Architecture in Agile & Scrum: Communication, Planning & Execution

Introduction: The Architect in an Agile World

You’re used to thinking in terms of “the architecture.” A blueprint. A complete vision.

Then you join an Agile team.

Suddenly there are sprints. Every two weeks you have a deadline. You can’t design the entire system before building. You have to build incrementally. You have to change direction when priorities shift.

Your architectural brain rebels. “But we haven’t designed the data layer yet. How can we build features without the data layer?”

Welcome to the real world.

Here’s the truth that most architects resist: Agile is not the enemy of good architecture. It’s the greatest opportunity for architecture.

Why?

Because traditional waterfall lets you design in isolation. You design. You present. Then you leave it to the team to build.

Agile forces you to stay with the team. To see consequences immediately. To adapt. To course-correct fast.

An architect in Agile doesn’t design once. The architect designs continuously, sprint after sprint.

This sounds harder. It is harder. But it’s also vastly more effective.

Because you’re not designing in the abstract. You’re designing in reality. With real constraints. Real trade-offs. Real people.

This guide teaches you how to be an architect in an Agile environment. How to communicate effectively in sprints. How to balance vision with velocity. How to maintain architectural integrity while moving fast.

Chapter 1: The Architect’s Role In Agile

First, let’s get clear on what you’re doing.

What You’re NOT

You’re not a project manager. That’s the Scrum Master.

You’re not a product manager. That’s the Product Owner.

You’re not a developer (though you might write code). That’s the development team.

What You ARE

You’re the person responsible for the system’s structure. The connections. The trade-offs. The long-term viability.

You’re embedded in the team. You’re not external. You’re not throwing designs over the wall.

You participate in the team. You attend standups. You contribute to stories. You design. You code. You review.

Your job has two parts:

Part 1: Short-Term (Current Sprint)

Help the team make good architectural decisions this sprint.

“For this story about user authentication, here’s the pattern we should use.”

“This will take 2 days. Or we could do it simpler in 4 hours and pay technical debt. Your choice.”

You guide the team toward good decisions without blocking velocity.

Part 2: Long-Term (Multiple Sprints Ahead)

Ensure the system is heading in a good direction.

“In 3 sprints, we’ll hit a scalability ceiling unless we start working on the data layer.”

“We have two approaches. Approach A takes 2 sprints but scales to 10x. Approach B takes 1 sprint but scales to 2x.”

You communicate direction without slowing down immediate progress.

The Architect’s Three Hats

Hat 1: The Guide

You guide the team toward architectural decisions that make sense.

“Here’s the pattern we use for this kind of problem.”

“Here’s why we made that choice.”

“Let me show you how it connects to the rest of the system.”

Hat 2: The Protector

You protect the system from bad decisions.

Not dictatorially. Collaboratively.

“I see why you want to do it that way. Here’s the risk I see. How should we handle it?”

Hat 3: The Communicator

You translate architecture to the team. To the product owner. To executives.

“Here’s why we need to refactor this. Here’s what it enables.”

“Here’s the technical debt we’re accumulating. Here’s when it becomes a problem.”

Chapter 2: Sprint Planning - Guiding Architectural Decisions

Sprint planning is where you shape what happens this sprint.

Most architects skip this. Mistake.

This is where you have the most leverage.

The Pre-Planning Meeting (With Product Owner)

Before sprint planning, meet with the Product Owner (1-2 days early).

This is crucial. You’re not in the sprint planning meeting yet. This is separate.

What You Do:

“Looking at these stories for next sprint, here are the architectural implications:

Story A: Straightforward. No blocker.
Story B: Creates a dependency on Story C. We should do C first.
Story D: Requires decision on how we store X. Let’s discuss.”

You’re highlighting architectural concerns before the team sees them.

Why It Matters:

Now the Product Owner knows. She can adjust the order. She can decide if Story D is worth the architectural discussion.

You’re not blocking. You’re informing.

