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Key benefits

Develop the right combination of processes and technical excellence to address architectural challenges

Explore a range of architectural techniques to modernize legacy systems

Discover how to design and continuously improve well-architected sustainable software

Description

Many organizations have embraced Agile methodologies to transform their ability to rapidly respond to constantly changing customer demands. However, in this melee, many enterprises often neglect to invest in architects by presuming architecture is not an intrinsic element of Agile software development. Since the role of an architect is not pre-defined in Agile, many organizations struggle to position architects, often resulting in friction with other roles or a failure to provide a clear learning path for architects to be productive. This book guides architects and organizations through new Agile ways of incrementally developing the architecture for delivering an uninterrupted, continuous flow of values that meets customer needs. You'll explore various aspects of Agile architecture and how it differs from traditional architecture. The book later covers Agile architects' responsibilities and how architects can add significant value by positioning themselves appropriately in the Agile flow of work. Through examples, you'll also learn concepts such as architectural decision backlog,the last responsible moment, value delivery, architecting for change, DevOps, and evolutionary collaboration. By the end of this Agile book, you'll be able to operate as an architect in Agile development initiatives and successfully architect reliable software systems.

Who is this book for?

This agile study guide is for architects currently working on agile development projects or aspiring to work on agile software delivery, irrespective of the methodology they are using. You will also find this book useful if you're a senior developer or a budding architect looking to understand an agile architect's role by embracing agile architecture strategies and a lean-agile mindset. To understand the concepts covered in this book easily, you need to have prior knowledge of basic agile development practices.

What you will learn

Acquire clarity on the duties of architects in Agile development

Understand architectural styles such as domain-driven design and microservices

Identify the pitfalls of traditional architecture and learn how to develop solutions

Understand the principles of value and data-driven architecture

Discover DevOps and continuous delivery from an architect s perspective

Adopt Lean-Agile documentation and governance

Develop a set of personal and interpersonal qualities

Find out how to lead the transformation to achieve organization-wide agility

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Software Architecture for Busy Developers

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Matthew Emerick Mar 19, 2021

About This BookHere is a nice addition to any software architect's library, but more for someone new to the position. It uses what the author calls the 'Agile Architect Lens', which is a diagram that helps keep the book organized and the reader aware of how what they're learning fits in overall.Who Is This For?This book is for the new or aspiring software architect or for practicing software architect that wants to make their work more agile, perhaps to better fit into an agile corporation. I believe that it would apply to any specialty, such as AI architect, data architect, or embedded architect. It can even be argued that this book is for the executive that actually wants to understand what their department is doing.Why Was This Written?I am not aware of any resources that look at software architecture from an agile perspective. I really like that this was written for new and aspiring architects as well. I think it's a good combination to help the most number of readers.OrganizationThis book is split into four sections: introduction, how the architect fits into the organization, the role in detail, and the architect as a person. It's a good way to do it, though I think of the final section as a bonus. I think it would have worked equally well as the appendix.Each chapter has a similar structure. One odd thing I noticed is that chapters 2-6 have an additional section that starts them called Technical Requirements. All chapters, except for the very brief first one, have Summary and Further Reading sections that end them.Did This Book Succeed?I like this book a lot. I've never looked at being a software architect before, so this book was geared toward me. It really gives you a full understanding of the role and how it fits in the organization. Agile methodology is discussed throughout to ground the role in the agile philosophy.Rating and Final ThoughtsI will give this book a 5 out of 5. It's the right length and has the right content to achieve its goals.I like this book a lot. I will be rereading it in the near future to see if I want to work toward an architect role. I'm honestly not quite sure yet how to bring together the role with my interest in AI, despite mentioning an AI architect earlier. I do know that this book would be part of that journey.

