Facilitating Software Architecture

Chapter 9. Testable CFRs and Technology Strategy

This chapter will begin by weighing the importance of alignment with your organization’s vision and goals. It will consider how that can be achieved in a decentralized, revolutionized, feedback-centric world with minimum restrictions placed on the decision space—restrictions that need to be understood and agreed to by everyone. To achieve this big-picture goal of alignment, you need a minimal viable level of agreement, covering both what you need and how you intend your systems to work together effectively.

With that laid out, you’ll learn about a two-part supporting element. The first part gets very specific (but not very directive) about the “what” in the form of testable cross-functional requirements (CFRs). Indeed, because this isn’t the first time CFRs have come up in this book, I’ll spend quite a while on them.

The second part complements this, getting directive (but not very specific) about the “how” in the form of technology strategy. Unlike CFRs, I won’t go into detail about how to create a strategy as it’s outside the scope of this book. I will, however, give you the means to ensure that any strategy you have is suitable and sufficient.

The Importance of Organizational Alignment

Imagine you’re in the lucky position of already taking all the right decisions with all the right people, in all the right places, at all the right times. Your architecture practice is not just efficient—it is effective. This magical state of ...