Large-Scale Agile Development Patterns for Enterprise and Solution Architects

Abstract

Over the past decades, the emergence of agile development approaches has transformed the way software is developed. Even though systems are getting more and more complex, companies have to develop and release software faster and at the same time increase software quality. Due to the proven success of agile approaches, companies also try to make use of these benefits in large-scale software development projects with over 50 people and over 6 agile teams. However, this represents a risk and is often associated with challenges such as managing silos, complex functional dependencies between systems, and establishing an agile way of working for multiple teams. Especially enterprise and solution architects face a large number of problems in large-scale software development projects. Regardless of their importance for large-scale agile endeavors, there is a lack of research on their typical concerns and best practices. Based on mixed-methods research design, we provide an overview of typical concerns of enterprise and solution architects in large-scale agile development and present one principle: (1) Simplest Working Architecture, three patterns: (2) Lunch Talks, (3) Solution Space, (4) Principle-Based Intentional Architecture, and one anti-pattern: (5) Don't bw a PowerPoint Architect for addressing them.