What Should Agile Architecture Efforts Produce?

If you're hoping for an exact list of deliverables here, you need to go back and reread this chapter because you don't understand it yet. However, it is important to define a set of goals that should be achieved. In priority order, these goals are as follow:

1. Support for the customers of the architecture. We cannot stress this enough: Agile architects spend the majority of their time working with software developers to mentor them in the architecture, in modeling skills, and in architecture skills in general. They do this by being actively involved in projects, thus helping the project teams to achieve its short-term goals in a manner that reflects the long-term vision of the organization. They also work closely with senior business stakeholders to mentor them in the architecture, in modeling skills, and in developing that long-term vision.

2. A vision and plan to achieve that vision. Architects are often keepers of the vision whether they take an agile approach or not. Developers and project stakeholders will look to them for the vision, so agile architects need to be prepared to communicate that vision to developers.

3. A collection of models and documentation describing the architecture. Architecture models and documents are important, but alone they are not sufficient for success, as many organizations have found in practice. These artifacts should be just barely good enough and should reflect the values, principles, and practices of Agile Modeling.