An architecture governance approach for Agile development by tailoring the Spotify model

The role of software architecture in large-scale Agile development is important because several teams need to work together to release a single software product while helping to maximise teams’ autonomy. Governing and aligning Agile architecture across autonomous squads (i.e., teams), when using the Spotify model, is a challenge because the Spotify model lacks practices for addressing Agile architecture governance. To explore how software architecture can be governed and aligned by scaling the Spotify model, we conducted a longitudinal embedded case study in a multinational FinTech organisation. Then, we developed and evaluated an approach for architectural governance by conducting an embedded case study. The collected data was analysed using Thematic Analysis and informed by selected Grounded Theory techniques such as memoing, open coding, constant comparison, and sorting. Our approach for architectural governance comprises an organisational structure change and an architecture change management process. The benefits reported by the practitioners include devolving architectural decision-making to the operational level (i.e., Architecture Owners), enhancing architectural knowledge sharing among squads, minimising wasted effort in architectural refactoring, and other benefits. The practitioners in our case study realised an improved squad autonomy by the ability to govern and align architectural decisions. We provide two key contributions in this paper. First, we present the characteristics of our proposed architectural governance approach, its evaluation, benefits, and challenges. Second, we present how the novel Heterogeneous Tailoring model was enhanced to accommodate our architectural governance approach

Η ΑΛΛΗΛΕΠΙΔΡΑΣΗ ΜΕ ΤΟΥΣ ΚΑΤΑΝΑΛΩΤΕΣ ΣΤΗΝ ΕΠΟΧΗ ΤΟΥ ΨΗΦΙΑΚΟΥ ΜΕΤΑΣΧΗΜΑΤΙΣΜΟΥ

Την τελευταία δεκαετία, τόσο ακαδημαϊκοί όσο άνθρωποι, που ασχολούνται με τις επιχειρήσεις, δείχνουν περισσότερο ενδιαφέρον στις διάφορες τεχνολογικές και επιχειρηματικές πλευρές του ψηφιακού μετασχηματισμού. Όσο η τεχνολογία και ο επιχειρηματικός κόσμος εξελίσσεται και αλλάζει, οι επιχειρήσεις ανεξαρτήτου αγοράς είναι αναγκασμένες να προχωρήσουν σε αλλαγές ακόμα και για να εξασφαλίσουν την επιβίωσή τους. Θεμελιώδης στρατηγική για την εποχή αυτή της αλλαγής και επιβίωσης είναι ο ψηφιακός μετασχηματισμός. Ένα μεγάλο και σημαντικό κομμάτι μιας επιχείρησης είναι ο καταναλωτής, ο τελικός αποδέκτης που θα αγοράσει το προϊόν ή την υπηρεσία που προσφέρει η εκάστοτε επιχείρηση. Το συγκεκριμένο άρθρο έχει ως απώτερο σκοπό, να αναπτύξει τις διάφορες πτυχές του ψηφιακού μετασχηματισμού και να αναλύσει τις επιχειρήσεις, που έχουν ως επίκεντρό τους τον καταναλωτή/πελάτη. Σε δεύτερο επίπεδο, θα αναλυθούν οι αλλαγές που φέρει μια ψηφιακά μετασχηματισμένη επιχείρηση ως προς την αλληλεπίδραση με τους καταναλωτές της, τα εργαλεία, οι τεχνικές και οι τεχνολογίες που χρησιμοποιήθηκαν και χρησιμοποιούνται καθώς επίσης και τα αποτελέσματα που έφεραν τα παραπάνω τόσο σε επιχειρήσεις του εξωτερικού όσο και σε ελληνικές εταιρίες.In the last decade, both academics and businesspeople have become more interested in the various technological and business aspects of digital transformation. As technology and the business world evolves and changes, businesses regardless of market are forced to make changes even to ensure their survival. A fundamental strategy for this era of change and survival is digital transformation. A large and important part of a business is the consumer, the end recipient who will buy the product or service offered by the business in question. The ultimate aim of this article is to elaborate on the various aspects of digital transformation and to analyse businesses that have the consumer/customer as their focus. On a second level, it will analyze the changes brought by a digitally transformed business in terms of its interaction with its consumers, the tools, techniques and technologies used and employed as well as the results that these have brought both in foreign and Greek companies

