Architecture Transformation Challenges

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Architecture Transformation Challenges craft Budapest 2019 Stefan Tilkov, @stilkov

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Our story arc

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We start with bright sunlight …

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… darkness falls …

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… before we end up in a medium-lit room

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Conferences!

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Great new technology

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Entertaining presentations

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Cool people

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Success stories

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... & Reality

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Why is it so hard?

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Stereotypes

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Professional Tech Skeptic

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Legacy Lover

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Vendor agent

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Process protector

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Yaysayer

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Distractor

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Motivation

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Professional tech skeptic: Intelligence

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Legacy lover: Investments

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Process protector: Experience

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Vendor agent: Trust

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Yaysayer: Cunning

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Distractor: Conviction

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Why do we want change?

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Bad reasons

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Shiny new toys

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Domain allergy

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Cargo culting

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Community status

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CV-driven development

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Good reasons

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Improving the world

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Improving our own lives

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Improving our business

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You return to work from a nice conference.  Your ideas are met with resistance.  There are three paths.  They are labeled leave, give up, work.    $>|

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Option 1: Leave

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Option 2: Give up

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Option 3: Get to work (a.k.a. Machiavelli for beginners)

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Effecting change

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More than just technology

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Politics

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Economics

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Recipes  & Ingredients

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Ingredients    (appropriate) new technology (as desired)  2 tablespoons of pragmatism  1 cup of economics  2 cups of politics       

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Transformation Patterns

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Pattern: Organic transformation Description Approach Consequences Changes are introduced in small increments within existing limits, aiming for long-term transformation • Introduce new ideas (tech, method, process) into existing projects and development efforts in a bottom-up fashion • Avoid anything too disruptive • “Innovation coin” to limit number of changes • Slow, but possibly lasting change • Incorporates existing staff • Minimizes risk related to disruption • Risk of little effect in terms of architecture transformation

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Pattern: Architecture playground Description Approach Consequences New architecture approach are tried out in isolation to gain experience and create convincing stories • Decouple technical innovation from existing projects • Apply new tech and architecture approaches to smaller sample projects • “Design thinking“ and similar methods • Minimize risk to existing efforts • Possibly little effect

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Pattern: Know-how leapfrog Description Approach Consequences Architecture used to transformed “legacy engineers” to “ninjas”1 • Existing Staff is trained, coached and allowed to work on projects to acquire state-of-the-art know-how • Intermediate steps are left out (e.g. from mainframe to cloud) • Staff may be extremely motivated or highly frustrated • High likelihood of employee churn (possibly desired) (1)please don’t ever use this unironically

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Pattern: Benchmark exploit Description Approach Consequences Successful competitors/ disruptors are used as role models to drive transformation • Follow architectural approaches that are used by (more) successful companies • Hire new staff with experience in tech (possibly former employees) • Possibly very convincing to business people • Risk of cargo-culting, i.e. mistaking correlation for causation

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Pattern: Outsourced disruption Description Approach Consequences New business models are created using new architecture approaches in a completely separated organization • Create “innovation lab” or similar to drive business and tech innovation • Explicitly avoid any ties to existing rules and regulations • Risk of “lipstick on a pig” products • Risk of problems integrating new and old business models • Frustration for existing, “old- fashioned” staff

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Pattern: Business value piggyback Description Approach Consequences Architectural innovation is introduced as part of a business-driven project that has its own, non- tech related justification • Cost of architectural transformation as necessary part of development effort • Justification due to business-tech drivers (e.g. Cloud/SaaS, mobile) • Do the right thing and don’t talk about it • Chance (and challenge) to prove architecture benefits • Risk of hiding or playing down actual costs

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Pattern: Cool employee attractor Description Approach Consequences Modern architecture is used as a means to be an attractive employer • Pick “hot” technologies, i.e. those that interesting potential employees are interested in • Positive influence of new employees in terms of know-how, experience • Challenge of judging competence • Risk of frustrated developers

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Pattern: Conway-maneuvering Description Approach Consequences Exploit that organization and process changes are driver for architecture and vice versa • Create organization and process with intended architecture in mind • Enforce architecture that leads to desired organization and process • Chance of most impactful transformation • High risk of frustration on all levels

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Summary

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Find allies

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Disrupt with care

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Organize  organizational change

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Ensure positive business outcome

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“Thank God we can invest in cool new technology and a sound architecture!” – No business stakeholder, ever

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www.innoq.com innoQ Deutschland GmbH Krischerstr. 100 40789 Monheim am Rhein Germany +49 2173 3366-0 Ohlauer Str. 43 10999 Berlin Germany +49 2173 3366-0 Ludwigstr. 180E 63067 Offenbach Germany +49 2173 3366-0 Kreuzstr. 16 80331 München Germany +49 2173 3366-0 innoQ Schweiz GmbH Gewerbestr. 11 CH-6330 Cham Switzerland +41 41 743 0116 That’s all I have.  Thank you! Stefan Tilkov stefan.tilkov@innoq.com @stilkov +49 170 471 2625

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www.innoq.com OFFICES Monheim Berlin Offenbach Munich Zurich FACTS ~125 employees Privately owned Vendor-independent SERVICES Strategy & technology consulting Digital business models Software architecture & development Digital platforms & infrastructures Knowledge transfer, coaching & trainings CLIENTS Finance Telecommunications Logistics E-commerce Fortune 500 SMBs Startups

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Photo credit • JD Hancock, http://photos.jdhancock.com • Zabou, http://www.zabou.me • Pexels, https://www.pexels.com • Pxhere, https://pxhere.com/en/photo/3482 • UnSplash, https://unsplash.com/ • https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bright- sun.jpg (by user Anuragrana18)