Delegation Canvas Example:
Architecture Circle

1. Primary Driver / Purpose

“As our product portfolio grows, our apps mature, and the number of developers increases, we need alignment on architecture and guidance on software craftsmanship in order to remain productive.”

2. Key Responsibilities

awareness of status quo of and creation of a vision for architecture and craftsmanship
lead mid- and long-term initiatives to improve architecture and craftsmanship
balance short-term and long-term productivity

3. Dependencies

development teams (will have to work with the output of this circle, and will provide feedback on quality of architecture decision and coaching)
product owners (architecture needs to be aligned to product strategy and current customer needs)
strategy team (strategy is a driver for architectural decisions and vision)

4. External Constraints

architectural changes must not stall product releases, so product owners can veto them
architecture decisions can be vetoed by development teams
craftsmanship needs to be aligned with development teams

5. Key Challenges

different tech stacks and codebases of varied quality
knowledge silos in some teams
some teams have 50% new hires

6. Key Deliverables

a mid- and long-term strategy for evolving software architecture
backlog for impediments relating to architectural and craftsmanship
high-level coding guidelines that enable software craftmanship (aligned with all development team)
architecture workshops with development teams
at least one hands-on coaching session with each team member per quarter

7. Competencies, qualities and skills

At least half of the circle’s members must have been with the company for at least 3 years.

If possible, members of the Architecture Circle should have the following expertise:

current role: software developer
several years of experience developing software on a code base that is at least 5 years old
understanding of the relevant current architecture patterns
nice to have: experience in workshop design and facilitation

8. Key Resources

architecture team can veto new features for a product when quality of codebase is threatened
members of architecture team reduce their development capacity to a minimum of 50%

9. Delegator Responsibilities

Since the Architecture Circle has been formed on the initiative of the development teams, it’s their responsibility to support the circle as good as they can, e.g. by

implementing the circle’s the decisions in the absence of objections
raising any possible objections against the circle’s decisions
bringing to the circles attention any relevant observations about the code base

10. Key Metrics

simple monthly anonymous survey on developer satisfaction with architecture (current and outlook) and current health of the code bases
number of coaching sessions per month and developer
number of architectural issues in the backlog with severity “high” or “critical”

11. Monitoring and Evaluation

A team review every quarter:

3-5 software developers from different teams
product owners
CTO

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Delegation Canvas Example: Architecture Circle