Addressing emergent architecture and technical debt

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Embracing emergent architecture and resolving technical debt are two major challenges that Developers working with Scrum often face. These challenges can have a significant impact on a product’s overall success and necessitate collaboration and communication between the Scrum Team and management.

Emergent architecture in Scrum: a Developer's point of view
Source: https://www.combell.com/nl/blog/

Architecture without a predetermined plan

Emergent architecture is a software development approach in which the architecture of a software product emerges gradually through iterative development, such as Sprint iterations in Scrum. This means that the architectural design is not predetermined, but rather evolves as a result of collaboration and experimentation within the Scrum Team(s). As architectural challenges arise, the teams identify and address them, resulting in a constantly improving, flexible, and resilient architecture.

The costs of maintaining the codebase over time, which may include fixing bugs, making changes, or refactoring code, are referred to as technical debt. Technical debt accumulates when development shortcuts are taken to meet deadlines, or when architectural decisions are postponed for later. Technical debt is viewed as a trade-off in Scrum, but it must be managed to ensure that the overall quality of the codebase is maintained and future development is not hampered. The Scrum Team(s) should review and prioritize technical debt on a regular basis, making the necessary investments to keep it from becoming a hindrance to progress.

The Scrum Team(s) should be mindful of the long-term implications of their decisions in an emergent architecture approach, and make decisions that balance the need for speed with the need to maintain a healthy codebase.

Challenges in dealing with emergent architecture

Developers face several challenges when dealing with solving technical debt and embracing an emergent architecture approach:

  • Balancing short-term and long-term goals
    • Developers must strike a balance between the need for short-term gains and the long-term health of the codebase, which can be difficult;
  • Managing complexity
    • Emergent architecture can result in a complex codebase that is difficult to understand and maintain in the long run;
  • Lack of clear guidelines
    • Without a predefined architecture, developers may struggle to determine the best approach, resulting in inconsistent implementation and confusion;
  • Coordination with stakeholders
    • Solving technical debt frequently necessitates stakeholder buy-in and collaboration, which can be difficult to obtain and manage;
  • Maintaining quality
    • Because Scrum is iterative, developers must constantly review and improve the quality of the codebase, which can be time-consuming and difficult;
  • Dealing with legacy code
    • Legacy code frequently accumulates technical debt, making it difficult to solve without a significant investment of time and resources.

Despite these obstacles, many organizations discover that embracing an emergent architecture approach and addressing technical debt results in a more flexible, scalable, and maintainable codebase, which leads to long-term success. Resolving technical debt can be a difficult task from a management standpoint because it frequently necessitates significant resources and time. Furthermore, management may not always understand the technical complexities involved in resolving technical debt, making informed decisions about how to allocate resources difficult.

Emergent architecture and resolving technical debt can be difficult from the Product Owner’s perspective because they can have a significant impact on the scope, schedule, and budget of a project. Product Owners may need to communicate with Developers and management to understand the technical complexities and trade-offs involved in resolving technical debt and making project-direction decisions.

Addressing these challenges

One approach to addressing these issues is to foster a culture of continuous improvement within the Scrum Team(s). This can include reviewing and evaluating the project’s progress on a regular basis and looking for ways to improve the process and overall software quality. Additionally, it is critical to establish a good code review, testing, and QA process to identify and fix issues early in the development process.

A clear and well-defined process for resolving technical debt is also essential. This can include delegating technical debt ownership to specific team members or roles, as well as establishing clear guidelines for when and how technical debt should be addressed. Furthermore, it is critical to track technical debt in a shared location and to ensure that it is transparent and visible to the Scrum Team(s).

If technical debt has been identified, the following steps can be taken to reduce and/or mitigate it:

  • Prioritization
    • Identify and prioritize the most critical technical debt issues based on their impact on the overall project and ease of resolution;
  • Allocation of time and resources
    • During Sprint Planning, set aside time and resources to address the prioritized technical debt issues;
  • Collaboration with the team
    • Make sure that the entire Scrum Team is aware of the technical debt issues that are being addressed during the Sprints and how they will be resolved;
  • Aspiring integration with user stories
    • Technical debt resolution can be integrated with other PBIs by delivering a working Increment that also resolves a technical debt issue;
  • Continuous review
    • Review and prioritize technical debt on a regular basis to ensure that new debt is not added faster than it is addressed;
  • Clear communication with stakeholders
    • Inform stakeholders about the status of technical debt resolution, making sure they understand the trade-off between short-term and long-term goals.

Organizations can prevent technical debt from becoming a hindrance to progress and ensure the long-term health of their codebase by addressing it during Sprints and incorporating it into the overall delivery process.

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