Agility and architecture: Can they coexist?

Abstract

Software architecture is getting a bad rap with many agile proponents due to such aspects as big design up front, massive documentation, and the smell of waterfall. It's pictured as a nonagile practice, something we don't want to even consider, although everybody wants to be called an architect. However, certain classes of systems that ignore architectural issues for too long hit a wall and collapse due to a lack of an architectural focus. So, is agile architecture a paradox, an oxymoron, or two totally incompatible approaches? Software developers have equally important roles in successfully letting agile and architectural approaches coexist. Agile approaches rely more on bottom-up efforts in which developers collaborate closely with stakeholders in general and product owners in particular. This article reviews the real issues at stake, past the rhetoric and posturing, and suggests that the two cultures can coexist and support each other, where appropriate. © 2010 IEEE.