Growing and thriving in a multi-model world

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Growing and Thriving in a Multi-Model World Alberto Brandolini @Ziobrando

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My Plan • Good Old Times • Starting with the right foot • Transitioning to Multi-Model • Bonus Round

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Good Old Times

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Multiple Models? • Read about it in 2005 • Thought: “Not my problem!” • …”My project is simpler than that” • What a Fool!

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Models sprawl … let me add just one more table…

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Somebody gotta stop this!!!

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But first, a few more features…

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Fake Gantt Someone talking about serverless Someone saying: “It will take longer than this”

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The illusion of parallelism Team A Project Project Project Project Project Project Project Project Team B Team C Impact Impact Impact Impact Impact Impact Impact Impact Team D Project Project Project

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The reality of dependencies Team A Project Project Project Project Project Necessary refactoring Project Project Team B Team C Impact Impact Impact Impact Impact Impact Impact Impa Team D Project Project Project Depend ency Depend ency Depend ency Depend ency Depend ency Depend ency Depend ency Depend ency Depend ency Depend ency

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Planning meetings

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Black Market Planning

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How does it look like?

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From above… Information Technology Increased spending Progressively diminishing returns

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More “precisely” • But consider also: • Extra overhead for management layer(s) • Extra costs for supporting roles • Inertia and lagging metrics development team size almost linear costs Progressively decreasing returns

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Many variations are possible

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But the pattern repeats

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Repainting with Microservices

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Splitting around data won’t help you

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Single Model • Serves Multiple Purposes • without excelling in any • More stakeholders == more trade-offs • More stakeholders == More risks

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The Bali Urban Legend Easy to get in, hard to get out

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Summary: Good Old Times Sprawling is natural or… do we lack antibodies? Nobody intentionally starts a Big Ball of Mud But a Single Model turns into coupling, increased risk and paralysis Latency and luck delay the warning signals …while the cost of recovery progressively increases

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Starting with the right foot Is it even possible?

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Small experiment Photo by Nicolas Thomas on Unsplash

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I am the business

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Proxies to the rescue? • Unfortunately, most of these proxies are only visible in large organisations Bounded Context Limit of applicability of a model Team Subdomain Organization Technology Legacy • A single model tailored around a specific purpose

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Boundaries are still visible! And Swimlanes too! You can be picky on Purpose, though

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Can quickly lead us to • Purpose-oriented models • Separated by Events Bounded Context Bounded Context Bounded Context Public Event Local Event Public Event Bounded Context Local Event Local Event Public Event Public Event Local Event Just event-driven Storytelling about something happening outside the system Something happening inside a software system Something happening in a third-party system Something happening in the heal world

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Not every model will be implemented… (…Now)

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… but they’re models! And the business-oriented me wants to know about them!

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Is it enough to avoid this?

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Treat it like an addiction • Define guiding principle • Intercept the moment we are triggering the old habit • Do something different instead

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We don’t change working design WE don’t open boxes without a very good reason

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Alberto, I am revisiting your carbonara recipe with new ingredients

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What’s the right bucket? Photo by Green Grasshopper on Unsplash

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“Context Roadmapping” • Make sure every new feature has a place on the context map • Make sure the consequences of the decision are clear • (ADRs anyone?) • Ask yourself the tough questions: • Can it work without our legacy? • Can it work with Other Models (Products, competitors)? • Can it be valuable standalone? • How would I implement it without the legacy? Our Model New Feature New Feature (Conformist) Our new Model Our Model Our Model New Feature ACL New Feature

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We have a problem… • Our brain still defaults to Canonical Model • This happens especially if we are talking to ourselves • …is the difference between verbal and visual thinkers relevant?

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I Think it is

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We need a map! Photo by The Cleveland Museum of Art on Unsplash

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Context Map for one Business Line Strategy Pricing negotiation Training Experience Design Content Design Planning Publishing Sales Marketing Billing Reservation Date Picking Logistics Delivery Follow Up Claims Forecast Treasury Catalog

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And for more… Books Public Trainings Private Trainings Consulting Sponsorships Public Speaking Software Delivery Meetups Events Planning Sales Delivery Billing Product Design Financial Analysis Strategy Marketing Inventory Date Picking Tracking Value Tickets and discounts Print on Demand Personal Availability Engagement Strategy Deals Pricing Budget Contracts & Engagement Partnerships Forecast Global Analysis Billing Billing Scouting Date Picking Content design Review Logistics Scouting Courseware and certificates Newsletter & social Newsletter & social Content Design Format Design

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Framing Discussions 1. Visualise the current problem -> We don’t discuss invisible things 2. Highlight critical issues -> We don’t discuss invisible things 3. Visualise alternative solutions -> One is never enough. 4. Visualise Pros & Cons (Obvious, but not resolutive) 5. Highlight Scenarios …and their probability 6. Pick your preferred solution 7. Capture the discussion with an ADR

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https://www.dropbox.com/s/czn6ee9fejs61t9/ Screenshot%202024-10-13%20at%2007.57.47.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/czn6ee9fejs61t9/ Screenshot%202024-10-13%20at%2007.57.47.png?dl=0

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Structuring thoughts?

