Self-organizing teams propel the no architect movement

One of the manifesto principles for Agile software development states that the best architectures and designs emerge from self-organizing teams. Members of the team have to share their knowledge and efforts to make the right architecture decisions.

Many organizations and teams interpreted this manifesto principle differently. As a result, two movements emerged in the early days of Agile software development. One tried to eliminate architects from Agile projects, whereas the other movement promoted architects and portrayed engineers just as developers.

The proponents of eliminating architects justified their position by pointing to the Scrum methodology, where there is no explicit architect role defined. Scrum defines only three roles – product manager, Scrum master, and development team. This movement also pointed out the affordability of architects in teams. Agile teams typically consist of seven to eight members...