No More Snake Oil: Architecting Agility through Antifragility

The confusion surrounding the role of architecture when aiming for Agility isn’t simply a labored talking point – it’s part of the reason Agile initiatives fail, and architecture teams are losing influence. In a recent survey conducted by IASA Global of 260 organizations, greater than 75% were implementing some form of Agile practice, 50% of the 260 were implementing agile at scale. Of those who responded, less than 50% have integrated architecture into their agile process. As it stands, it appears agile & architecture are struggling to find a fit. This paper considers the possible impacts of a third way – Agility through Antifragility. Rather than aiming to control, or to remove control, we seek to build systems, both technical and business, that aim to be Antifragile to change. This allows the production of business and technical architectures that actually enable Agility through design rather than process or ‘mindset’. Taking ideas from Systems Engineering, and Complexity Science, and data from IASA’s 2018 Architecture Survey, we explore how the inherent interconnectedness of architecture and Agility can be leveraged to make the management of complexity something all organizations can do.