InVision started as a small startup several years ago with tens of engineers, small teams working independently as velocity was paramount. But as InVision grew to hundreds of engineers, all fully remote, we realized that this independence was actually slowing us down – teams resolving the same problems, inconsistent metrics, etc.
We created the architecture group which was aimed at being a guiding committee for the engineering org to help set standards and best practices, be forward looking for the company, and identifying architecture inefficiencies that spans multiple squads/zones/product areas and drive improvements to it. To simply state it, our mission was to drive architecture alignment across a fully distributed workforce.
This talk will cover the various aspects of setting up the architecture group – from the membership model, and how to measure the success of such a group and prevent it from becoming an ivory tower. It will cover some of the strategies employed by the architecture group like working groups, architecture reviews and architecture projects and also the engagement model with the rest of the company.
This talk will provide details of the group’s workings, challenges faced and concrete takeaways so it can help you think about how to address growing pains in your engineering organization.
