What to Expect from Enterprise Architects in Large-Scale Agile Development? A Multiple-Case Study

In modern times, traditional enterprises are confronted with rapidly changing customer demands, increasing market dynamics, and continuous emergence of technological advancements. Confronted with the imperatives of a digital world, companies are striving to adopt agile methods on a larger scale to meet these requirements. In recent years, enterprise architecture management has established itself as a valuable governance mechanism for coordinating large-scale agile transformations by connecting strategic considerations to the execution of transformation projects. Our research is motivated by the lack of empirical studies on the collaboration between enterprise architects and agile teams. Against this backdrop, we present a multiple-case study of five leading German companies that aims to shed light on this field of tension. Based on our results from 20 semi-structured interviews, we present the expectations of agile teams for enterprise architects and how they are fulfilled.

[1]  Florian Matthes,et al.  Investigating the Role of Architects in Scaling Agile Frameworks , 2017, 2017 IEEE 21st International Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference (EDOC).

[2]  Torgeir Dingsøyr,et al.  What Is Large in Large-Scale? A Taxonomy of Scale for Agile Software Development , 2014, PROFES.

[3]  Alexander Scheerer,et al.  Coordination in Large-Scale Agile Software Development: A Multiteam Systems Perspective , 2014, 2014 47th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[4]  Muhammad Ali Babar.  An exploratory study of architectural practices and challenges in using agile software development approaches , 2009, 2009 Joint Working IEEE/IFIP Conference on Software Architecture & European Conference on Software Architecture.

[5]  Ingrid Schirmer,et al.  Bimodal Enterprise Architecture Management: The Emergence of a New EAM Function for a BizDevOps-Based Fast IT , 2017, 2017 IEEE 21st International Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Workshop (EDOCW).

[6]  Hong Li,et al.  The Journey to Enterprise Agility - Systems Thinking and Organizational Legacy , 2017 .

[7]  Kari Smolander,et al.  Challenges in Transitioning to an Agile Way of Working , 2017, HICSS.

[8]  A. Huberman,et al.  Qualitative Data Analysis: A Methods Sourcebook , 1994 .

[9]  Daniel Gerster,et al.  "Agile Meets Non-Agile": Implications of Adopting Agile Practices at Enterprises , 2018, AMCIS.

[10]  Casper Lassenius,et al.  Challenges and success factors for large-scale agile transformations: A systematic literature review , 2016, J. Syst. Softw..

[11]  Florian Matthes,et al.  Agile Enterprise Architecture ManagementAn Analysis on the Application of Agile Principles , 2014, BMSD 2014.

[12]  Torgeir Dingsøyr,et al.  Exploring software development at the very large-scale: a revelatory case study and research agenda for agile method adaptation , 2017, Empirical Software Engineering.

[13]  Robert Winter,et al.  Establishing 'Architectural Thinking' in Organizations , 2016, PoEM.

[14]  R. Stake.  The art of case study research , 1995 .

[15]  Helen Sharp,et al.  Agile Challenges in Practice: A Thematic Analysis , 2015, XP.

[16]  Scott W. Ambler,et al.  Agile modeling: effective practices for extreme programming and the unified process , 2002 .

[17]  Frantz Rowe,et al.  Strategizing information systems-enabled organizational transformation: A transdisciplinary review and new directions , 2012, J. Strateg. Inf. Syst..

[18]  Thomas Hess,et al.  Becoming Agile in the Digital Transformation: The Process of a Large-Scale Agile Transformation , 2018, ICIS.

[19]  Robert Lagerström,et al.  Enterprise Architecture and Agile Development: Friends or Foes? , 2018, 2018 IEEE 22nd International Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Workshop (EDOCW).

[20]  Janice Singer,et al.  Studying Software Engineers: Data Collection Techniques for Software Field Studies , 2005, Empirical Software Engineering.

[21]  Torgeir Dingsøyr,et al.  Problematizing Agile in the Large: Alternative Assumptions for Large-Scale Agile Development , 2016, ICIS.

[22]  M. Wilkinson,et al.  Designing an ‘adaptive’ enterprise architecture , 2006 .

[23]  Per Runeson,et al.  Guidelines for conducting and reporting case study research in software engineering , 2009, Empirical Software Engineering.

[24]  Daniela E. Damian,et al.  Selecting Empirical Methods for Software Engineering Research , 2008, Guide to Advanced Empirical Software Engineering.

[25]  Henderik Alex Proper,et al.  Architecture Principles - The Cornerstones of Enterprise Architecture , 2011, The Enterprise Engineering Series.

[26]  Herbert Kuchen,et al.  Integrating Agile Software Development and Enterprise Architecture Management , 2015, 2015 48th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[27]  Petri Kettunen,et al.  Future software organizations – agile goals and roles , 2017 .

[28]  Rodina Binti Ahmad,et al.  A systematic literature review on Enterprise Architecture Implementation Methodologies , 2015, Inf. Softw. Technol..