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

Self-organizing teams propel the no architect movement

One of the manifesto principles for Agile software development states that the best architectures and designs emerge from self-organizing teams. Members of the team have to share their knowledge and efforts to make the right architecture decisions.

Many organizations and teams interpreted this manifesto principle differently. As a result, two movements emerged in the early days of Agile software development. One tried to eliminate architects from Agile projects, whereas the other movement promoted architects and portrayed engineers just as developers.

The proponents of eliminating architects justified their position by pointing to the Scrum methodology, where there is no explicit architect role defined. Scrum defines only three roles – product manager, Scrum master, and development team. This movement also pointed out the affordability of architects in teams. Agile teams typically consist of seven to eight members...