This article explains how to prepare for an AWS Well-Architected Framework Review (WAFR), the first phase of a three-part process to validate workload architecture against AWS best practices.

• WAFR is a consistent process of learning, measuring, and improving architecture against best practices
• Goal is to improve systems' architectures to better support business needs and identify risks
• Three phases: Prepare, Review, and Improve
• Define the workload to review—a set of components delivering business value
• Identify workload sponsors with authority to address identified risks
• Select pillar sponsors and subject matter experts for each pillar reviewed
• Decide which pillars to review and their order; consider industry-specific lenses
• Choose session format: full-day review or multiple sessions based on team availability
• Conduct reviews as live sessions, not asynchronously, for better collaboration
• Collect architecture documentation and use AWS Trusted Advisor for automatic best practice evaluation

Proper preparation ensures efficient reviews that maximize stakeholder time and uncover improvement opportunities.