Book Image

Becoming an Agile Software Architect

By : Rajesh R V
Book Image

Becoming an Agile Software Architect

By: Rajesh R V

Overview of this book

Many organizations have embraced Agile methodologies to transform their ability to rapidly respond to constantly changing customer demands. However, in this melee, many enterprises often neglect to invest in architects by presuming architecture is not an intrinsic element of Agile software development. Since the role of an architect is not pre-defined in Agile, many organizations struggle to position architects, often resulting in friction with other roles or a failure to provide a clear learning path for architects to be productive. This book guides architects and organizations through new Agile ways of incrementally developing the architecture for delivering an uninterrupted, continuous flow of values that meets customer needs. You'll explore various aspects of Agile architecture and how it differs from traditional architecture. The book later covers Agile architects' responsibilities and how architects can add significant value by positioning themselves appropriately in the Agile flow of work. Through examples, you'll also learn concepts such as architectural decision backlog,the last responsible moment, value delivery, architecting for change, DevOps, and evolutionary collaboration. By the end of this Agile book, you'll be able to operate as an architect in Agile development initiatives and successfully architect reliable software systems.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
1
Section 1: Understanding Architecture in the Agile World
Free Chapter
2
Chapter 1: Looking through the Agile Architect's Lens
4
Section 2: Transformation of Architect Roles in Agile
8
Section 3: Essential Knowledge to Become a Successful Agile Architect
15
Section 4: Personality Traits and Organizational Influence

Persisting knowledge with documentation

Working software over comprehensive documentation is one of the Agile manifesto principles that leads to delusions such that Agile projects do not need to be documented at all. Agile development methodologies encourage a relentless focus on delivering value, which often causes the elimination of architecture documentation as it is regarded as a no-value activity.

A closer look at the articulation of the Agile manifesto values indicates that signatories have recognized the value of documentation, but working software has more value. Robert C Martin observed that documentation is not anti-Agile. If it were, then there would not be any Agile books, articles, and blogs.

Jim Highsmith, one of the signatories of the Agile manifesto, warned the developer community that Agile and documentation are not oxymorons. Adequate documentation is essential for the success of Agile software development. Irrespective of the development methodology, since...