During Sprint Planning

Opening Statement (You):

“Here’s the architectural lens for this sprint:

We’re consolidating the user service. This should reduce database calls by 30%.
We’re introducing the event bus pattern. This enables async operations we want next sprint.
We’re paying down technical debt in the reporting module. This unblocks analytics.”

Now the team knows what’s architecturally important this sprint.

When Stories Are Discussed:

Product Owner: “We need to add user export to CSV.”

Developer: “How should we handle large exports? Memory could be an issue.”

You (as architect): “Good question. We have three approaches:

Stream to S3 directly. Most scalable. Takes 4 hours.
Batch in the database. Simpler. Takes 2 hours. Limited to 100k rows.
Queue and process async. Most complex. Takes 6 hours.

For this sprint, I’d recommend option 2. It solves the immediate need. If we need to scale later, we can add option 1.”

You’re not dictating. You’re laying out options with trade-offs and recommendation.

The Team Decides: They choose option 2. It’s fast. It works. It’s sufficient.

You’re happy because it’s the right call for now. The Product Owner is happy because it ships fast. The team is happy because it’s clear.

The Sprint Goal (Architectural Layer)

Every sprint has a goal. Usually it’s product-focused.

“Ship export feature.”

Add an architectural layer:

“Ship export feature (and establish streaming pattern for handling large data operations).”

Now the team knows there’s an architectural intent. When they build the export feature, they keep the streaming pattern in mind.

Next sprint, when you need to handle large report generation, the pattern is already there.

The Story Estimation (Architectural Concerns)

When estimating stories, flag architectural work.

Product Owner: “How many points for the export feature?”

Developer: “6 points.”

You: “I agree. And it includes establishing the streaming pattern, which we’ll reuse next sprint for reports. So we’re getting architectural leverage here.”

You’re not inflating the estimate. You’re highlighting the architectural value.

Now when you refactor next sprint and reuse this pattern, people understand it wasn’t wasted work. It was architectural investment.

Chapter 3: The Sprint Execution - Daily Communication

Sprints are where architecture becomes real.

Your job is to stay embedded. To guide. To course-correct.

The Daily Standup (Your Role)

Most architects skip standup. Huge mistake.

Standup is where you learn what the team is doing. Where you catch architectural issues early.

What You Say:

Keep it short. 30 seconds max.

“Yesterday: Reviewed the authentication implementation. Looks good. Today: Pairing with Dev on database schema. No blockers.”

What You Listen For:

“We’re adding a cache layer for user data.”

Your inner architect hears alarm bells. Cache coherency issues. Stale data problems.

Don’t interrupt. But after standup:

“I heard you’re adding a cache for user data. Can we chat about invalidation strategy? I have some thoughts.”

Now you’re guiding, not blocking.

The Pair Programming Opportunity

This is where your value is highest.

Offer to pair with developers on complex architectural decisions.

“Can I pair with you on that service design? I want to make sure we’re handling the inter-service communication right.”

While pairing:

You don’t write the code (usually). They do.
You guide the thinking. Ask questions.
You explain patterns. Show examples.
You catch issues before they’re coded.

This is teaching + guiding + reviewing, all at once.

The Ad-Hoc Architecture Discussions

Issues come up mid-sprint.

Developer: “We need to handle this edge case. Should we add it to the current service or create a new one?”

This is your moment.

“Good question. Let me think about this. Current service is at 60% responsibility density. Adding this pushes it to 80%. New service is overkill. But we could add a utility module. That’s lighter weight.”

You’re thinking through the options in real-time. The team learns your reasoning. They see how you make architectural decisions.

The Mid-Sprint Architecture Check

On Wednesday or Thursday, do a quick architecture review.

Pull the team together. 30 minutes.

“Here’s what we’ve built so far. Here’s the architecture. Does it feel right? Are we heading in the right direction? Any concerns?”

This is not a critique. It’s a checkpoint.

Usually: “Looks good. We’re on track.”

Sometimes: “I’m worried about the data flow here. Let’s adjust.”

Catching issues mid-sprint is 10x cheaper than fixing them after sprint ends.

Chapter 4: Technical Debt - Communicating the Invisible Problem

Technical debt is the killer of Agile teams.

