Wardley Maps for Software Developers (WeAreDevelopers World Congress 2023)

Wardley Maps is a technique for visualizing and understanding the evolution of systems, services, and development teams. It is a valuable tool for software developers to identify the key components of a system and understand how they change over time.

In this talk, I will introduce you to the fundamental concepts of Wardley Maps and the process of creating a map for a software system. I will also discuss how Wardley Maps can be used to identify opportunities for innovation and how to use it for communicating the current state and future direction of your system.

I provide examples of how I use Wardley Maps in real-world software development projects, and how I derive strategic decisions from them. Although Wardley Maps is not a silver bullet, it may be a useful technique in your toolbox where you need a bird’s eye view of your system and discuss ideas for its evolution with others – especially businesspeople.

Transcript

1. Wardley Maps for Software Developers Markus Harrer Senior Consultant / Software Evolutionist @feststelltaste
2. No clue at all! Already seen Already used Using it all the time! How familiar are you already with ? Wardley Maps
3. “ is hard to learn!” Based on Simon Wardley‘s tweet: https://twitter.com/swardley/status/1489445302209814530 It takes years to learn it! years and months of saying “I really need to learn this stuff!” 6 11 1 month learning it! + Wardley Maps Wardley
4. Wardley Simon Thought Lord, Mapper, Junior DevOpper, Destroyer of undeserved value. Source: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonwardley/ What is “Wardley Map” about? Lawful / Chaotic Evil, often Good.
5. Lawful / Chaotic Evil, often Good. *almost everything from Simon Wardley is licensed under Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 Create a tool for everybody to be able to work on strategy together 1st Goal Get rid of management consultants 2nd Goal Approach Building an open* community of mappers
6. What‘s in for me as developer? • strategic planning • decision making • improve communication • debuzzwording • avoid wasting time • play games with others
7. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Curtain-939464.jpg
8. Genesis Custom Built Product Commodity A Wardley Map! Evolution Value Chain visible invisible Print photos Customer Management System Power Photographers Edit photos Store photos Adapted from Simon Wardley, CC BY-SA 4.0 License online photo service users needs scope components Value Chain Evolution patterns Operating platform Website Data center Compute
9. Let‘s map!
10. How can we deliver a great developer conference? → Scope Let‘s map!
11. Let‘s map! user stakeholder visitor attendee developer → Users
12. Let‘s map! developer get new ideas have fun connect with other people learn new tools get a decent amount of sleep → User’s needs
13. developer get new ideas Let‘s map! → User’s needs
14. developer get new ideas blog post article conference ChatGPT → Components Let‘s map!
15. developer get new ideas conference Let‘s map! Let‘s map! → Components
16. Let‘s map! developer get new ideas conference Needs venue property territory state borders talks rooms → Chain of needs What does X need? scope!
17. Let‘s map! developer get new ideas conference Needs talks speakers content ideas → Chain of needs experience What does X need? presentation tool entertainer skills working
18. Let‘s map! developer get new ideas conference Needs talks speakers content ideas experience What does X need? presentation tool entertainer skills working → Chain of needs
19. Let‘s map! developer get new ideas conference Needs talks speakers content ideas → Value Chain experience What does X need? presentation tool entertainer skills working Value Chain
20. Your turn! Kubernetes 2 Where would you place this component? A platform for deploying, scaling and managing containerized applications. Value Chain
21. You were all right!
22. Value depends on the user! Adapted from Simon Wardley, CC BY-SA 4.0 license Kubernetes Kubernetes Kubernetes Customer Developer Kubernetes Developer Advocate Value Chain