Amazon Verified review

S. Field Mar 20, 2021

This book is full of sound, practical tips to bring good architectural thinking to agile ways of working.It takes the reader on a tour of architectural best practice, using an “Agile Architect’s Lens” to explore twelve focal points, among them the roles of Enterprise and Solution Architects, and key concepts such as Value Delivery, Technical Agility and Built-In Quality. A chapter is dedicated to each one, exploring what is needed from an architectural perspective, how this relates to Agile approaches, and in particular, how three major “flavours” of enterprise agile, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Disciplined Agile (DA) and Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS), reflect the needs of the architectural focal point under the spotlight.I particularly like the fact that the book does not tell you exactly what you should, or should not, do. Differences among the three “flavours” are presented objectively, but each chapter puts them into practical context in the form of a case study that is progressively developed throughout the book. It is here that the author’s experience and wisdom shine through, with insights suggesting that religious adherence to any one approach is unlikely to produce the best results. Far better to view the different approaches as a set of possibilities that need to be moulded and adapted to suit the cultural and business context of each organisation.The primary focus of the book is on the technical leadership element of the Solution Architect’s role. I think more could be made of the need to look holistically at how a solution will work in practice, and how it will be sustained once in operation. The service design aspects of software projects are often neglected in the excitement of deploying technology, and technology-led Agile efforts can have a bit of a blind-spot here.The book also steps back from confronting some of the bigger issues around large-scale adoption of Agile methods: in common with others, it promotes the notion of “Autonomy” without looking in depth at its inherent contradiction with long-term sustainability aims, which demand sharing, reuse and the management of dependencies between “autonomous” teams. I also wonder about the long-term sustainability and responsiveness of business systems and services when their Agile teams are so focused on continuous refinement of their chosen architecture. Perhaps these are philosophical questions that lie beyond the scope of a book focused on Becoming an Agile Software Architect.One audience that would also benefit from reading this book is everyone in the Agile team who is not an architect. It might help them better understand the Architect’s viewpoint and appreciate the importance of good architecture to the long-term sustainability of their efforts. Perhaps there should be a cut-down version: “Agile Architecture – what everybody should know” (it might be best to avoid calling this target audience “Idiots”).DECLARATION OF INTEREST: I was given an advanced pdf copy of this book to review by the publisher. I was a colleague of the author at Emirates Group ten years ago. The book references my work in developing and publishing the Solution Architecture Review Method (SARM).

Amazon Verified review

Binildas Jun 24, 2021

I would like to thank Packt for sharing me a copy of this book by Rajesh for review.I have covered more than 75% of the book in the first few days itself, yet to finish it. The best part of the book is that there are not much literature in the book format which talks about Architecture recipes with an agile perspective. The book sets a broad platform covering the length and breadth of different aspects of Architecture.The reader after covering the topics however has to read further to understand the details to implement, however that's not the intend of this book to cover. To quote an example, when the author says that "Let's say the initial plan for the first year is to only handle Cessna-type aircraft, which only need a runway length of 2,000 feet. There is no point in building an 8,000-foot runway upfront as it is not going to add any business value.", the author also makes it a point to mention that "we need to have an architecture intent to build an 8,000-foot runway" - I would say, adding the "intend" to the checklist is the first and important part for an Architect - if that's done at the "right time", details or intricacies on how to action on that intend can take its natural time and effort.There are few other areas where as a reader I have slightly different point of view to mention. To quote another example, when the author says "In the early 2000s, the abstract database factory was a common pattern, as many architects believed that they needed to cater to multiple databases such as MySQL, Oracle, and so on, but in reality, the need does not" - I do agree that Over engineering is a symptom which we need to avoid, but the boundary of enough vs. over is sometimes blurred, depends on context. I have experience in working on reengineering exercises on 20 year old systems getting migrated from Vendor's stack DB to Open Source DB - we were not compelled to throw away the system, since "just enough" abstractions paid off. However, my understanding after reading is that the author is not against enough engineering, author is trying to make a point on over engineering.Overall, the book provides a nice coverage on many aspects for an agile Architecture process. It will help a grooming Architect to decide and design for priorities. It will also help experienced Architects to reform his existing blanks (Architecture templates) using new approach of processes.

