We all know good software architecture is required to allow the rapid delivery of business value, provide business agility in the face of change, and allow the incremental adoption of new architectural components with low cost and minimum risk. So, we know having good software architecture is important, but, applying good architecture practices in an agile delivery is notoriously difficult and requires new thinking and approaches. Let us help you apply just the right amount of architecture at just the right time, ensuring sprint teams are productive quickly whilst ensuring risks are reduced and architectural quality metrics are properly considered.
Let Silvertouch Technology guide you along the path of successfully applying architecture in an agile world.
A brave new world for software delivery…
Over the last decade the software delivery approach used by many organisations has radically shifted away from waterfall style “Big Bang” releases to agile approaches aimed at releasing high business value software increments regularly. In agile projects, teams deliver new software increments at a relentless pace – sprint after sprint, and aim to do this from a very early stage in the project. Whilst the value of this approach is clear, the demand to deliver software early in the project without any “big up front design” does pose problems, especially for larger organisations with many stakeholders, partners, departments, systems and technologies.
As solutions and software architects we need to consider issues such as: how do we allow software construction to commence early without defining the entire architecture up front? What architectural decisions do we need to make on day one, and which can be postponed to evolve or emerge as the project commences? How do we know the correct time to make a decision? How do we protect ourselves from bad decisions and retain flexibility? How do we provide some level of governance to ensure consistency across projects and teams? How do we ensure we have sufficient infrastructure in place at the right time to support these agile teams? How do we design consistent solutions and ensure we are building reusable platforms and capabilities? This list goes on and on…
A new approach…
The reality is embracing an agile approach means a change in the way Enterprise and Solution Architecture is applied. The large scale big up-front design (BUD) approaches applied in traditional waterfall projects simply do not work with agile. However, it would be unwise to abandon all we have learnt about good Enterprise and Solution Architecture, so we need to learn to apply the appropriate elements of Enterprise and Solution Architecture in a more agile manner. We need to change our approaches to better complement the business desire to release high-value increments of software regularly at a high cadence, but to do so in a manner which limits risk, promotes consistency and provides reusable platforms and capabilities.
Silvertouch Technology can help…
Our consultants understand the political, business and technical challenges an organisation will face when adopting agile approaches, and we use this experience to help you maximise your investment in agile. Depending upon the specific needs of the client, we apply a variety of techniques, including;
- gaining detailed knowledge of user needs and key stakeholders
- defining an architectural vision for the portfolio and program
- defining and evolving an architectural runway to deliver the right elements of architecture at the right time.
- continuous delivery and DevOps
- continuous improvement of process by transparency, inspection and adaptation
- application of emergent and evolutionary architecture principles
- in-depth knowledge of open standards / data formats, and service design
- the design of reusable platforms and common services whilst avoiding vendor lock-in.
- designing for performance and live operation from the ground up
- lightweight architectural governance process