Agile is an iterative approach to software development that helps teams deliver value to their customers faster with increased productivity, predictability, and quality. While Agile has many benefits, it has its challenges. Governing evolving architectures and decisions is one of those challenges. This article tries to address challenges with managing architecture decisions.
1. Create a new Kanban project in your Agile Planning tool to document and track Architecture decisions. It can be for a specific project or an Agile train (in the SAFE Agile framework).
2. Create one US in Rally (or ticket in JIRA) for each architecture decision. Capture all key details in the US like options, pros/ cons, final recommendation, justification, and implications. You can use an external collaboration tool to document details and have the reference link to the US.
3. System Architect works on the Architecture Decision, captures all the details, and then moves the US to Review when ready for Architecture Board Review.
4. Members from the Architecture review board can review it and share feedback offline. In the Architecture review board meeting, the lead/ organizer can seek concurrence from everyone, document the approval and then move the US to Approved. For better control, permission to move the US to the Approved state should be granted to only the lead/ organizer.
You can leverage the existing Agile Planning tool (like Rally, Jira, etc..) to manage architecture decisions as well. There is no additional learning curve or investment required.
It serves as a central repository of project/ program architectural decisions while enabling better control and governance. It also helps to avoid reinviting the wheel by referring to the decisions made earlier.
It is the recommended and widely used Architecture Governance framework by AWS on their Agile projects.
