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

Architects are vital in Agile – the question is who plays that role?

The survey published by 6point6.com in 2017 revealed the importance of architects in Agile projects. As per the survey, 68% of CIOs agreed teams require more architects when Agile development is used at scale. CIOs reinforced that strategy, architecture, and oversight play an important role in the success of enterprise-scale Agile delivery, and therefore architects are essential.

Raymond Slot's Ph.D. thesis A method for valuing architecture-based business transformation and measuring the value of solutions architecture underlined the importance of solution architects.

Slot observed the following when architects are assigned to projects:

  • A reduction of 19% in project budget overrun and a 40% reduction in time overruns.
  • Due to better predictability, budget overruns reduced from 38% to 13%.
  • Customer satisfaction increased from 0.5 to 1 on a scale of 1 to 5.
  • Success increased by...