You build fast. You cut corners. You accumulate debt.

Three sprints later, you can’t move. Everything is tangled.

Your job is to make technical debt visible. And communicate when it’s time to pay it down.

The Technical Debt Ledger

Keep track of technical debt you’re creating.

Sprint 5 Technical Debt:

User Service:
  - Hardcoded configuration (should be externalized)
  - No caching (performance will degrade at 10k users)
  - Circular dependency with Orders service

Database:
  - Denormalized user_orders table (consistency risk)
  - Missing indexes on frequently queried fields

Estimated Cost to Fix:
  - Configuration: 4 hours
  - Caching: 8 hours
  - Circular dependency: 16 hours (requires refactor)
  - Denormalization: 8 hours
  - Indexes: 2 hours
  Total: 38 hours (~5 sprint days)

Risk if Not Fixed:
  - Performance degrades at 10k users (we hit 5k next month)
  - Data consistency issues when orders change
  - Every change requires coordination between services

This is concrete. Not vague.

Communicating Debt to Product Owner

This is the hard part.

Product Owner wants features. You want to pay down debt.

Wrong Way:

“We need to refactor the user service. It’s a mess.”

Product Owner hears: “This will slow me down. It’s technical navel-gazing.”

Right Way:

“We’re accumulating technical debt that will hurt velocity. Here’s the situation:

Current: User service handles user operations well at scale (up to 10k users).

Reality: We’re growing. In 6 weeks we’ll have 10k users. Then velocity dies.

Solution: We refactor now (5 days of work) OR we refactor in 6 weeks (15 days of work, during crisis).

My recommendation: Spend 3 days of next sprint on this. It unblocks velocity for the following sprints.”

Now the Product Owner understands. It’s not theoretical. It’s about protecting velocity.

She sees the trade-off: 3 days now vs 15 days later.

Easy choice.

The Debt Story In The Sprint

Create a story in the sprint for paying down debt.

Story: Externalize Configuration (User Service)

As a DevOps engineer
I want configuration to be externalized
So that we can change settings without redeploying

Acceptance Criteria:
- All hardcoded configuration moved to config service
- Configuration changes don't require redeployment
- Logging shows config changes
- Rollback capability exists

Estimate: 4 hours

Architecture Benefit:
- Unblocks dynamic configuration strategy
- Enables A/B testing (different config per user)
- Reduces deployment risk

Notice the language. You’re translating debt into value.

Not: “Fix the technical debt.”

But: “Enable dynamic configuration.”

Now it’s a real story. It has value. It has acceptance criteria.

When To Pay Down Debt

Pay down debt:

1. When it blocks velocity

“We can’t add features without fixing this.”

2. When it blocks scaling

“We can’t handle 10x users without fixing this.”

3. When it accumulates risk

“Every change introduces bugs because the code is too tangled.”

4. Before it becomes a crisis

“In 3 sprints this becomes a blocker. Let’s fix it now.”

Don’t pay down debt just because it’s ugly. That’s not Agile. That’s perfectionism.

Pay down debt because it’s slowing you down or will soon.

Chapter 5: Technical Spikes - Making Discovery Work

A technical spike is exploration. You don’t know the answer, so you investigate.

“Should we use Technology X or Technology Y?”

“Can we scale to 1M requests/sec with current architecture?”

“How should we handle distributed transactions?”

These require research. Prototyping. Thinking.

The Spike Story

Create a spike story in the sprint.

Spike: Evaluate Caching Strategies

Goal: Determine the best caching strategy for user data

Questions:
- Redis vs Memcached vs application-level cache?
- Hit rate targets?
- Invalidation strategy?
- Cost implications?

Research:
- Read 3 papers on cache coherency
- Build small prototype with each option
- Benchmark performance
- Model cost over 12 months

Deliverable:
- Written recommendation with trade-offs
- Code examples of each approach
- Performance data
- Cost analysis

Timeline: 3 days

Decision:
- Team reviews findings
- Makes decision
- Implements in next sprint(s)

Notice: The spike is not about getting the perfect answer.

