How Much Architecture? Reducing the Up-Front Effort

Abstract

A key part of software architecture is the design of the high level structure of a software system -- an exercise in planning ahead. Agile software development methods discourage planning ahead, encapsulated by the Agile Manifesto philosophy "[we value] responding to change over following aplan". Development without architecture planning risks failure. This leads to an apparent paradox: how can you design an architecture while using a methodology that promotes not planning ahead? This paper introduces Grounded Theory research that is exploring the factors that affect how much architecture planning industry practitioners do up-front -- in other words, how much architecture? Early results show that the experience of the architects and predefined or template architectures both help to reduce the architectural effort required without sacrificing the benefits of a full architecture design.