Understanding the Use of Reference Architectures in Agile Software Development Projects

Abstract

Software reference architectures potentially constrain the flexibility of software design by imposing and sometimes even fixing architectural decisions and structures early. This seems to contradict agile values, principles and practices which acknowledge flexible and changing software requirements and the need to adapt architectural designs accordingly. To increase our understanding of how reference architectures are used in agile software development projects, we conducted an exploratory case study in two Dutch software developing organizations. Both organizations use Scrum as their agile framework. Preliminary findings reported in this short paper indicate that a) some aspects of reference architectures are not specific to using them in agile development projects with Scrum (e.g., types of reference architectures used; limited design choices), and b) reference architectures can support cross-functional and self-organizing teams, and help increase architectural focus in contexts where architectural thinking tends to be neglected.