It’s about getting enough information to make a good decision.

Also notice: The spike is time-boxed. 3 days. Not infinite.

During The Spike

You’re doing the investigation. Or leading it.

Day 1: Research and prototype. Don’t code perfectly. Throw-away code.

Day 2: Build enough to understand the trade-offs. See the real constraints.

Day 3: Write up findings. Prepare recommendation.

The Spike Review

End of spike: Present findings to the team.

“I investigated three caching strategies:

Option A: Redis

Pros: Fast, flexible, mature
Cons: Adds operational complexity, $500/month cost
Performance: 50k req/sec
Best for: We need 100k req/sec eventually

Option B: Memcached

Pros: Simpler than Redis, cheaper
Cons: Less flexible, still adds operations
Performance: 30k req/sec
Best for: We never need more than 50k req/sec

Option C: Application-Level Cache

Pros: No new infrastructure, simple
Cons: Not distributed, can’t share across servers
Performance: 60k req/sec
Best for: Single server, testing

My recommendation: Start with application-level cache. If we hit 50k req/sec, move to Redis. We’re not there yet.”

You’ve saved the team weeks of investigation. They can decide confidently.

The team decides: Application-level cache.

Next sprint: Implement it.

Six months later: Hit 50k req/sec. Migrate to Redis using what you learned in the spike.

Chapter 6: Scaling Architecture Across Multiple Teams

One team is easy. Multiple teams is hard.

Because now you have coordination problems. Consistency problems. Dependency problems.

The Fractal Architecture

Here’s the insight: Architecture works the same at every scale.

5 developers: 1 team, 1 sprint, 1 architecture
20 developers: 4 teams, 4 sprints, must coordinate architecture
100 developers: 20 teams, 20 sprints, must coordinate architecture

At scale, you need architecture coordination between teams.

The Architecture Board (Cross-Team)

Create a group that meets once per sprint (or twice, depending on scale).

Attendees:

One architect from each team (or the lead architect)
Possibly a tech lead from each team

Duration: 1 hour

Goal: Align architectural decisions across teams.

The Architecture Board Agenda

Part 1: Decision Reviews (30 min)

Each team presents architectural decisions they made that week.

“Team A: We added a cache layer for user data. Here’s the strategy.”

“Team B: We created a new event type for order completion. Here’s the schema.”

“Team C: We started experimenting with message queues for async processing.”

Why does this matter?

Because Team A’s cache invalidation strategy affects Team B’s event processing.

And Team C’s message queue could be used by all teams.

By discussing, you align. You avoid duplicating work. You share learnings.

Part 2: Upcoming Decisions (15 min)

Each team shares decisions coming next sprint.

“Next sprint, Team A is refactoring the user service. We might change the API. Should anyone care?”

“Team B is evaluating databases. We should probably be consistent, right?”

By discussing early, you can align before the decisions are baked in.

Part 3: Cross-Team Dependencies (15 min)

Identify dependencies and risks.

“Team A is building feature X. Team B needs that API by Sprint 8. Team A is on Sprint 5. We have 3 sprints buffer. We’re fine.”

“Team C needs the message queue. We’re building it in Sprint 7. Team C needs it in Sprint 6. We need to prioritize.”

By tracking, you prevent emergencies.

The Architectural Vision Document

Keep a living document that describes the system architecture.

Not a static design. A living, evolving description.

Contents:

System components
How they connect
Data flows
Key decisions and why
Technical debt and roadmap

Who maintains it? The architects. Collaboratively.

When does it update? After Architecture Board meetings.

Who reads it? New engineers. Product managers. Executives.

The Architectural Decision Records (ADRs)

For each major decision, write an ADR.

# ADR 5: Use Redis for Caching

## Status
Accepted

## Context
User queries are slow. Response time: 1200ms.
We need to cache frequently accessed data.

## Decision
We will use Redis for distributed caching.

## Rationale
- Redis is mature and proven
- Supports distributed cache (across multiple servers)
- Good performance characteristics
- Team has Redis experience

## Alternatives Considered
1. Memcached: Simpler but less flexible
2. Application-level cache: Would require coordination between servers

## Consequences
- Adds operational complexity (monitoring Redis, backups, failover)
- Adds cost: ~$500/month
- Requires cache invalidation strategy
- Enables horizontal scaling

## Status: Implemented (Sprint 7)

Keep these in version control. In a README. Accessible to everyone.

