Stop Smashing Your Keyboard! Zoom Out and Think! Eduardo da Silva (@emgsilva|[email protected])

What “normal” People think we do on a daily basis?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8qgehH3kEQ

Popular myth(?):we smash keyboards! really fast! And make magic happen...

even though in reality we do not go so fast… we are still expected to go “fast”

Why do we need to move fast? Because businesses need “fast” to stay ahead! ...so, there is always a sense of urgency on what we are doing… ...and that “is not bad”

How are we tackling this “need for speed”? Get our heads down and “just do it”! Be agile! Be lean! ... Deliver things fast! tuff

What is the outcome?

(blind) Agile and Go Fast Too much focus on speed (rate of motion)… heads down, let’s move fast!! No time to define direction! “Go with the flow/instinct”

Agile and Go Fast with clear(er) direction We must focus on “high velocity” We need direction (on our iterations)! Result = move fast towards the “end goal”! Decisions

Proposal: Stop smashing your keyboard! Zoom out and think!

Framework for incremental architecture design 1) Start the project by addressing the “important decisions” (=Architecture) a) What/Why/How b) Initial plan of action (start...end) 2) At each new “important decision” a) Re-evaluate the what/why/how - with the end-goal in mind b) (re)define plan of action Decisions

Some tools...

Visualization of Problems and Solutions When stuck on a problem… ● go “offline”, (zoom-out-think) visualize your problems and solutions No need of UML and formal architecture languages ● Whiteboarding is good Helps everyone get a common perspective faster

Architecture Decision Records (ADR) (by Michael Nygard) Lightweight documentation of the “design decisions” These are “immutable” - a design decision is taken and executed ⇒ no more stale documentation Project documentation that seats on your codebase!

Thank you! More on this in: http://esilva.net/everyone-architects