24. Everyone sees the value of this Only the developers see the value of this Create more awareness! Value Chain visible invisible Print photos Website Customer Management System Operating platform Data center Compute Power Photographers Edit photos Store photos Adapted from Simon Wardley, CC BY-SA 4.0 license Data storage
25. handle dynamic peak loads Change the way you communicate! Kubernetes Customer Dynamic Scheduling Tech stuff A Tech stuff C Tech stuff B Tech stuff D → high awareness little awareness Value Chain
26. Genesis Custom Built Product Commodity A Wardley Map! (revisited) Value Chain visible invisible Print photos Customer Management System Power Photographers Edit photos Store photos Adapted from Simon Wardley, CC BY-SA 4.0 License online photo service users needs purpose components Value Chain Operating platform Website Data center Compute Evolution patterns
27. No clue at all! Already seen Already used Using it all the time!
28. Consumers‘ view (demand) Simon Wardley’s idea of Evolution Genesis No clue at all! Already seen Already used Using it all the time! Producers’ view (supply) No idea at all! Already made Used to make Providing it all the time! Custom Built Product (+rental) Commodity (+utility) Software system
29. Cheat Sheet for „Evolution“ Simon Wardley: Wardley maps - Topographical intelligence in business, CC BY-SA 4.0 License
30. Genesis Custom Built Product Commodity Your turn! Evolution Adapted from Simon Wardley, CC BY-SA 4.0 license Kubernetes Where would you place this component? Platform for deploying, scaling and managing containerized applications. 1 2 3 4
31. Genesis Custom Built Product Commodity Your turn! Evolution Adapted from Simon Wardley, CC BY-SA 4.0 license Kubernetes 1 2 3 4 "Kubernetes is a product-ready ecosystem and is now a de facto standard for running container- based applications."
32. Genesis Custom Built Product Commodity Your turn! Evolution Adapted from Simon Wardley, CC BY-SA 4.0 license Amazon EKS Where would you place this component? Cloud service to launch, run, and scale Kubernetes-based applications in the AWS Cloud. 1 2 3 4 Kubernetes EKS: Amazon Elastic Kubernetes
33. Genesis Custom Built Product Commodity Your turn! Evolution Adapted from Simon Wardley, CC BY-SA 4.0 license Kubernetes 1 2 3 4 "Accessing EKS through Amazon Webservices is as easy as getting electricity from a wall socket." Amazon EKS EKS: Amazon Elastic Kubernetes
34. Genesis Custom Built Product Commodity More examples for Evolution Evolution Adapted from Simon Wardley, CC BY-SA 4.0 license MyConty A self-developed operating platform for managing and running containers 1 2 3 4 Kubernetes Amazon EKS
35. Genesis Custom Built Product Commodity More examples for Evolution Evolution Adapted from Simon Wardley, CC BY-SA 4.0 license Kubernetes 1 2 3 4 Amazon EKS MyConty "We have just been able to win our first customer for our platform."
36. Genesis Custom Built Product Commodity More examples for Evolution Evolution Adapted from Simon Wardley, CC BY-SA 4.0 license Kubernetes 1 2 3 4 Amazon EKS MyConty My knowledge about Kubernetes
37. Genesis Custom Built Product Commodity More examples for Evolution Evolution Adapted from Simon Wardley, CC BY-SA 4.0 license Kubernetes 1 2 3 4 Amazon EKS My knowledge about Kubernetes MyConty “what is this stuff?”
39. Genesis Custom Built Product Commodity First analyses Evolution Adapted from Simon Wardley, CC BY-SA 4.0 license Kubernetes Amazon EKS My knowledge about Kubernetes Value Chain visible invisible MyConty
40. Amazon EKS Genesis Custom Built Product Commodity First analyses Evolution Kubernetes My knowledge about Kubernetes Training needed? Good investment? Involve meaningful? Value Chain visible invisible MyConty
41. Genesis Custom Built Product Commodity First analyses Evolution Kubernetes My knowledge about Kubernetes Training needed? Good investment? Involve meaningful? Value Chain visible invisible MyConty Amazon EKS
42. Let‘s map! (again!)
43. How can we deliver a great developer conference? Let‘s map!
44. Genesis Custom Built Product Commodity Let‘s map! developer get new ideas conference talks speakers content ideas → Evolution experience presentation tool entertainer skills working Value Chain Evolution