Amazon Verified review

Pankaj Mar 21, 2021

This is an amazing book addressing some of the very critical aspects of Agile Architecture and approaches while covering a very good background, with examples, of how agile practices originated from some of the older practices. It makes one feel like part of the entire journey.The book also has very interesting analogies of agile architecture principles relating to real work experiences. All the more, the way this book describes the role of architects, intentional solutions, emergent design, organizational adoption of agile practices, and their respective challenges with solutions is clearly drawn out of the practical experiences. These are topics that are rarely discussed together which such a broad scope and this book cover them in great detail making it all connected and relevant not only for the architects but also for the organization, its processes, teams and leadership.One of the most interesting reads in the book has been the role of an architect in an agile team, role Enterprise Architect, the role of Solution Architect, and how all come together to deliver value. The book also discusses the cultural aspects of the organization which greatly influences agile adoption and its success with Agile Architect in context.The content of this book is very rich with various architectural patterns being brought in context and addressing major challenges faced while adopting agile practices for an agile architect role. It does not only limit architects while describing the patterns and contexts but also goes beyond that and how an agile architect can be effective and efficient at various levels, all the way from an Enterprise to a team level with best practices, ways of working, DevOps and aspects of servant leadership. This book is truly a deep dive into these topics which are otherwise are hard to find and rarely discussed but become major factors for organization failures.Across this book which otherwise has excellent and well-placed content, a few areas in the initial chapters could be editorially improved in my opinion, but overall, it is an excellent read with amazing content and will serve as a guide to architects and organizations while adopting agile practices with a number of references, examples and practical scenarios covered with great details and amazing clarity, hence 5/5 from my end.

Amazon Verified review

Daren May May 04, 2021

I found this book to be a "must-read" - regardless of whether you are new to the architect position, an experienced "traditional" Architect, or a practicing Agile architect that is looking to continue your evolution. This book is littered with quotes and external references that support and expand upon ideas discussed within: not only does this book provide the foundations for understanding the Agile Architect role, but also serves as a guide to further learning. To assist in the navigation of this large topic, the book is broken into multiple sections:1. This section attempts to define Agile architecture vs. traditional architecture and how organizations can employ it. The first chapter introduces a diagram - the Agile Architect's Lens - which represents key knowledge segments and practices for Agile Architects. The remainder of the book refers back to this diagram and it does a good job of bringing all of the various facets of agile architecture together. The second chapter revisits the history of Agile software development and discusses how traditional approaches to architecture should evolve to balance speed and sustainability. Overall, this section does a solid job of confirming the need for Agile software development practices, as well as the continuing need for architecture.2. Section two focuses on the key key architect roles and how the differ when incorporated into Agile development. The text details the importance of the Architect in general and specifically within Agile and then dedicates a chapter to each of the Enterprise and Solution Architect roles. This section really helps articulate the differences in responsibilities between the two roles, and how Architects must adapt their behaviors to better integrate with, and support, Agile development teams. If you are performing, or aspiring to, either of these roles, or a leader looking to mature an organization, this section is key to better understanding how these roles must adapt.3. The third section is the largest and shifts the emphasis away from the abstract concepts and instead focuses on how an Agile Architect can address specific challenges. The first challenge discussed, that of proving the value of architecture with the context of Agile development, is an on-going challenge I have seen in many organizations and the various approaches suggested are very useful. The rest of the section continues in the same vein - addressing topics such as Patterns, DevOps, Quality, Documentation and Governance.4. Finally, the fourth section takes a look at an Agile architect's participation in the evolution of an organization towards agility and the traits of a successful Agile Architect. A discussion on business agility leads to the concept of flow decomposition and approaches to organizing empowered flow teams, the types of teams and challenges they may encounter. The final chapter is focused specifically on the Architect - the changes to how they interact with Agile teams, new skills and competencies that should be acquired and developed.

Amazon Verified review

Becoming an Agile Software Architect: Strategies, practices, and patterns to help architects design continually evolving solutions

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