New engineer joins? They read the ADRs. They understand why decisions were made.

Chapter 7: Managing Competing Pressures

As an architect in Agile, you face competing pressures:

Product Owner wants features (velocity)
Team wants clean code (sustainability)
Executives want speed (time-to-market)
You want good architecture (longevity)

These aren’t in conflict. You need to frame them that way.

The Velocity vs Architecture Trap

False Choice:

“We can have fast velocity OR good architecture. Pick one.”

Reality:

Good architecture enables fast velocity. Bad architecture kills it.

Year 1: Fast velocity (no architecture). Team is quick.

Year 2: Velocity slowing. Code is tangled. Bugs increase.

Year 3: Velocity crawls. Everything takes forever. Demoralized team.

Your Job:

Protect velocity by maintaining architecture.

“We’re paying down this technical debt to protect velocity next sprint.”

Frame it that way. The Product Owner gets it.

The Perfectionism Trap

You: “This code needs to be refactored. It’s not elegant.”

Product Owner: “But the feature works. Ship it.”

You: “It’s not perfect.”

Product Owner: “Good enough is good enough.”

She’s right.

There’s a difference between:

Technical debt (cuts corners, affects future velocity)
Imperfect code (not optimized, but functional)

Technical debt matters. Imperfect code doesn’t.

Learn to distinguish. Accept imperfection. Pay down debt.

The Scope Creep Trap

Developer: “While we’re refactoring user service, we should also fix the X.”

You: “Good idea. But let’s scope it for next sprint. This sprint is focused.”

You’re protecting the sprint.

Scope creep kills Agile. You accumulate unfinished work. You lose predictability.

One thing per sprint. Do it well. Move on.

The Risk vs Speed Trap

Product Owner: “Can we ship this faster if we skip the tests?”

You: “We could. But the risk is high. Bugs in production cost us more.”

You’re thinking long-term.

Don’t let Agile pressure override good judgment.

But also: Don’t use “risk” as an excuse to slow down.

“We need tests. 4 hours of testing saves us 40 hours of debugging later.”

That’s good math. That’s Agile.

Chapter 8: Retrospectives - Architectural Learning

Retrospectives are where teams reflect and improve.

Most focus on process. How do we work better?

But retrospectives are also where you discuss architecture.

The Architecture Retro

In the retro, ask:

“How’s the architecture working for us? What’s helping? What’s hindering?”

What Worked:

“The event-driven pattern we introduced last sprint is working great. Services are decoupled. Changes are easy.”

Celebrate this. Use it next sprint.

What Didn’t Work:

“The circular dependency between User and Orders service is killing us. Every change requires coordination.”

This is a signal. Next sprint, make decoupling a priority.

What We Learned:

“We learned that we can’t do distributed transactions simply. We need eventually consistent patterns.”

Capture this. It’s architectural wisdom.

The Architectural Experiment

In retro, propose an experiment:

“Next sprint, let’s try pairing on architecture decisions. Instead of one person deciding, two people design together.”

Try it. Measure. In next retro: Did it help?

The Architectural Debt Discussion

In retro, discuss debt.

“We accumulated 20 story points of debt this sprint. That’s 25% of our capacity. That’s too much.”

Why did it accumulate?

Pressure to deliver?
Unclear requirements?
Architectural issues?

Fix the root cause.

“Next sprint, let’s slow down. Clarify requirements better. Reduce debt accumulation.”

Chapter 9: Working With Product Owners

Product Owners are key to your success as an architect in Agile.

If the Product Owner understands architecture, everything is easier.

If she doesn’t, you struggle.

The Product Owner’s Perspective

Product Owners are measured on:

Features delivered (velocity)
Bugs (quality)
User satisfaction
Time-to-market

Architecture doesn’t appear on their scorecard.

