Elaboration on an integrated architecture and requirement practice: Prototyping with quality attribute focus

This experience report builds on an earlier study in which we interviewed eight project teams that were using iterative incremental lifecycles. In the study, we captured the practices the teams felt contributed to rapid delivery. We identified a mix of Agile and architecture practices that teams apply to rapidly field software and minimize disruption and delay. In this paper, we elaborate one practice from the study, prototyping with quality attribute focus. We compared two experiences in prototyping focused on quality attribute considerations applied on Scrum projects. We observe through interviews that feature development and prototyping practice spans multiple levels: feature development/sprint, release planning, and portfolio planning. We also observe other factors including rapid trade-off analysis, flexible architecture, and adoption of a set of enabling prototyping guidelines. The analysis of the observations sheds light on several aspects of the practice that enable the team to respond quickly and efficiently when prototype feedback suggests architectural change.