Observing and Documenting Architecture Practices in a Large-Scale Agile Development Project

Motivation

Nowadays, an increasing number of large organizations are adopting agile and lean methods at larger scale for building complex software systems. Agile methods promise organizations to deliver software early and more frequently. However, as organizations intend to scale these methods, to extend the number of teams involved, and to build more complex systems, typical practices for small teams may be not suitable anymore. One of the key corner stones of large-scale agile development endeavors is architectural governance with finding the right balance between intentional and emergent architecture. Between these two conflicting poles, the new role of software architecture and architects are not yet clearly defined.

Goal

The goal of this thesis is twofold. The first objective is to provide a framework which can be used as a guidance regarding roles, artifacts, processes, and tools related to architecture in a large-scale agile development program, which is mainly based on the SAFe framework. The second goal of this thesis is to describe interactions between architects and agile teams with the help of a social network analysis.

Research Questions

1. Which activities, roles, artifacts and tools exist regards to architecture in Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)?

2. How does the collaboration take place among architects and agile teams in a large-scale agile development endeavor?

3. Which architectural practices exist in a large-scale agile development endeavor, which is based on SAFe?

Sources

Scaled Agile Inc., (2016): SAFe® 4.0 Introduction - Overview of the Scaled Agile Framework for Lean Software and Systems Engineering (White Paper).
(http://www.scaledagileframework.com/agile-architecture/)

Principles Behind the Agile Manifesto 
(http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html)

VersionOne (2017): The 11th Annual State of Agile Report
(http://stateofagile.versionone.com)

Abrahamson et al. (2010): Agility and Architecture

Falessi et al. (2010): Peaceful Coexistance

Faber (2010): Architects as Service Providers

Leffingwell et al. (2008): Principles of Agile Architectures