In today’s lightning-paced business landscape, the acronym MVP (Minimal Viable Product) is like a battle cry for startups and industry giants alike. But what about its lesser-known counterpart, MVA (Minimum Viable Architecture)? Let’s embark on a journey to discover how MVA is revolutionizing the way we build and sustain innovation.
Picture this: a team of passionate developers, fueled by a groundbreaking idea, rushes to create a MVP, eager to test its viability in the market. In the frenzy to launch, architecture often takes a backseat, leading to sleepless nights and maintenance headaches down the road. It’s the classic tale of two extremes: too much architecture time or none at all.
Enter MVA, the unsung hero of MVP development. MVA flips the script by providing just enough architecture to support the product’s defined requirements. No frills, no fuss—just the essentials to keep your MVP sailing smoothly.
But how do we ensure that our MVA hits the mark? Cue fitness functions, the backbone of architectural control. These quantifiable targets, spanning performance, reliability, scalability, observability, and security, serve as our North Star in the whirlwind of innovation. You may change and adopt different fitness function depending on your architectural guidance and control.
Imagine a radar chart mapping out these targets, guiding teams to architectural success with precision and clarity. Armed with measurable numbers, developers can confidently showcase their MVP’s prowess, backed by concrete evidence of its architectural soundness. Below is an example of a sample fitness function in a radar chart.
Once you have created a standard set of fitness functions, you need to use this as a guiding light in the architecture for MVPs. Your architectural governance team should use this as a basis to define the target score of each fitness function for the MVPs. For example, you can set a target that “Auto-Scaling” is not required for the MVP and that it is acceptable to use a “Manually Scaled” model. Similarly, you can set a target for “Resource Utilization” at a certain level, which may not be optimized for using Cloud Resources.
Let’s understand how you can deploy this in your organization:
- As a first step, your Architecture Governance Team should define a standard set of fitness functions required for MVPs to hit the market.
- Once the MVP development starts, the MVP development team and the Architecture Governance team will work collaboratively to define the fitness targets necessary for the MVP’s success.
- The development team begins working on the MVP. During development, they build automated measures to continuously monitor the fitness functions to ensure the MVP aligns with the fitness targets.
- Once development is complete, the MVP development team can present these fitness function metrics to proceed with the release to the market. There might be instances where these metrics do not precisely meet the initial expectations. However, depending on the effort versus return and time to market, you can decide whether to adhere to the initial expectations or accept slightly lower values for some of the fitness function parameters.
- After that, the MVP is ready to be tested in the real world.
But the journey doesn’t end there. As MVPs gain traction in the market, architects must be ready to scale up and adapt. It’s a dynamic process of continuous evolution, where each success paves the way for the next leap forward.
So, the next time you embark on a journey of rapid innovation, remember the power of MVA. It’s not just about launching MVPs—it’s about architecting success from the ground up, ensuring that every idea has the wings to soar.
Here’s to a future where innovation knows no bounds, fueled by the perfect blend of creativity and architecture. Happy innovating!