Agile Architecture IS Possible You First Have to Believe!

In early 2007, ChannelAdvisor undertook an ambitious project to rearchitect one of its core product offerings. Flush with early success from rapid customer adoption, the foundation for this product had grown well beyond its initial design. As defects grew in frequency and severity, pressure mounted to "fix it yesterday", but consensus on exactly how proved elusive. "Fix it right" ideals battled with "fix it now", ultimately resulting in a new architecture that was inefficient, incomplete, and, after 3 long months of "working harder, not smarter", cancelled. In this experience report I will recap my experience as a product development manager sponsoring this project; revealing how the project went awry, what the team learned, and how the utilization of the Scrum process not only created a scalable, reliable architecture, but also greatly improved the ongoing productivity and morale of the product team.