bernard o'leary - surfing the wave of emergent design
DESCRIPTION
Businesses are increasingly recognising that “the best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organising teams”. From an Agile perspective, the role of the architect can actually be seen (and applied) as one of motivator, broker and curator of ideas within the self-organising team – as opposed to the source of ideas. The minute we try to apply architecture within an Agile practice in any meaningful way, we run up against a few tough challenges: how do we convert business requirements into implementable design when we’re developing in short iterations (sprints) and in small increments? Who owns and maintains the ‘big picture’ in terms of the design process for a product/project? This session addresses these questions and how architecture works when teams are Agile and self-organising. We’ll look at the benefits, challenges and some real-world examples of how architecture is (and can be) applied successfully in an Agile practice.TRANSCRIPT
Surfing the Wave of Emergent Design
Bernard O’LearyCallPlus Group Limited
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“The power to make buildings beautiful lies in
each of us already.” – Christopher Alexander
Why is Design Important?
ThemesPlanning to fail vs. failing to plan
Collective brain-power vs. design “hero”
Learning ObjectivesIncremental experimentation and failure as a design strategyCoping with fatigue; design adjustment and refactoringHow to assess what level of design is appropriate, whenCapture the collective design-oriented brainpower of a team
Perfectionismvs.
Experimentation and Failure
Architectural Experimentation and Failure“Think global act local” appliesMaintain big picture as an overall objectiveBalance level of process and design control against nature of businessTest/fail early; rule out non-viable options and mitigate riskMaintain design pivot as an option
BigDesign
UpFront
- Review
EmergentDesign -Review
Agile DevelopmentThe Theory
Agile DevelopmentThe Reality
Why’s That?
Some Sprints have a greater design component; some lesserSome functionality requires more infrastructural workWe’re designing, testing and refactoring as we goWe’re focussed on customer value as opposed to generic throughput
MVP
Emergent DesignEach change in direction represents a cost
Cost is in design adjustment and associated refactoringIncremental design cost is incorporated with each iteration
Design adjustment and refactoring is uncomfortable, perhaps scaryLike anything, the more you do it, the better you get
The alternative is scarier – BDUFHelp is available…
TeamBrain
Power
Collective brain-power outsmarts individualPromote discussion and experimentationSelf-organising team as a super-computer
Architect as a catalyst and curator of ideas
A Design-Oriented Super-Computer
Closing ThoughtsCollective responsibilityPlan to failNo silver bullet
Thanks for listening…Bernard O’LearyCallPlus Group LimitedFollow me @bernardoleary
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