— Jason Bloomberg, The Agile Architecture Revolution: How Cloud Computing, REST-Based SOA, and Mobile Computing Are Changing Enterprise IT [1]
So what are the tools we need in order to use market changes to create competitive advantage for our organizations?
- We need nimble systems that enable us to go from idea to cash at the speed of light. As fast as the FANGs.
- We need an organizational environment where we can experiment with ideas and produce successive iterations as fast as we can.
- We need the ability to Test and Learn by putting our Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) in customers’ hands.
- We need the ability to measure quantitative and qualitative feedback from our customers.
- We need Continuous Architecture—the ability to defer Architectural decisions to a later stage, if possible.
- We need the ability to decouple deployment from release, to deploy silently in production. This will enable us to Test and Learn from our MVPs.
- We need Continuous Security, Continuous Testing, Continuous Operations, Continuous Compliance. We need to build quality into every phase of our work, regularly and incrementally.
- We need to automate everything- compliance checks, deployment in environment, production monitoring, security scans.
- We need a Team-First approach. Stable and empowered teams must be organized around the flow of value and around the desired architecture.
- We need the ability to visualize a software delivery value stream—to measure and manage flow, identify bottlenecks, and hypothesize ideas for improvement. We need the ability to test and learn from these ideas.
- We need a loosely coupled architecture. This is key to enabling fast learning cycles by limiting the impact of design changes.
- We need built-in resilience: fast recovery time, continuous monitoring, and AIOps.
- We need a culture that supports and rewards learning and experimentation.
Summary
Business Agility is the key to survival and growth in this age of disruption. We need to start asking for systems that accept changes in the business environment and enable fast flow of value delivery. Business Agility requires us to organize in a team-first approach around the product and desired architecture, and also to invest in long-term management and improvement of our Value Streams.
Business Agility requires us to unlearn Agility as we knew it, and step into a future that will require more of us—and also offer us a new world of reward.
