"Agile Architecture" at Agile 2006

Last week I was at the Agile 2006 conference, in Minneapolis and I see from the records that some of you were too: hello again to anyone I met there.

My session was in the first slot after the opening keynote on Monday morning, and I got the impression that some of the folks there hadn't fully grasped what the nature of a Discovery Session was, some other presenters found the same, I think. I believe that the origanisers might do more to help attendees understand better what's likely to be expected of them at such sessions for next year: they aren't tutorials. Of course, my session was a re-presentation of an XP Day session, which like Spa sessions (the other sort I'm used to presenting) tend to be exploratory, open-ended and interactive in a way that the typical Agile session seems not to be.

Outputs

As soon as I get unpacked from moving house I'll have the London reuslts here to compare with, but a selection of the Minneapolis results are here.

The session was bookended by very quick brainstorm to try an capture any change in the attendees thinking after the discussions and work with the lego.

Before

  • TDD-not fit for mainframe
  • volatile
  • develop platform
  • framework
  • shared direction
  • drives communication
  • developers like complexity
  • correct today
  • testable
  • malleable
  • adaptable
  • think big, start small
  • standard
  • organic
  • correct today
  • testable
  • design isn't dead!
  • nimble
  • easy to change
  • business engagement
  • high test coverage
  • flexible
  • easy to change
  • dangerous
And a couple of longer items:
  • Have an idea of what possibilities your customers may need to explore
  • Not for conventional projects, developers know too much business and not only code by success criteria
  • provide guide rails for teams to make decisions within
Indeed, developers do like complexity. Given half a chance, they will put wings on a train!

After

  • experiment
  • results
  • the right solution for the right problem
  • do only what's needed to satisfy requirements
  • testable
  • not holy ground
  • willingness to restart
  • different is OK
  • ROI
  • cost of implementation
  • time to implement
  • brilliant
  • think big, start small
  • responsive
  • correct today (still)
  • locally optimal
  • flexible (within reason)
  • mutant
It looks to me as if the aims of the session were met.

Some conference wiki also bears some comments on the session.

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