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

Understanding business value

In this section, we will learn about business value and understand that demonstrating the value of architecture is far from easy.

Delivering business value faster and more often is the most important aspect of agile software development. One of the Manifesto signatories for agile software development, Jim Highsmith, defines business value as when a working software is delivered with features that customers accept, at the highest level of quality, and within acceptable cost and time limits. Business value is created as a response to actual customer demands.

Agile organizations progressively shift their focus from shareholder value to ways to delight customers continuously and rapidly. Most agile organizations do not view profit as a direct result of their delivery; instead, they treat profit as a natural outcome of the continuous delivery of value. Such organizations strongly believe a substantial focus on profit leads to short-term thinking, sub-optimal...