Avoiding Architectural Debt

In Agile design, teams work in short sprints and prioritise the most important features to be developed first. Value-based prioritisation allows startups to get a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) to market quickly and start gathering feedback from customers. Additionally, and by definition, Agile design encourages safe-to-fail experimentation early on in the product’s lifecycle, giving the designer quick … Read more

How Unarticulated Needs Direct the Evolutionary Path of Agile Designs

The traditional design methods, which assume that developers fully understand the user’s requirements and that the user knows what they want before seeing the product, are often flawed in the real world. Complex systems, such as software products and their users, constantly evolve and adapt to users’ changing needs and preferences. As users interact with a software product, … Read more

A Measure of Good Design

A measure of good design is how dependent higher structures are on lower ones, and this is closely related to the principle of separation of concerns and cohesion. Cohesion is a measure of how closely the elements of a module or component work together to achieve a single, well-defined purpose. When a system is well-designed, the higher structures … Read more

Small Cross-Functional Teams Drive Agile Design

Distributed large teams can face several challenges when producing Agile architecture. One of the main challenges is communication and coordination. Team members may be located in different locations and time zones and have different cultural backgrounds. These factors make having regular meetings, sharing information, and collaborating on design decisions difficult. Additionally, distributed teams may have difficulty building trust and developing a … Read more

Hierarchical Structures and Constant Regeneration

A hierarchical system facilitates evolution and constant regeneration by allowing for modularity and flexibility in its design. The system is divided into several layers, each building upon the one below it. This structure allows individual components within each layer to be modified or replaced without affecting the overall system’s functionality. In software design, this concept … Read more

Antifragility, Evolution, Innovation and Agile Design

Agile design, evolution in living organisms, and antifragility share similarities in how they approach problem-solving and adapting to change. Evolution is a process by which organisms adapt to changing environments through: The ability of an organism to adapt and evolve is critical to its survival and success. Similarly, Agile design is based on the principle of … Read more

How Does Agile Design Assist Architects in Handling the Unarticulated Needs of Their Clients?

Agile design methodologies, specifically Scrum and Kanban, have effectively addressed unarticulated business needs through: Unarticulated business or customer needs refer to requirements or user stories that stakeholders or end-users have not explicitly identified or communicated. These latent requirements may not be immediately discernible during the software development life cycle (SDLC) requirements gathering phase. They may surface during the validation phase through usability testing or customer feedback sessions. Addressing … Read more

The Hidden Benefits of Agile Design

Agile design is particularly well-suited for projects with the following characteristics: The Agile design approach has tremendous benefits when dealing with moving targets, as it allows software and solution architectures to adapt quickly, at acceptable costs, and without compromising the integrity of the whole design. Complex and rapidly changing requirements Agile design is well-suited for … Read more

Understanding product delivery

Product delivery involves ensuring that a product or service is developed in a timely and cost-effective way, meeting the user needs. Skill level Description Awareness You can:manage your contribution to tasks to fit in with the work of your wider team Working You can:show an awareness of the differences between delivery methods, such as Agile … Read more

Agile and Lean practices

Agile delivery involves encouraging teams to build incrementally, test and iterate their work based on regular feedback and other useful data. Skill level Description Awareness This skill level is currently not defined. Working You can:demonstrate experience in applying Agile principles in practiceprovide a clear, open and transparent framework in which teams can delivershow an awareness … Read more