What needs to be done as an architect in an agile team, if we have to decide about the architectural patterns in sprint 1 or about the technologies to use? And what if the decision has to be made during the first sprint? Start simple and refactor later? What if there are different views about the meaning of simple?
One good method for decision-making is the SWOT analysis to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and risks of architectural decisions. We employ the SWOT analysis in a case-study to decide between a microservice architecture and a modular monolith. Basis on the SWOT analysis a well-founded decision can be made by the team. As soon as the prototype from sprint 1 is ready, the team is able to verify the assumptions from the SWOT analysis. With every following sprint, strengths and opportunities can be utilized and weaknesses and risiks minimized - or the decision may be revised.