Architecture workshop once per Sprint

This post is part of 101 ideas for agile teams.

Context

The team has a hard time to stay on top of changes in the architecture due to changed or evolved requirements. The knowledge about the architecture is distributed unequally among team members.

Action

Establish an architecture workshop once per Sprint to present and discuss the latest changes or new requirements regarding the architecture and design of your system. The team discusses what the current architecture supports well, and what has to change for upcoming requirements.

What you gain

Architecture knowledge is shared through whole team.

The architecture is challenged against current and upcoming requirements. This allows to act proactive, instead of just reacting to a system that fails to fulfill non-functional requirements.

How to strengthen

Nothing here yet. If you know something to strengthen this idea, let me know with a comment.

Risks

Yet another meeting reducing team capacity. Only hold the meeting if there is actually architectural work going on. Discuss about the value of the meeting regularly in the retrospective.

No decisions, only general discussions. Make sure that actual actions are performed on the issues identified.

More ideas at 101 ideas for agile teams

Many thanks to bbv Software Services for making this blog post possible.