What Is Agile Architecture?

Agile architecture is like a big, happy family. It's a model for an IT system that can be used as a blueprint for developing or deploying it and it's an iterative process that takes a modular approach to create the architecture. Agile architecture is about taking small steps toward your goal—you don't want to get there too fast! You want to ensure you have everything in place before you start working on the next step of your plan. Agile architecture is like an agile software developer, but for buildings. An agile architect constantly iterates and evolves a project like an agile software developer. They are concerned with continually improving the quality and performance of their designs and ensuring that they're building something that can evolve as needs change. Agile architecture calls for modeling, developing and constantly evolving the architecture of an IT component, system or infrastructure from the ground up using agile techniques. It differs from traditional "waterfall" approaches because it doesn't require a complete design before any development begins. Instead, it encourages teams to work on multiple things simultaneously—with smaller chunks of work being done simultaneously—and allows them to adapt those designs as they go along. You know how you get a new haircut, and suddenly all your friends start getting the same haircut? Or how does your entire social circle begin to wear a new pair of shoes when you buy them? Well, it turns out that's kind of what happens in software development. When you're working on a project, and you're using agile principles to develop it—and especially if you're using an agile software architecture—you're going to end up with something that looks very similar to all the other things that are being developed by teams around the world who use the same tools and techniques. It's not that everyone is copying each other. It's just that everyone is taking inspiration from one another, which is pretty cool!