Being Agile: Eleven Breakthrough Techniques to Keep You from “Waterfalling Backward”

Evolutionary Architecture and Emergent Design

Evolutionary architecture is an important practice that enables teams to maintain working software as it progresses through a project. As teams write code and evaluate what works well, the best design patterns “emerge.” When architecture, design, or redesign is part of the work needed in an agile project, the concepts of evolutionary architecture and emergent design should be considered. Contrary to popular mythology, evolutionary architecture does start with an architectural model, just not a finished model. So, if you’ve heard that evolutionary architecture is nothing more than an architectural “wild-west show,” I ask you to set such thoughts aside and read on.

The idea behind evolutionary architecture ...