Be an agile architect

 Agile Architecture – 15 Minutes
 Game Definition – 15 Minutes
 Round One – 30 Minutes
 Debrief – 10 Minutes
 Round Two – 25 Minutes
 Debrief – 25 Minutes

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 International Standard Definition:

 The fundamental concepts or properties of a system in its
environment embodied in its
elements, relationships, and in the principles of its design
and evolution.
Source: http://www.iso-architecture.org/42010/defining-architecture.html

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 Functional Definition:

 Architecture provides a vision and path for the creation of
services and applications which conform to the
fundamental principles of the system’s design.

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 Every system has an architecture

 Every system needs a shared vision

Agile Architecture is deciding
when you conceive the architecture and how
you will share it?

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SYSTEM COMPLEXITY
HIGH

Architect Architect
Just-In-Time Early

Emergent Architect
LOW

Architecture Just-In-Time

SMALL < 10 LARGE > 50
TEAM SIZE
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SYSTEM COMPLEXITY

Verbal
HIGH

And Document
Document

Document
LOW

Verbal And
Verbal
SMALL < 10 LARGE > 50
TEAM SIZE
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 Conway’s Law
 Your architecture will resemble your organization

 Therefore, as an architect you should:
 Provide for loose coupling
 Preserve optionality
 Design for reuse
 Create APIs and SLAs

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 Architects provide the technical background
for business decisions

 Every decision involves tradeoffs:

 Jumping on short-term business benefits creates technical debt

 Pursuing a tactical upgrade postpones rebuilding from scratch

 Preventing hacks means spending time enforcing the architecture

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 Define how you architect, for example:
 DRY – Don’t Repeat Yourself
 Single Responsibility
 Test Driven
 Hands-on, no ivory tower architects
 Continuous Everything
 Developer to Production Tools
 Empowered Teams
 Agile Manifesto
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 Be the architect, but architect as a team

"An army is a team. It lives, eats, sleeps, fights as a
team. This individuality stuff is a bunch of bullsh*t."

~ General George S. Patton

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 Make decisions, now!

“Be willing to make decisions. That's the most
important quality in a good leader.”


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 Provide a vision, not micro-management

“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what
to do and they will surprise you with their
ingenuity.”


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 Plan, but not too much

“A good plan executed today is better than a
perfect plan executed at some indefinite point in
the future.”


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 Listen to your people

“A leader is a [person] who can adapt
principles to circumstances.”


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Be an agile architect

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