Avaliação da transformação digital na jornada do cliente do mercado imobiliário de Porto Alegre

O presente estudo é um Trabalho de Conclusão de curso de Administração pela Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul sobre como está ocorrendo o processo de compra de imóveis em Porto Alegre em relação à transformação digital. O mercado imobiliário é um mercado tradicional ligado diretamente a construção civil, setor extremamente relevante para o PIB nacional, porém pouco estudado do ponto de vista das imobiliárias, empresas responsáveis pela venda, locação, entre outros serviços, relacionados aos imóveis disponíveis no mercado. O presente trabalho busca avaliar em qual etapa da transformação digital estão os processos presentes na jornada do consumidor do mercado imobiliário de Porto Alegre, que desejam adquirir um imóvel. O trabalho foi realizado com base em entrevistas em profundidade, realizadas com funcionários e proprietários, responsáveis ou envolvidos na jornada do consumidor das imobiliárias. A avaliação dessas organizações apontou que as organizações estão utilizando processos digitais e que o número deles nas etapas mais avançadas da transformação digital podem estar ligados à duas principais questões, demanda dos clientes do nicho de atuação da imobiliária e estrutura para aplicação dos processos.The present study is a Business Administration Course Final Paper from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, about how is occurring the process of real state commercialization in Porto Alegre, in relation to digital transformation. The housing market is a traditional one, tightly related to the construction market, responsible for a relevant share of the GDP, however not very studied from the real state companie’s perspective, firms responsible for dealing, renting, among other services availables in the housing market. This study looks to evaluate in which stage of the digital transformation are the processes contained in the costumer’s journey of the housing market of Porto Alegre, which desires do acquire a propertie. This evaluation was based on depth interviews conducted with owners and employees, responsible for or related to the costumer Journey of the firms. It concludes that these organizations are using digital processes and that the further, or not, development of them can be related to two main causes, costumer’s desire for technology and the size of the structure for the application of these processes

Computational Methods for Medical and Cyber Security

Over the past decade, computational methods, including machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL), have been exponentially growing in their development of solutions in various domains, especially medicine, cybersecurity, finance, and education. While these applications of machine learning algorithms have been proven beneficial in various fields, many shortcomings have also been highlighted, such as the lack of benchmark datasets, the inability to learn from small datasets, the cost of architecture, adversarial attacks, and imbalanced datasets. On the other hand, new and emerging algorithms, such as deep learning, one-shot learning, continuous learning, and generative adversarial networks, have successfully solved various tasks in these fields. Therefore, applying these new methods to life-critical missions is crucial, as is measuring these less-traditional algorithms' success when used in these fields

