TIL: 20th July 2023 — scaling architecture conversationally
scaling architecture conversationally§
Software architecture isn't a monologue as Andrew Harmel-Law of Thoughtworks argues in his article.
Scaling architecture conversationally refers to the approach of having architecture discussions and decisions in a collaborative and ongoing manner, involving multiple stakeholders across the organisation. This promotes a decentralised approach to architecture where different teams and individuals can contribute their expertise and perspectives to collectively arrive at the best architectural decisions.
There are four pillars:
- Architecture decision records (ADRs) of specified format to capture and track the architectural changes as well as helping the teams learn to make them.
- The architecture advisory forum (AAF) that includes the relevant stakeholders and representatives across the organisation, meets very regularly (e.g. weekly) to discuss new proposed decisions and revisit the old ones.
- Team-sourced architectural principles to guide and evaluate the decisions (e.g. using the S.M.A.R.T. framework) supporting the business goals.
- The technology radar to keep an eye on the trends in tech in a crowd-sourced manner and use them in the ADRs.
There's a follow-up case study from Xapo Bank on how this (among other things) helped decentralise their architecture practice within their switch to the cross-functional Stream Aligned teams.