Agile Discussion - Part 2 of X [Role of An Architect in an Agile World]

So here i am writing this second blog post in series on Agile Posts (read the first one here).

As promised in my last post, and after reading my friend Ron's post I am going to try and answer the following important question. :-


Whats the role of an Architect in an Agile team?

Contrary to the common believe that Agile doesn't need architecture (or an Architect role for that matter), Agile (or specifically XP) doesn't imply Design Is Dead (as Martin Fowler puts it).


Since Agile doesn't believe in BDUF (Big Design Up Front Paradigm), its opponents tend to claim that Agile doesn't require architects which i should say is not the case in reality. (Note: Agilists may say that they don't need Architects sitting in silos segregated from the developers (aka Ivory Tower Architect). Which IMHO is a right thing to say)


So, Agile does indeed emphasize on importance of Architecture, the only difference is, instead of planned design (BDUF) it focuses on evolutionary design. In practice evolutionary design doesn't mean Zero design in the beginning, but rather 'just enough design that is easy to evolve/change/maintain' with passage of time. Obviously, purists on both side of the camp would argue that, BDUF= planned design and Evolutionary Design = Zero Up front design. Since no one can foresee the future and requirements are always changing, reality perhaps lies somewhere in between. What I am suggesting is that from my experience i have seen evolutionary design tend to work better in general (yes, there are no silver bullets here). I can go on talking about this, but I'd rather focus on the role of an Architect in an Agile world and for that i believe following are some key activities (in addition to vanilla responsibilities) an Architect needs to own and be responsible for:

• Agile Architect is hands-on and participates in day-to-day development


• Agile Architect is very keen on maintaining the code-quality ( through Code Analysis , Reviews etc.)


• Agile Architect understands all the stake holders and works towards maximising their value


• Agile Architect works towards understanding the business domain


• Agile Architect can not predict the unseen future but can anticipate volatile areas and provide design guide lines accordingly ( a la: Design for Change)


• Agile Architect makes sure that everyone follows Agile Principles, specially the ones outlined by Uncle Bob)

I think the most important take-away is that Agile Architect is hands-on and participates in the team through out the development life cycle rather than a big bang contribution in the beginning.

IMHO only special agile developers can become Agile Architects and not all software architects are Agile by default.

I think i will leave this discussion at it at the moment and would take it further depending upon your comments/feedback....

Its 3 AM in the morning and i should get some ZZZZ...

ps: also check out the following links:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/177764/does-a-software-architect-have-a-role-in-agile-esp-scrum

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000018.html

http://www.agilearchitect.org/agile/role.htm

Gulf Developer Podcast Series - updated

I am extremely pleased to announce the very first 'Microsoft.Net focused podcast series in the Gulf'. Let me give you a little bit of background first and then we can drill down into the details of who, what, how and when.

History
Having been in Dubai, on and off, for past 4-5 years and being Microsoft MVP all the while has given me an oppurtunity to work with local developer communities here in the Gulf. In terms of dev communities, Kwait (with dotnetboom http://www.dotnetboom.net) and Qatar (with oryx dev http://oryxdev.com/en/default.aspx) have been successful with setting up their user groups. Unfortunately we dont have similar success story for the UAE in particular and the rest of Gulf in general.

The Motivation
This lack of dev community itself is a biggest motivation for trying to bring all the developers on a common platform. Objectives include empowering regional Microsoft developers with relevant technical content on Microsoft Platform, presenting topics in English/Arabic, sharing ideas, learning from each others experiences/mistakes and above all finding an oppurtunity to get in touch with like minded professionals across the region.

The Idea
From years of experience we have learned that its difficult to get developers to come and attend user group events in the emirates. Generally this is attributed to problems related to 'commuting' to and from the event venues as well as lack of well designed event calendar(schedule).
To mitigate these potential issues, initially, myself and Anton (from Microsoft Dubai) agreed on hosting a developer podcast series. The idea was discussed when Somasegar was visiting Microsoft Dubai and hosted local dev community for an informal talk/lunch at Microsoft Dubai office in DIC - Dubai Internet City last month.
Later on Anton introduced me to Ron and we became partner-in-crime and started co-hosting the podcast series.

The Plan
The plan, as i said, is to host a series of sessions targetting regional developer community. Come up with a clear agenda and share the detailed schedule with the developers so that they can mark their calendars and look forward to the events that they think are most relevant for them. Ideally, try and host these podcasts to MSDN Channel 9 so that the content can be downloaded easily and reaches the broadest possible audience (and yes, be listened to while driving on Sheikh Zayed Road ;)).

The Schedule
Following shows have been recorded so far:-

1- Agile Development 101 (myself and Ron)
2- Localization in .Net with Dina Lasheen
3- Understanding Microsoft Enterprise Project Management with Bilal Okour
4- Understanding Sharepoint 2010 with Mostafa Arafa.
5- Inside Sharepoint for Arabs Part 1 with Aymen El Hattab
6- Inside Sharepoint for Arabs Part 2 with Marwan Tarek


Whats Next
- Look out for preview release in about week's time (we will be releasing at least 2 episodes for free public access)
+ Watch out for special Tech-Ed focused episodes
- Hosting key speakers and asking them what to expect in their Tech-Ed talks
- Talking to people who are working behind the scenes and making this event happen.
- A dedicated episode on .Net Community in Jordan
- Follow us on Twitter for instant updates. http://twitter.com/DotNetMEPodcast
- Provide us with your feedback on twitter or this blog post

MSDN Code Gallery

Microsoft launched its MSDN Code Gallery yesterday. According to Somasegar

The MSDN Code Gallery is a portal for snippets, samples and other resources. In it you can find pages that describe samples and supporting documents including screenshots and design documents. In addition, you will find hosted conversations about these samples, sample projects or other resources that have been provided to the community. This destination is open to the entire community to contribute content to.

What it means for developers like you and me is that its a place where we can share and download code snippets more in the context of community than that of organized project/work streams. That is, Code Gallery will server purely as content repository minus project management.

If you are interested in managing live projects etc. then you can use Microsoft's another offering called CodePlex http://www.codeplex.com/.

So happy code gallerying!

Gulfskyscraper is up!

New look Gulfskyscraper is up and running!
Thanks to Imran Sami for the design and art work. Feel free to provide your feedback, comments and critiques.

Gulf's Architect Community

Tomorrow we will be launching first Architect Community of the Gulf during gulf geek event. I am waiting to hear on the exact time for the introduction slot. We will be running an introductory video and then a small slide deck during architect track. If you plan to attend Gulf Geeks then do drop by and say hello. Its always great to meet you all!