So from their perspective: Architecture is a cost. It slows down features.

Your job is to help them see: Architecture is an investment. It enables features.

How To Educate Product Owners

1. Show the Consequence of Bad Architecture

“Last sprint, we took shortcuts on the Orders service. This sprint we spent 3 days fixing bugs. That cost us one feature.”

Concrete. Shows impact.

2. Show the Benefit of Good Architecture

“We refactored the User service last sprint. This sprint, we built three features in the time we usually build one. That’s because the service is clean now.”

Concrete. Shows ROI.

3. Give Her A Budget For Architecture

“I propose we allocate 20% of capacity for architecture and technical debt. That means 20% of stories are architecture stories.”

Clear. Trackable. Professional.

She can say yes or no. She understands the trade-off.

4. Help Her Make Smart Trade-Offs

“This feature can be done two ways:

Fast way (2 sprints): Creates technical debt
Right way (3 sprints): Scales to 1M users, no debt

We’re at 100k users now. We’ll hit 1M in 6 months. If we go fast way, we’ll refactor then. If we go right way, no refactor needed.”

She decides. But she has information. Usually: “Let’s do it right. I’ll prioritize other features.”

The Product Owner As Ally

The best Product Owners understand architecture. They protect it.

“I know we could ship faster by cutting corners. But I’m going to say no. We’ll do it right. It protects our velocity long-term.”

How do you get this Product Owner?

By educating her. By showing that architecture enables velocity.

By framing architecture as risk management, not perfectionism.

By proving it works.

Chapter 10: Sprint Planning For Architecture

Not all sprints are the same.

Some sprints are feature-heavy.

Some sprints are architecture-heavy.

Plan strategically.

The Sprint Rhythm

Sprints 1-2: Feature-Heavy

Build features. Establish product-market fit.

Sprint 3: Architecture Sprint

Pause features. Refactor. Pay down debt. Build foundations for next phase.

Sprints 4-5: Feature-Heavy

Build more features. Use foundations from Sprint 3.

This rhythm balances velocity with sustainability.

You’re not slowing down. You’re investing in capacity.

The Architecture Sprint

An architecture sprint looks different.

Goal:

“Establish event-driven architecture. Decouple services.”

Stories:

Build event bus infrastructure
Refactor User service to publish events
Refactor Orders service to consume events
Integration testing of event flow

Outcome:

Services are decoupled. Future features are easier to add.

Why It’s Worth It:

Next sprint, adding features is 30% faster because services are decoupled.

Over 10 sprints: 30% _ 10 _ 8 story points/sprint = 24 extra story points delivered.

The 1 week architecture sprint paid for itself in the first 10 weeks.

Planning For Scaling

If you know you’re scaling, plan ahead.

“We’re hiring 3 more engineers next month. We need to prepare the codebase.

Current state: One team, one service, everything intertwined.

In 2 sprints, we need: Three teams, three services, minimal dependencies.

Sprint 2: Boundary definition. Create service APIs. Extract services. Sprint 3: Add new engineers. Each team owns a service.

This requires architectural work in Sprints 1-2. It slows features slightly. But it enables 3x team growth.”

The executives see: 3x team growth. Worth it.

Chapter 11: Communication Ceremonies In Agile

Agile has many ceremonies. Use them to communicate architecture.

The Sprint Review (Client Presentation)

At the end of sprint, you demo features to stakeholders.

Use this to explain architecture.

“We shipped the export feature. Behind the scenes, we established a streaming pattern for handling large operations. This will enable report generation next sprint.”

You’re translating architecture to business value. Stakeholders see that architecture isn’t abstract. It enables features.

The Sprint Retro (Team Reflection)

Reflect on how you’re working.

Include architecture questions:

“Are we keeping architecture clean? Or is debt accumulating?”

“Are we making architectural decisions collaboratively? Or is one person deciding?”

“Do we understand the architecture? Or is it mysterious?”

Address issues. Improve.

Before sprint planning, the team refines the backlog.

