Free practical book
Forward Deployed
The path to becoming a Forward Deployed Engineer: from the customer's problem to a production AI system
A forward deployed engineer goes to the customer, understands the real problem, designs the solution, builds it and takes it into production. This book shows the way there: 310 pages, four parts, one case running through all of it. The book is written in German.
- Length
- 310 pages, A4
- Structure
- 4 parts, 24 chapters
- Case study
- one mission, end to end
- Appendix
- templates, glossary, interview drills
- Author
- Robert Aksan, BOTFORCE
- Price
- free, no subscription
What is inside
Four parts, from the role to your own path
- Part I
Understanding the role
Chapters 01–04
Where the term comes from, why the role is in demand now that generative AI is here, how it differs from consultant, solution architect and classic developer, and what the path from project management into it looks like.
- Part II
The mission
Chapters 05–16
A complete mission from the first request to operations: discovery, problem framing and success criteria, stakeholders, solution design, prototype, build, integration into enterprise systems, security and governance, evaluation, deployment, operations and handover.
- Part III
The toolbox
Chapters 17–20
The technical foundation in compact form: engineering basics, architecture and cloud, LLMs and agentic AI, and how to build software with AI without losing rigour.
- Part IV
Your path
Chapters 21–24
Learning paths by background, portfolio and capstone project, applications and interviews, working in the field. The appendix adds templates, a glossary, sources and interview drills with questions from every chapter.
The case running through it
One mission, from first request to production
Through part II you follow Lena, a forward deployed engineer, on her mission for a mid-sized Austrian bank. The bank, the people in it and all figures are invented; the challenges are not. Every chapter opens with a scene from the field, explains the concepts, shows diagrams and code and closes with typical mistakes, a checklist and key takeaways.
Who it is for
Three entry points, depending on where you come from
From development
You can build and want to get closer to the customer. The book supplies the method: discovery, framing, stakeholders, handover.
From project management or consulting
You can lead and want to deliver. The book says honestly which technical foundation you have to build, and in what order.
From data science or data engineering
You work with data and models. The book shows the path from notebook to production: integration, evaluation, governance, handover.
Related
Agentic AI cheat sheet
Agents on one page: the loop, building blocks, governance, EU AI Act.
Agent roadmap
How a company rolls out agents wave by wave, with a worked example.
Examples by industry
Thirty agents from ten industries that run operations.
The book is in German · You receive the download link by email · No sharing with third parties · Withdraw any time at datenschutz@botforce.at