Agile Design Engagement for Solution Design

Solution Architect (SA) is the first person to get famous (infamous J),  when anything among cost, quality or schedule of a project goes haywire. So we SAs normally are very hard-pressed to get the best solution design possible. And in this pursuit we tend to take extra time and extra effort to come up with a recommended solution.Then I thought why not apply the principles of Agile Software Development (Agile Manifesto) to solution design and see what happens.

The principles of Agile Software Development are:

1. Early and continuous delivery
2. Late requirement changes welcome
3. Short delivery iterations
4. Business persons and developers work together
5. Motivated individuals
6. Face to face conversation
7. Working software is primary measure of progress
8. Maintain constant pace indefinitely
9. Technical & design excellence
10. Simplicity is essential
11. Self organizing teams
12. Team raises its bar & performance in intervals

Now read them again from solution design perspective only:

1. Early and continuous delivery
2. Keep continuously probing for requirements. Plan the probe
3. Short design iterations
4. Work closely with customers. Communicate early and often
5. Motivated individuals
6. Design in progress (DIP) is the only measure of progress
7. Maintain constant pace indefinitely
8. Communication, planning & design excellence
9. Simplicity is essential
10. Learn, adapt and perform continuously

Having fast design iterations can have following advantages:

1. Always in face of customers (internal & external). Let them also own the solution. You will always land closest to the required solution
2. Better personal relationships with customers because of continuous communication
3. Judgement about the worthiness of a project can be made early. Early evaluation of a good or a bad opportunity. You can save costs for your customer and problems for yourself and your development team
4. Design iterations will make design evolve and the evolvement will be in the right direction, towards correct solution.
5. Best for a partnership approach towards customers with clear benefits