Navigate application architecture drift and organizational alignment

Application architecture drift is a common phenomenon in software development as projects evolve and grow in complexity. When this happens, you face a critical decision: Should you simplify the application architecture to fit the current team topologies, or should you adjust your team topologies to match the changing application architecture? This decision is pivotal for maintaining efficiency, innovation, and success throughout an application's lifecycle, which spans years and includes stages from experimentation to production, maintenance, and, ultimately, the end of support.

What is application architecture drift?

Application architecture drift occurs when the initial design and structure of an application no longer align with its current state due to continuous improvement, feature additions, and technology advancements. This drift can lead to increased complexity, technical debt, and potential performance bottlenecks if not properly managed.

To effectively manage such drift, it's essential to consider the teaming topology that supports the application at different levels of application maturity. If your team structure does not accommodate the complexities of the application architecture, you risk a failure on deliverables, which leads to poor customer satisfaction metrics and loss of customer adoption.

When team topologies properly adjust to application complexities, poor decisions on implementation details are minimized, resulting in a more scalable and resilient application architecture. As Conway’s Law states, “Organizations which design systems are constrained to produce systems which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations." This can result in unintended design additions due to organizational setup. In most cases, these additions can lead to weakened team identities, uncertain responsibilities, and poor team interactions and communications.

The role of team topologies in managing architecture drift

Team topologies refer to the roles and responsibilities within a team and how they are organized to deliver value. When an application's architecture changes, it's crucial to assess whether your team structure is still optimal or if adjustments are needed. The FINE Analysis, as defined in the Value Stream Reference Architecture, provides a valuable lens for evaluating and realigning team topologies throughout an application's lifecycle. FINE is defined as:

• F = Flow of work
• I = Impediments that slow down the flow of work
• N = Needs that drive the potential for flow to happen
• E = Effort that is used in the form of cognitive load

Experimentation phase

• Architecture: Simple, flexible, and exploratory
• Team topology: Small, cross-functional, adaptive teams
• FINE Analysis: Stream-aligned teams will have a high Flow of work, with little initial Impedance, but with much fluctuation. Needs will be high, with a heavy reliance on enabling teams to establish standards and templates.
• Application architecture drift: This will be frequent with rapid and constant change, but manageable due to early simplicity and smaller adaptive teams

Production phase

• Architecture: More defined, scalable, and robust
• Team topology: Larger, responsible, perceptible teams
• FINE Analysis: The Flow of work is stabilized, but impedance starts to collect in the form of technical debt, issues and vulnerabilities. This drives up the Effort required on stream-aligned teams. At this point, enabling teams should have established ways of working and platform groups should start to reduce the cognitive load on teams. Complicated sub-systems will be defined and should be closely controlled.
• Application architecture drift: This will be frequent with rapid and constant change as before. However, larger teams and a more robust but changing architecture will require higher levels of monitoring and management.

Maintenance phase

• Architecture: Mature, stable, and optimized for efficiency
• Team topology: Sustaining teams
• FINE Analysis: The Needs for stream-aligned teams will reduce and be more dependent on actual customer and business outcomes. The Flow of work is much more impacted by Impediments, in particular any production issues. The Effort on teams can become exhaustive if platform groups are not stabilized and effective, enabling teams have to be responsive to continuous improvement.
• Application architecture drift: Architectural changes will be far less frequent, and team structures will be aligned to ensure system stability. This is dependent upon the stability when exiting the production phase.

End-of-support phase

• Architecture: Legacy, minimal updates, and decommissioning planning
• Team topology: Transition teams
• FINE Analysis: Flow of work is drastically reduced. Impedance will move to one of two ways, either reducing as production issues scale down due to lower customer usage, or increasing at a high cost due to legacy systems.
• Application architecture drift: Minimal, if any, architectural drift, as teams should be focused on decommissioning over production.

Balancing simplification and realignment

The experimentation phase is important to establish the correct disciplines from the outset. The greatest risk of application architecture drift is then in the production phase. In maintenance, this risk is reduced, and, by end of support, should be negligible. So it is during the production phase, potentially the longest living phase for any business system, that we must ensure strong discipline to prevent the drift.

When faced with architecture drift, organizations must decide between simplifying the application architecture to fit existing team topologies or adjusting team topologies to match the evolving architecture. Both approaches have their merits:

• Simplifying application architecture: This approach can reduce complexity and technical debt, making it easier for existing teams to manage the application. However, it may limit the application's potential for growth and innovation.
• Adjusting team topologies: Realigning teams to match the evolving architecture can enhance the application's capabilities and performance. This approach requires a more flexible organizational model and may involve retraining or restructuring teams.

A key aspect is to consider when to make these adjustments, and the answer is as soon as possible. To leave adaptations for too long can cause the architectural drift to become so large that it inevitably leads to one of two events:

• Massive re-architecture: This approach will lead to reduced effort in delivering new customer value, impacting business outcomes. In its own right, it can generate massive technical debt and increased work backlog for future efforts, resulting in increased team cognitive load.

• Re-organization: Realigning teams on any kind of large scale will most certainly impact team morale. It can lead to a strain on key people and result in higher churn, especially of innovative talent. This can lead to lost IP knowledge and a future skills shortage, which in turn has an impact on the future quality of the designs and applications produced.

Next steps

Managing application architecture drift is an ongoing challenge that requires a strategic approach to organizational alignment. By leveraging the FINE Analysis of the Value Stream Reference Architecture and understanding the different phases of an application's lifecycle, you can make informed decisions about team topologies and ensure your organization remains agile and efficient. Whether you choose to simplify application architecture or adjust your team structure, the key is to maintain a balance that supports both current needs and future growth.

Learn how to manage application value streams with the GitLab DevSecOps platform.