A Heterogeneous Approach to Agile Tailoring

Self-organisation is recognised as one of the fundamental principles of Agile software development since the introduction of the Agile Manifesto. In large-scale agile, self- organising teams must cooperate to produce a software product jointly. Previous research has identified barriers to self-organising autonomous teams in large-scale agile, such as lack of guidelines for how teams should be organised, and other challenges related to building autonomous teams and aligning them. The Spotify model is an example of a very large-scale agile approach, which is driven by creating loosely coupled, yet tightly aligned squads. However, there is a conflicting trade-off between squads autonomy and alignment. Too much alignment might hinder squad autonomy, but without alignment, the squads are autonomous but are not effective.This research aims to (1) explore how Agile practitioners, from a FinTech organisation, resolve the conflicting trade-offs between squads autonomy and alignment, and (2) develop and evaluate new architectural governance practices, in a FinTech organisation tailoring the Spotify model. To address these aims, a qualitative research design was utilised. This research comprises two parts, a longitudinal embedded case study and an intervention embedded case study, which were conducted in a FinTech organisation (i.e., FinTechOrg).The longitudinal embedded case study lasted over 21 months, during which 225 ceremonies were observed, 14 semi-structured open-ended interviews were conducted, and data were collected from different sorts of artefacts. The collected data were analysed using an approach informed by the Grounded Theory method.The analysis identified influential factors on different aspects of Spotify Tailoring, which contribute to resolving the conflicting trade-offs between squads autonomy and alignment. These aspects are (1) establishing and building autonomous squads, (2) aligning autonomous squads, and (3) performing B2B product development by tailoring the Spotify model. The first contribution is identifying factors influencing establishing and building autonomous squads. The second contribution is identifying factors influencing aligning autonomous squads. The third contribution is identifying the impact of product development on Spotify tailoring as well as factors influencing Spotify Tailoring for B2B product development. Each identified factor is supported by a set of practices and attributes, which can aid Agile practitioners in improving squad autonomy, aligning autonomous squads, or facilitating the conduct of B2B product development.The fourth contribution is identifying a novel approach to Agile tailoring, called Heterogeneous Tailoring. Three key features characterise this approach. Firstly, each autonomous squad is empowered to select and tailor its development method. Secondly, each squad is aligned with other squads and to common product development goals and objectives. Thirdly, the product steering committee draws the strategy of squads’ missions and aligns the product backlog among autonomous squads. This novel approach to Agile tailoring has improved the creativity for some squads and increased the productivity for others, as reported by the practitioners of FinTechOrg.The Spotify model and the revealed Heterogeneous Tailoring approach do not provide practices or guidelines for governing Agile architecture across autonomous squads. Thus, an embedded case study intervention was conducted to contribute to facilitating Agile architecture governance. In this intervention, a novel approach to architectural governance was developed and evaluated in FinTechOrg, which is considered the last contribution. This approach incorporates a structural change and an architecture change management process. The intervention lasted 3 months, during which 32 ceremonies were observed and 8 semi-structured open-ended interviews were conducted. The collected data was analysed using an approach informed by the Grounded Theory method.Based on the results of the intervention, the Heterogeneous Tailoring approach was adapted to accommodate the novel approach to architectural governance. This adaptation has impacted the key features of the Heterogeneous Tailoring approach. Establishing autonomous squads was impacted by the introduced structural change. The alignment of autonomous squads was impacted by governing Agile architecture. Product development was impacted by the needs for planning architecture based user stories. Also, the adaptation of the Heterogeneous Tailoring approach revealed a new key feature, called Release Strategy, which is concerned with the continuous delivery of architecture enablers

Heterogeneous tailoring approach using the Spotify model

Organisations tailor agile methods to fit their specific needs. There are two recognised approaches to agile method tailoring: Contingency Factors and Method Engineering. Spotify has developed its own agile culture, which has become influential among agile proponents. The Spotify model has formed the basis of agile methods used in numerous other organisations. We have identified a lack of research into the tailoring approach used in the Spotify model. In order to explore How practitioners do achieve agile tailoring using the Spotify model, a longitudinal embedded case study over 21 months was conducted. A very large-scale FinTech organisation using the Spotify model was selected for the study. We conducted 14 semi-structured interviews and direct observations of agile practices. A grounded theory method was adopted to analyse the data. We discovered a novel approach to agile method tailoring, which we call “Heterogeneous Tailoring". This approach is characterised by two key features. Firstly, each autonomous cross-functional squad is empowered to select and tailor its own development method. This key feature is the main focus of this paper. Secondly, each squad is aligned to common product development goals. The practitioners in our study report benefits of this approach such as improved creativity and productivity, whilst risks of divergence from shared development objectives are mitigated through alignment practices. We contribute in this study by introducing a new third approach to agile tailoring (i.e., “Heterogeneous Tailoring"). This, in turn, complements the tailoring approaches by including Contingency Factors, Method Engineering, and Heterogeneous Tailoring