How to be an Architect in an Agile World

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How to be an Architect in an Agile World Felix Müller - @fmueller_bln

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About me Chief Architect at searchmetrics Founder of Predegy Twitter: @fmueller_bln

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Why do I do this talk?

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If I speak with developers there is often scepticism why I choose the role of an architect.

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Who needs architects anyway?

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Surprisingly, many companies. The rest is just not aware of their needs.

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But first, let us consider what software architecture is.

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Wikipedia (on 6th Nov 2017) “Software architecture refers to the high level structures [...] creating such structures, and the documentation of these structures. [...] Each structure comprises software elements, relations among them, and properties of both elements and relations. Software architecture is about making fundamental structural choices which are costly to change once implemented.”

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Quality of software architecture can be measured by the degree it meets the NFRs of a system. (NFR = non-functional requirement)

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Role of an architect by definition?

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Ensure architecture is aligned with your NFRs

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Role of Architect Depends highly on context, for sure. Quality of Software Architecture Design Documentation Execution

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Companies where i’ve been an architect.

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Companies where i’ve been an architect. ~150 employees in IT On-premise Scrum 2-5 architects >2000 employees in IT On-premise + Cloud Agile > 5 architects ~60 employees in IT On-premise + Cloud Agile 1 architect + 3 lead developers

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All work with independent, autonomous teams.

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Role of Architect Depends highly on context, for sure. Quality of Software Architecture Design Documentation Execution

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Role of Architect Depends highly on context, for sure. Quality of Software Architecture for your services, modules, libraries Design Documentation Execution Developer

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So what is the role of an architect in these companies?

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Own and be responsible for the macro architecture.

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Macro Architecture Decisions for all modules http://isa-principles.org

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Micro Architecture Decisions per module http://isa-principles.org

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Macro Architecture Decisions for all modules http://isa-principles.org All modules are part of one system Should be as stable as possible Should be as minimal as possible

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How to implement a macro architecture?

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You can try by guidelines and by organizational hacks.

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Macro Architecture by Guidelines

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Tech Guidelines You build it, your run it. Which tech stacks can be used? How to test? How to monitor? What to monitor? How to deploy? What are deployable artifacts?

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API Guidelines Favor REST maturity level 2 Backward compatibility over versioning Common data and error objects Naming rules Syntax rules for consistency https://github.com/zalando/restful-api-guidelines

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API Guidelines

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Tech Radar Based on idea of ThoughtWorks Tech Radar Gives guidance for tech stack choice More focus in the company on tech stacks which fits best for context Increase the bar to introduce new technologies https://github.com/zalando/tech-radar

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Zalando’s Tech Radar

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Macro Architecture by Organizational Hacks

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Team Architects 1 team architect per team Voted by each team Team architect is responsible for cross-team alignment and macro architecture alignment Team architects inform and consult with dedicated architects

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API Guild Group of developers and dedicated architects Owned and maintained API guidelines and API review processes Bi-weekly guild meeting to decide about important topics Consensus driven decision making

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TAR and Lead Developers TAR = Technical Architecture Review Group of lead developers, dedicated architect and if necessary others groom technical topics Owned by dedicated architect who manages projects and clarifies priorities with stakeholders TAR backlog managed by Kanban board across teams

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Plans work best if those who execute them, made them.

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Architecture is done! Brave new world...

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Role of Architect Owns Macro Architecture Quality of Software Architecture Design Documentation Execution

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Keep the big picture in sync with your development teams and their changes.

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Pivio “Microservice documentation for your platform” Developers document locally in their repositories with YAML files YAML files are aggregated by central system Central UI and API server for retrieving data, e.g. for architectural overview http://pivio.io

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Pivio Overview Site

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Pivio Detail Site

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Pivio News Feed

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Pivio Query Interface

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General Advice Lower documentation barrier for devs Shared understanding of what should be documented Same symbols across teams Shared understanding of diagram types across teams Deliver templates and offer support for implementing documentation guidelines

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Role of Architect Owns Macro Architecture Quality of Software Architecture Design Documentation Execution

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Try to make yourself obsolete: automate everything.

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Technical Compatibility Kit Automates compliance check for technical guidelines Checks runtime view of service, e.g. - is health check resource implemented as expected - is graceful shutdown implemented - is monitoring working TCK was integrated in each deployment pipeline

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Zally - API Linter Service integration happens at Zalando via Restful APIs (and events) API First with API review for each API draft Zally automates such reviews by validating given Swagger file with Zalando’s API guidelines https://github.com/zalando-incubator/zally

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Role of Architect Owns Macro Architecture Quality of Software Architecture Design Documentation Execution

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So, how to be an architect in an agile world?

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Own the macro architecture.

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Be a great communicator.

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Listen actively to your devs.

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Try to automate manual architecture tasks.

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Serve your development teams.

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Thank you. Questions? More questions or just wanna chat? E-Mail: felix@predegy.com Twitter: @fmueller_bln