating it
Use a handoff review to find the responsibility hidden inside an arrow. The useful result is an agreement about the work, including what happens when the usual person is away.
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Recover the rules behind a spreadsheet
A table alone will not explain why somebody highlighted a row. Use the records and their accompanying notes to separate an observed workaround from an agreed business rule.
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Inspect your own startup
The layers in the article leave different evidence. These read-only commands show either startup timing or the operating system’s recorded boot time; those are different measurements.
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Generate two views from one model
The Business Operations Platform in this article can be represented as one maintained model. This example generates its context and container views without drawing the same relationship…
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Build from a design reference
Give the agent a screen with a defined job. This reference turns the supplier-review example into a small implementation task while leaving the existing project’s visual identity intact.
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Define one improvement worth keeping
Keep the experiment smaller than the problem. This worksheet makes the benefit and the cost visible before a small change becomes a permanent dependency.
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Resolve three meanings of “confirmed”
Start with the disagreement in the article. The aim is to preserve each department’s facts while exposing the decision that crosses their boundaries.
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Give invoice extraction a contract
The useful output is an evidence-backed record that a reviewer can use. This exercise makes missing information and unreadable documents explicit without granting payment authority.
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Turn a file-request process into a discovery brief
Before choosing screens or services, identify the commitments the software has to support. This uses the client-file request from the article.