AGILE SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE

Professor

Jeisson Andrés Vergara Vargas

Student

Juan Camilo Rubio Avila - 1074616812

National University of Colombia

Engineering Faculty
Systems and Industrial Engineering Department
Software Architecture
30 March, 2018
1. Paper

Software architecture and agile software development: a clash of two

cultures?, Kruchten, Philippe.

2. Description
This paper shows the tensions between Software Architecture, and Agile
Methodologies, as Agilistas perceive Software Architecture as a thing from the
past, lots of documentation, etc. On the other side, Software Architects seem
to judge Agile practices as amateurish. The author points out the main pro-
blem lying on the dichotomy between anticipation and adaptation, with agile
methodologies trying to be adaptative, always disposed to respond correctly
to a constantly changing environment; and with Software Architecture always
planning for anticipating the bet decision.
Agilistas and Software Architects are defined as two cultures, with their own
beliefs, values and behaviors, wich, for this case, are often opposite one each
other. To reconcile the differences between the two cultures, the “Zipper Model”
is proposed by the author as a balance between the features that provide visible
value to the business and other more invisible features like the architecture,
based on seven aspects transversal to all software systems, which are Semantics,
Scope, Lifecycle, Role, Documentation, Method, and Value & Cost.

3. Point of View
While working with clients, the change is a very common factor, if not a
constant, and adds a huge value to respond correctly at facing the customer.
With this in mind, it’s a must to be prepared for it, and do it well. It’s well
know that Agile methodologies are meant for this, so in first place it’s natural
to think on using them, even with large, enterprise grade software systems. Yet
the effort given to the architecture building depends of the context, I think
that anticipation is always important to grant a project success, and there are
things about the system that cannot be expressed with mere user stories. So, in
conclusion, the answer for the dichotomy between anticipation and adaptation
is “it depends”, depends on the nature of the system to be developed, it’s size,
the time available to finish, depends on the politics of the client organization,
etc. Anyway, reconcile the two cultures, Agile and Software Architecture, leads
us to take better decisions, based on the better of the two worlds depending of
the context.

4. References
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6062266/