Emergent Architecture

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Emergent Architecture in scrum teams means an evolving system design process, which keeps improving with each sprint. It reassures that the design architecture adapts to changes according to the requirements rather than sticking to a pre-defined plan. This contributes to creating a highly flexible and adaptable methodology to accommodate changes anytime during the development process without causing significant delays or obstacles. It fosters creativity and innovation, thereby maintaining relevancy and practicability.

Guide: Emergent Architecture in Scrum

Emergent Architecture is a fundamental principle within the Scrum methodology. This principle is founded on the idea that the architecture of a system will naturally evolve over time as long as the team is given the freedom and supportive environment necessary for this evolutionary process.

Importance:
This architectural evolution offers several key benefits. It allows the team to adapt as changes occur and respond to these changes with innovative and effective solutions. Emergent Architecture maintains flexibility within the system, ensuring that it remains scalable, maintainable, and robust as needs adapt and grow.

How It Works:
The application of the Emergent Architecture in Scrum starts with allowing the team to develop a basic structure that will broadly define the application. The team creates a simple design and then modifies it over multiple iterations. Over time, the system's architecture naturally evolves to meet the project’s goals and to adapt to any changes in real time.

Answering Exam Questions:
When it comes to exams, understanding the principles behind Emergent Architecture is essential. Remember that this concept concerns providing the freedom and flexibility for systems to evolve and adapt over time.
Exam questions may focus on understanding how Emergent Architecture works within Scrum, the importance of adaptive methods in this architectural method and situations where it might not be the ideal approach. Similarly, you might be asked to differentiate between Emergent Architecture and planned architecture.

Exam Tips:
- Understand the definition and principles of Emergent Architecture
- Know the benefits of Emergent Architecture
- Be able to contrast Emergent Architecture against other architecture methods
- Understand how it fits into the Scrum framework
- Be ready to apply the concept into the practical Scrum scenario.
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PSM I - Emergent Architecture Example Questions

Test your knowledge of Emergent Architecture

Question 1

You are a Scrum Master of a team with a new project. The client wants an upfront architecture design but you are proposing an emergent design approach. Your Project Manager prefers the upfront approach. How should you handle this?

Correct Answer: Educate both the client and the Project Manager on the benefits and risks associated with both emergent and upfront design, emphasizing the value of adaptability in complex projects.

The correct answer supports the agile principle of valuing responding to change over following a plan, emphasizing the importance of adaptability in managing complex projects. The wrong answers either mix agile and traditional methodologies or suggest completely traditional approaches, which may appear plausible but do not align well with agile principles. The longest wrong answer introduces extensive early planning which contradicts the agile approach of emergent design.

Question 2

Your team has been adopting Emergent Architecture strategy in a project. A client who has been inactive in the project suddenly wants a detailed document of the whole architecture. What's the best approach?

Correct Answer: Explain that emergent design lets the architecture evolve with the project, but provide a current snapshot of the system's architecture to satisfy the client's request.

The best approach in this situation would be to explain to the client that emergent design allows the architecture to evolve with the project and provide a current snapshot of the system's architecture to satisfy the client's request. This answer reflects the principles of emergent architecture which favor a flexible, evolving design over a rigid, pre-planned one. The purpose of Emergent Architecture is to let the structure of the system evolve over time, rather than being fixed from the start. Therefore the current state of the architecture can be documented, but it doesn't predict the future state. This approach will help the client understand the current state of the project while retaining the flexibility of emergent architecture. The other options like telling the client emergent architecture doesn’t involve any documentation, providing a complete future design plan, contradicting the principles of Emergent Architecture, or ignoring the client's request are incorrect because they either misrepresent the nature of emergent design, violate its principles, or ignore the client's legitimate need for information.

Question 3

In a project handled by your Scrum team, a new member suggests a change to the software architecture. However, the team had already sketched an upfront design prior to the start of the project. What should you do?

Correct Answer: Encourage the team to consider the suggestion because emergent architecture allows for evolutionary change as the project progresses.

In Scrum, the team encourages emergent design and architecture that evolves as the project progresses. The Scrum Guide views a comprehensive upfront design as against the values of Scrum, which focus on iterative, incremental progress and adaptive planning. Therefore, it is recommended for the Scrum team to consider the new member's suggestion for a change to the software architecture, without necessitating a complete replacement of the current design or the superiority of the contributor's credentials. The idea of discouraging suggestions due to upfront design is debunked since the essence of Scrum is in responding to change, and embracing the potential value and learning that change can bring.

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