Design after Agile: How to Succeed By Trying Less

Abstract

The agile movement is an important and welcome corrective to Big Design Up Front models like the waterfall model. But the manifesto does not even mention the words "architecture" or "design", and people often fill this void with heroic and costly effort.

Without design, agile methods will flounder when they encounter novel problems. This talk will augment agility with some principles for designing systems. Along the way you will see

• how to make "working design" a valuable deliverable
• the tools of the trade (hint: not code!)
• processes that you can employ to improve your skills
• stories from real projects: good, bad, and ugly

On the web

• slides from O'Reilly Software Architecture Conference, Feb 2019