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

Summary

Traditional EA is strongly focused on adopting off-the-shelf EA frameworks. Framework-driven EA is dogmatically documentation-centric, forcing enterprise architects to produce a multitude of fine-grained models and documents with a longer lead time to realize value. Most of the organizations embarking on this route fail miserably to deliver their promises and value to enterprises. Therefore, framework-centric EA is no longer best suited for organizations driving agility.

Agile enterprise architects use Agile practices to operate EA. They stick to the five key principles – lean-Agile, value-driven, data-driven, collaboration, and intertwined IT delivery processes. They break down issues into smaller chunks, use iterations, and focus on delivering value with the shortest possible lead time. Agile enterprise architects balance between providing customer value faster and in a sustainable way. They use the DIMD approach for data-driven decisions with a lean-Agile mindset...