Modern architectural work: From de f ining to enabling MICHAEL PLÖD FELLOW

2 Let me tell you a story of a company…

No content

The Software Delivery Teams….

They implement software based on requirements from the business based on architectural decisions from the architecture team based on timelines from the management monolithic with an aged tech stack

The teams are not empowered at all. They are among the most downstream teams in the org.

The Architecture Team

8 The role “software architect“

9 Tasks Involvement in all phases and life stages of a software system Clarify requirements Communicate architecture Design structures Design crosscutting concepts Support implementation Evaluate architecture Amount of work + order depends on the system!

Working on architectural tasks Inspired by a model by Stefan Toth / Gregor Hohpe

Division of work Classic: Architect decides what the team has to do Architect Development Team

Division of work No one is responsible: Implicit architecture (emergent, democratic) Development Team

Division of work Architects as agents: Architecture topics explicitly distributed in the team Development Team

Division of work Architect in the team: supports team with architecture tasks Architect Developers Development Team

You have to implement things our way

Division of work Classic: Architect decides what the team has to do Architect Development Team 16

How the Architecture Team sees itself

The Boss

Wants a shift in strategy and delivery from economies of scale towards economies of speed

You are now agile cross-functional teams and take full end-to-end responsibility from now on.

😱 🤪 🤯 🧐 🤡 🥵 🥴

The outside voice

Tell me more They have a valid point They should be excited, isn’t responsibility and in f luence motivating?

Mind the COGNITIVE LOAD of the teams. We need to make sure that teams aren’t overwhelmed Learning and mastering domain complexity Conducting experiments / Learning Delivering high value software

Let me assume that you want motivated teams… OF COURSE!

Autonomy Mastery Purpose

We need an environment in which teams can reach Autonomy Mastery Purpose

Architecture Team Development Team We are currently here

Understood, and I need to get my teams to one of these environments Development Team Architect Developers Development Team

Do the architecture stuff on your own and take responsibility for it You can’t just say

Meanwhile the Architecture Team Do we get f ired? Aren’t we needed anymore? Aren’t we important anymore? What about us?

There is an idea for you folks

Fundamental Team Topologies Complicated Subsystem Enabling Platform Stream-aligned

Complicated Subsystem Team • Responsible for building and maintaining a part of the system that is highly dependent on specialist expertise • Team manages the complexity of the subsystem using speci f ic skills and expertise that are usually dif f icult to f ind or recruit. Enabling Team • Work alongside the stream-aligned teams and support them in the area of knowledge building and empowerment. • Have a strong collaborative nature and strive to understand the problems and shortcomings of the other teams • Inhouse consulting team Platform Team • Should give stream-aligned teams the possibility to do their work with a high degree of autonomy, • Platform provides self-service APIs, tools and services as an internal product Stream-aligned Team • Tailored to a business area or organizational capability (Bounded Context) • Is intended to create customer value quickly, safely and autonomously without having to delegate parts of the work to other teams.

How about an ARCHITECTURE ENABLING TEAM

Key goals & tasks for architecture enablement Gradually shift architecture work into teams Design Documentation Requirments clari f ication Evaluation Get obsolete over time (OPTIONAL) After some time the teams should be able to do the architecture work on their own. Architects move into the teams. Pair Programming Challenging Moderation Education Protection Standardization Working in Mob Facilitation

Need to be coaches, mentors, sparring partners and not an hierarchical instance. Architecture Enablers

AMAZING IDEA!!! This is exactly what we need

Meanwhile the architects… How to do that? That’s not part of my job description Do we loose power? How about my career? Aren’t we the specialists and not the teams

Does everything have to be complicated here? This takes time and patience, let’s take a step-by-step approach

Step 1 Enable the future enablers

Enabling future enablers Working in mobs with experienced coaches Dedicated training courses and personal development plans Allow them to fail Take their concerns seriously

Place that team in a safety bubble f irst and adjust your expectations in terms of speed of adoption Let’s bring in the personal development department they can help

Personal Development Establish training curriculums and coaching offers Work with architects and developers May have an eye on the overall transformation

COACHING TRAINING CAREER PATHS PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY

Step 2 The f irst small steps

Let’s get started.. Don’t worry, I got your back E N A B L I N G

Don’t worry, I got your back as well

Goal: gain experience Do stuff, succeed, fail, learn, do stuff, repeat.

The workers council appears… We have a few questions

What is going on here? We also increase collaboration and decrease orders to others We are improving peoples work. They get more autonomy and freedom

This isn’t that easy. We oppose this idea due to the current salary system 😳 🫣

Let’s take a look at the salary bands 😳 🫣

The salary bands Software Architect Level 1 60 - 80k EUR Software Architect Level 2 75 - 95k EUR Software Architect Level 3 90 - 120k EUR •Leads team of architects •Responsible for overall architecture •Gives architectural instructions to other teams •Responsible for those instructions •Designs architectures being reviewed by senior folks

You have to address this Software Architect Level 1 60 - 80k EUR Software Architect Level 2 75 - 95k EUR Software Architect Level 3 90 - 120k EUR •Leads team of architects •Responsible for overall architecture •Gives architectural instructions to other teams •Responsible for those instructions •Designs architectures being reviewed by senior folks

The current state prevents architects from progressing in the salary / career system 🫣 This is also affects the domain experts in the context of collaborative modeling 😳

We need to bring in HR We need to bring in HR

HR Contracts Salaries Legal stuff

Step 3 Work as an enabling team

Now you are in charge! E N A B L I N G

We are pretty good at architecture now, it’s no longer a burden on our cognitive load

Step 4 OPTIONAL Dissolve & Merge

OPTIONAL Goal: dissolve of the enabling team But please: don’t f ire anyone, those folks are super valuable in Stream- aligned Teams or in Platform Teams

Let’s summarize stakeholders

Developers in Stream-aligned Teams Move architecture work to their team Create environment of psychological safety in terms of decision making Mind their cognitive load

Architects in Enabling Team Move from instructing to coaching Need to be enabled as well Mind and address their fears. Psychological safety is important here as well

Senior Management Set and manage expectations Readjust career paths Leaders of cultural change

Personal Development Establish training curriculums and coaching offers Work with architects and developers May have an eye on the overall transformation

HR Readjust salary bands Review career paths Maybe: update contract

Workers Council Important for psychological safety Protection for the employees Must be on board

What’s up with this person? Food for thought: How about a Management Enabling Team for the journey?

www.innoq.com THANK YOU! Michael Plöd Connect on LinkedIn