We can do without architecture early on, but at some point a clearly communicated architecture offers big productivity benefits to developers who otherwise drown in the expanding implementation-level detail.
When you realize you are heading for a Big Ball of Mud, you have 3 choices – start over, suffer on, or knock your codebase into shape. This talk outlines principles, options and examples using Structure101 to get the best return for the cost and intellectual effort invested in a codebase.
Watch this video on Oredev.org