Talk@Agile meets Architecture 2026: Staying Agile When It Gets Hard

Published
Talk@Agile meets Architecture 2026: Staying Agile When It Gets Hard

Conference

March 10–11, 2026, Berlin

Agile meets Architecture: Software Architecture Meets the Reality of Modern Organizations

The conference has since been renamed to Adaptive Organizations meet Architecture.

Slide Deck

Kudos to Robin Pokorny for sharing his sketch notes!

Recording

Published on the AmA youtube channel:

Impressions

… coming soon.

Abstract

By now, we have all learned how to reach agile maturity, but what do you do when it starts slipping away? After two decades of agile adoption, we still face the same struggles: code ownership disappears, tests become unreliable, technical debt piles up, and knowledge sharing fades away. We will explore three types of interventions (from subtle, prompt actions to crisis-mode reorganization actions), and how developers, architects, scrum masters, and managers can each contribute across five dimensions (leadership, domain, technology, staff, social).
This scientifically based presentation shares a new model for mentoring agility, focusing on the later stages of agile maturity and how practical measures can be used to reverse the downward spiral. You'll leave with: A practical framework for spotting decline early, real examples from a team that survived major challenges over six years, and the motivation to act - because regardless of your role, doing nothing is rarely the right choice.

Further Reading

More details on our research and findings are in this post.

Glue work needs to happen to make a team successful.

Being Glue — No Idea Blog
Slides and notes for the Being Glue talk.
Being Glue — No Idea Blog

Jelled teams are so strongly knit that they have their own internal momentum. Their space looks unique, often messy, and reflects the collective personality of the group.