45. Genesis Custom Built Product Commodity Let‘s map! developer get new ideas conference talks speakers content ideas → Evolution experience working Value Chain Evolution
46. Genesis Custom Built Product Commodity Let‘s map! developer get new ideas conference talks speakers content ideas → Play! experience working Value Chain Evolution open spaces hacking areas send complete idiots insertion alliances open approaches claim to have plenty of ideas signal distortion lawful good chaotic evil Gameplays FTW!
47. Examples from real life
48. Example from real life
49. Example from real life Genesis Custom Built Product Commodity value chain Evolution restart server efficiently admin panel avoid problems developer detect problems early alert on errors monitoring self-healing Managed Kubernetes respond to user complaints make users happy
50. Tips for getting started
51. Keep the expectations real! Face it: You’re mapping a mess! The right scope is key!
52. Do one step after another 1/3 1. Who are the users? 2. What are their needs? 3. What are the components that meet those needs? →Value Chain! According to Ben Mosior: The Problem with Wardley Mapping
53. Do one step after another 2/3 4. How mature are the components in terms of evolution? → Wardley Map! According to Ben Mosior: The Problem with Wardley Mapping
54. Do one step after another 3/3 Advanced: Patterns, patterns, patterns 5. Climatic / Inertia 6. Doctrines 7. Gameplays →Have fun! It feels like playing chess with your competitors, where only you can see the board!
55. Conclusion
56. A visual communication tool for strategic thinking plan and communicate a strategy improve the way you’re working create situational awareness evolve software systems Wardley Map
57. A perfect map of is Berlin itself!
58. “All models are wrong, but some are useful.” George Box Image by DavidMCEddy, Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0
60. Discussions!? Feedback!? Thank you! Questions!? Please stay in touch! https://www.linkedin.com/in/markus-harrer/ Slides! +
61. www.innoq.com Krischerstr. 100 40789 Monheim +49 2173 3366-0 Ohlauer Str. 43 10999 Berlin Ludwigstr. 180E 63067 Offenbach Kreuzstr. 16 80331 München Hermannstrasse 13 20095 Hamburg Erftstr. 15-17 50672 Köln Königstorgraben 11 90402 Nürnberg innoQ Deutschland GmbH Contact Markus Harrer Software Evolutionist #softwarearchitecture #softwaremodernization #wardleymapping E-Mail: markus.harrer@innoq.com Website: markusharrer.de These slides are licensed under Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0
62. Appendix More resources
63. Wardley Mapping Quick Start https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJcLmoKR6v8 Ben Mosier: The Easiest Way to Do Wardley Mapping Investing in Innovation: How Situational Awareness Can Put Your Business on the Map https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfq3ocmadZo
64. More on Wardley Maps My personal recommendations for getting started https://www.feststelltaste.de/top-5-learning-wardley-maps/
65. Some of my own work • Some initial thoughts about ERP systems https://www.feststelltaste.de/some-initial-thoughts-about-erp-systems/ • Software quality in the context of value chains and evolution https://www.innoq.com/en/blog/quality-value-chain-evolution/ • Evolving software like an orchardist https://www.innoq.com/en/blog/evolving-software-like-an-orchardist/ • Wardley Maps – Audiobook (AI-generated) https://feststelltaste.github.io/wardley-maps-audiobook/
66. My book about strategic moves https://leanpub.com/strategische-spielzuege https://leanpub.com/strategic-moves (will be translated once the German version is finished) Free to read online Pay what you want Strategische Spielzüge Softwaresysteme listig weiterentwickeln Still in the making Strategic Moves Evolving software systems the smart way
67. Advanced Wardley Mapping • Simon Wardley’s Blog https://blog.gardeviance.org/
68. Recommended Wardley Maps talk Building Adaptive Systems with Wardley Mapping, DDD, and Team Topologies (Susanne Kaiser) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha0fLMVB1oI There will also a book about this topic soon.