As architect, you review upcoming stories.

“Story: Add user export.

Architectural lens: This needs to handle 1M rows. Our current approach won’t scale. We should use streaming.”

You’re adding architectural context. The team knows what to think about.

The Architecture Meeting (Cross-Functional)

Monthly, meet with Product Manager, Tech Lead, and Architect.

Discuss:

Where is the system architecture heading?
Are we on track?
Do we need to adjust direction?

This isn’t a sprint meeting. It’s strategic.

Chapter 12: Technical Decisions In Sprints

Technical decisions happen constantly in Agile.

“Should we use X or Y?”

“Should we refactor this or leave it?”

“Should we add a database index or optimize the query?”

How do you make these decisions fast?

The Decision Framework For Sprints

Step 1: What’s the Cost of Delaying?

“If we don’t decide today, what happens?”

Nothing? Then we can delay the decision.
Team is blocked? Then we decide today.

Step 2: How Good Does It Need To Be?

“Do we need the perfect solution? Or good enough?”

This sprint matters long-term? Get it right.
This is temporary? Good enough is fine.

Step 3: Who Decides?

“Should the architect decide? Should the team?"""

Strategic decision? You decide (with input).
Technical detail? The team decides.

Step 4: Decide and Move

Make the call. Document it. Move forward.

Don’t overthink. Agile is about velocity.

When To Escalate

Most decisions stay in the sprint.

Some decisions need escalation.

Escalate if:

It affects multiple teams
It sets a precedent
It requires resources outside the team
It affects the product strategy

“I think we should use a message queue instead of direct API calls. This affects Teams A, B, and C. Should we discuss in Architecture Board?”

Escalate. Discuss. Decide at the right level.

Chapter 13: The Architect’s Anti-Patterns In Agile

Anti-Pattern 1: Designing In Isolation

You spend weeks designing the perfect architecture. Then you present it.

The team looks confused. Reality doesn’t match your design.

Better: Design collaboratively. In sprints. With feedback.

Anti-Pattern 2: Perfectionism

“We can’t ship until the architecture is perfect.”

No. Ship imperfect. Iterate. Improve.

Better: Ship good enough. Get feedback. Refactor next sprint.

Anti-Pattern 3: Not Embedding With The Team

You’re separate. You make decisions. The team resents you.

Better: Sit with the team. Attend standups. Pair code. Be part of the team.

Anti-Pattern 4: Not Communicating Decisions

You make an architectural decision. The team doesn’t know why.

They ignore it.

Better: Always explain the “why”. Document decisions. Discuss trade-offs.

Anti-Pattern 5: Overcomplicating

You add features “for future scalability.”

It adds complexity. The team slows down.

Better: Build what’s needed. When you need more, add it.

Anti-Pattern 6: Not Protecting Velocity

You let technical debt accumulate. It slows the team.

Better: Balance debt and features. Pay down debt strategically.

Anti-Pattern 7: Not Learning From Retrospectives

Retros point out architectural issues. You ignore them.

Better: Take retros seriously. Address issues. Improve.

Chapter 14: Case Study - Architecture In Action

Let me show you how this all works in practice.

The Situation

You have a 5-person team. You’re one of them (part-time architect, part-time developer).

You have a small web app. Growing users (now 50k).

You’re using Agile. 2-week sprints.

Sprint 1-3: Building Features

Feature sprints. You build the app. Architecture is simple. One service, one database.

Everything works. Velocity is high. The product-market fit is good.

Users love the app.

Sprint 4: Architecture Spike

You notice: Queries are getting slow. Database is approaching capacity.

You propose a spike: “Evaluate scaling strategies.”

Spike results: Three options presented. Recommendation: Redis caching + read replicas.

Cost: ~$2k/month. Effort: 8 days.

Product Owner decides: “Let’s do it. Protect velocity.”

Sprint 5: Foundation Sprint

You build the foundations:

Add Redis cache
Set up database read replicas
Establish cache invalidation patterns
Documentation

Not many user-facing features. But velocity is protected for future sprints.

