Podcasts
In this episode, Andrew Harmel-Law, joined by Andrea Magnorsky and Kenny (Baas) Schwegler, discusses “ghost decisions,” which are fundamental architectural choices that are often undocumented, implicit, or even forgotten. These decisions can cast a long shadow, influencing everything from technology choices to team structures. Key Takeaways Implicit Decisions: Andrew shares his experience with projects where...
In this talk, we’ll explore quality as an emergent property of our teams, tools, and processes—not just something we test at the end. We’ll look at challenges like speed to market and enshittification(1), and how they impact our approach to quality. We’ll introduce practical ways to think about quality through attributes like testability, observability, and...
“I would have killed that if it was just me, 100%,” said Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek about Discover Weekly, a feature that would become one of Spotify’s most loved product features, almost a brand in itself. Designers and senior engineers were equally skeptical, but the team was still able to ship the feature....
In this episode, Kenny and Andrea discuss how to move from a blocking, “ivory tower” or hands-on architect role to a more facilitating one. They explore the importance of transparency as a first step in improving an organisation’s approach to software architecture and design. The goal is to shift decision-making to the people who have...
In this episode, Kenny and Andrea dive deep into some really interesting problems we’re seeing in software architecture & design right now. You know, how some people are still working in those “ivory towers,” or even the “hands-on” folks are running into issues? We’re trying to figure out some different ways to build better systems.
Did you know that crows are better than toddlers at generating novel solutions? It’s true! In the earliest days of childhood, around the globe scientists have documented that human cognition struggles to generate novel solutions. But we are adept at imitation, transmitting and teaching the solutions that we see others put into practice. What does...
Have you ever wondered about what makes a good abstraction vs a bad one? Do you want to examine potential reasons why efforts to develop abstractions at a company or in a project take hold, and some don’t? Or what it takes to develop an abstraction that reaches beyond the technical corner of your company...
Systems thinking is the macro behaviour that we must understand in analyzing our world. A system always produces what it is designed to do, even if that isn’t at all what we meant it to do! Systems are self-maintaining, and contain balancing and/or reinforcing feedback loops. We’ll look at how these work, and what happens...
From example mapping, to BDD, to DDD practices like event storming and domain storytelling, we’re fortunate to have a wide range of tools for collaboratively building domain knowledge and creating models of those domains in software. One gap that many organisations experience is the management of that domain knowledge over time. Domains evolve. Team members...
The strongest tech skills don’t necessarily guarantee success. To get the best from those around you—and maximize your own influence—you need to boost your tech skills with soft skills. Luckily, small changes in the way you work can produce big results. In this free webinar, Jacqui Read, author of Communication Patterns: A Guide for Developers...