Role of CIO in Implementation of Agile Architecture

The CIO is tasked with implementation of architecture which is flexible enough to accommodate changing business needs of an organization. To incorporate agility across the organization, it has to be implemented through various structural layers. Adequate implementation of agile methodology improves financial measurements of a company.Some organizations have astounding success with agile architecture, while others face failure. Their lack of success can be attributed to improper application of the concepts or lack of supporting environment. Although agile means 'rapid', it doesn't mean that the architecture can be implemented in a hurry without a premonition.Herein is the role of the CIO. They have to make sure that the agile concepts are introduced in a manner which is in sync with the environment of the organization. There is a misconception that strategic architecture and agile concepts are incompatible and the professionals in each camp are so different that they just cannot work together. The statement seems valid on the surface, but if you plan with innovation, you will find that the solution is a matter of perspective.A CIO must be eclectic with architectures and pick the salient points of more than one and combine them. To incorporate agility across the organization, it has to be implemented through various layers - business architecture, application architecture, data architecture, technical architecture and system architecture. Although most CIOs are aware of these concepts, they must factor in that the agile requirement makes these terms dramatically different from their usual representations.Being agile doesn't mean that the architectures have to change constantly with the changing business demands. It requires that the architectures be flexible enough to readily accommodate changing business needs. It stabilizes the development effort, while minimizing negative refactoring.The CIO has to amalgamate different business and IT methods that work together to create an agile business model that suits the company's unique requirements. Adequate implementation of agile methodology improves financial measurements such as margins, profitability, revenue growth, earnings per share, time to market, return on equity, return on assets, return on investments, etc.An agile architecture limits total cost of ownership by enhancing flexibility as a means to deal with the changing business needs. However, for the best outcome, it is essential that you pick up an architectural framework which reflects the culture of your organization. You must be aware of the underlying concepts of various frameworks so that you are able to choose the right model, taking into account the needs of your company.While conventional practice is to develop a comprehensive architecture early in a project, Agile practice evolves architecture incrementally and iteratively over time. Only the basic documentation is done, as the approach is to travel light and let architecture develop as per the requirements. Agile architects don't try to forecast the future as they have trust they can solve the problems when they arrive.For enterprise-wide architectural efforts at global level, the CIO has to organize a core team. They also have to form the sub-teams, each having a member of the core team. This will ensure that each sub-team comprehends and follows the overall architecture. It will also ascertain that the architecture being implemented is in terms with the requirements. The CIO is responsible for facilitating the group and making sure that they are moving in the right direction.