Sprint 6-8: Feature-Heavy

With foundations in place, you build features fast.

Each sprint: 3-4 features shipped.

Velocity is high because architecture is clean.

Sprint 9: Technical Debt Sprint

Debt accumulated. You refactor some modules.

Not many features. But code is cleaner.

Sprint 10+: Continuing

You maintain the rhythm. Feature sprints + architecture sprints + technical debt sprints.

The app scales. The team is productive. The code is maintainable.

Chapter 15: Success Metrics For Architecture In Agile

How do you know architecture is working in Agile?

Metric 1: Velocity

Is velocity increasing over time? Or decreasing?

Increasing: Architecture is enabling features.

Decreasing: Technical debt is slowing you down.

Track this. If velocity drops, it’s a signal.

Metric 2: Cycle Time

How long does it take from story to deployed?

If cycle time is growing: Coordination problems, technical debt.

If cycle time is stable or shrinking: Architecture is healthy.

Metric 3: Bug Rate

Are bugs increasing? Decreasing? Stable?

Bugs increasing: Architectural issues. Refactor.

Bugs stable or decreasing: Architecture is working.

Metric 4: Team Satisfaction

Is the team happy? Frustrated?

Happy: Architecture is sustainable.

Frustrated: Something is broken. Address it.

Metric 5: Scalability

Can the system handle growth?

Yes: Architecture is working.

No: Need architectural changes.

Chapter 16: The Agile Architect’s Playbook

Quick reference.

Before Sprint

Meet with Product Owner
Highlight architectural concerns in upcoming stories
Propose architecture stories for the sprint
Review upcoming technical decisions

During Sprint

Attend daily standup
Pair on complex architectural decisions
Guide team on patterns and trade-offs
Do mid-sprint architecture check
Course-correct if needed

After Sprint

Sprint review: Explain architectural implications
Sprint retro: Discuss architecture, debt, decisions
Update architecture documentation
Plan next sprint

Quarterly

Architecture board meeting (if multiple teams)
Strategic review: Where is architecture heading?
Plan major architectural initiatives
Communicate to executives

Appendix: Agile Architecture Templates

Template 1: Architecture Story

# Story: Implement Caching Layer for User Data

As a DevOps engineer
I want user data to be cached
So that queries are faster and database load is reduced

## Acceptance Criteria

- Cache hit rate is > 80% for user queries
- Cache TTL is 1 hour
- Cache invalidation on user update
- Monitoring and alerts for cache health

## Architecture Decisions

- Use Redis
- Cache at application layer (not at database)
- Invalidate on write, not by TTL

## Estimate

8 points

## Dependencies

None. Can be done independently.

## Future Enablers

This enables:

- Report caching (future)
- User preference caching (future)

Template 2: Spike Story

# Spike: Evaluate Message Queue Options

## Goal

Determine the best message queue for async processing.

## Questions to Answer

1. Should we use RabbitMQ, Kafka, or AWS SQS?
2. What's the performance characteristics of each?
3. What are the operational costs?
4. Which fits our use cases best?

## Research Activities

- Read comparison articles
- Prototype with each option
- Benchmark performance
- Model 12-month costs

## Deliverable

Written recommendation with trade-offs.

## Timeline

3 days

## Decision

Based on findings, team will decide which to implement next sprint.

Template 3: Architecture Review Checklist

# Architecture Review Checklist

For each story/sprint, review:

- [ ] Scalability: Will this work at 10x growth?
- [ ] Reliability: Is error handling in place?
- [ ] Maintainability: Would another engineer understand this?
- [ ] Performance: Are there bottlenecks?
- [ ] Security: Are there vulnerabilities?
- [ ] Integration: Does this fit with the rest of the system?
- [ ] Documentation: Is it clear why we did it this way?

Issues Found:

- [ ] Blocker: Don't ship without fixing
- [ ] Warning: Fix before next sprint
- [ ] Improvement: Nice to have

Approval: **\_** (Architect)

The architect in Agile is not separate from the team. You are the team. You design with them. You build with them. You learn with them. That’s where great architecture happens.