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But Think freely! • Discussion alone isn’t design • Balance solo and team • Balance Computer and Lo-Fi • Balance Indoor and Outdoor

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Most design happens in the boundaries

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Explicit Purpose • Reaching clarity is HARD • …and clarity is EPHEMERAL • Let’s capture the CONVERSATION as a memento! • The bare minimum to get back in the “clarity mood”. Filtering out terms is key!

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Strong Logical Boundaries

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Deferred Physical Ones

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Result?

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Promise fulfilled • Complexity remained under control 🎉 • No High-Risk Hotspot in the system 🎯 • Many purposes and functionalities served without increasing fragility 👍 • (We still have issues with third-party integrations) 😒

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Splitting around Events enables model simplicity It wouldn’t work if we just split around glorified tables: you still would have ONE model, just chopped into smaller pieces

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Models’ simplicity enables Business Options

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The Obvious Math Model Model Model New Model Model New Model Model Model + = Well designed System Well designed component Well designed System

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Multi-Model in the small Counterintuitive: still our brain will be tempted Logical Boundaries, but ready to go physical Discipline is essential Stable team, Maps are the winning ingredient Hack the habit with new routines

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Multi-Model in Startups Happens Rarely… “We don’t need multi models, we are a startup” But works really well! Quick Time To Market Ability to Pivot without being destructive.

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Too Late, man Nice story, but our problem is a little different

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WE are getting late with more Features! But we understand we need to change

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But an opportunity isn’t enough

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Plenty of Blockers • There is no time for refactoring • Where do we start? • Who’s going to be responsible? • Can we estimate? • Who decides where to start? • We never really did anything like this… • …fear? • Imposter Syndrome?

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We’re stuck in deciding! Turns out the technical part isn’t the hardest one

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DETECTING WHERE TO START

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A little expectation reminder… Information Technology Increased spending Progressively diminishing returns

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Where do we start?

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Consensus is blocker Number one

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Coupling increases the cost of consensus Remember Bali!!!

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We can see frictions between model and reality And the ones more sensitive for the business

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Splitting has risks!

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Make it worthy!

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Model splitting There are tools and practices to make it happen But the safety scaffolding takes time (The time someone forgot on the current implementation. Sorry for being picky.) Architecture views will tell us where it’s ugly Business will tell us where is worthy

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Not the whole story What if actions and logic start to diverge?

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What about Fear?

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Fear Map • If FEAR is the hidden driver, let’s make it explicit! • Map the critical components in a quadrant. • Decide your strategy together Disposable Business critical Scary Safe Can we talk about it?

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Overcoming the deadlocks

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Everybody’s secret dream

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They’re your decisions, sorry.

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We need guidance! Build your own guidelines -> Wiki Style / Pull Driven Experiment transparently -> A Document Decisions -> ADRs to the rescue Make Uncertainties explicit -> You won’t have all the information you need.

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Spikes and experiments

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You can have both!

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Model Model ??? The adapter stalemate Two models need an adapter in-between Teams would not start develoment unless ownership is defined. Apparently a design problem, but really a political one.

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Pairing at the boundaries • If Both teams are active, pick experts from both sides to work on the frontier implementation • Decide on the responsibility attribution only after is completed •The journey will give you the information to decide, or can make the decision pointless.

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See the pattern?

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Don’t get blocked by uncertainty

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Reduce Uncertainty by explicit exploration

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Alone in the dark?

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Better team up! Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

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And show some vulnerability Nobody has all the answers

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“Resistance” can be many things Habits Habits and pressure Imposter syndrome Cognitive dissonance …

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Patterns?

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They need to coexist! Ubiquitous Ubiquitous Ubiquitous Ubiquitous Surface (Canonical) Ubiquitous Ubiquitous BI (canonical)

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The Draft-Executable-Tracking Archetype Draft Model Executable Tracking Easy to change, possibly partially specified Solid, running on read- only data Collecting or visualizing Validation Different Models, very similar languages, different paradigms

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The Joys of Multi-Country

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The Joys of Multi-country Read the forces shaping the model(s) Language? Regulations? Customs? Market Maturity? Debunk Powerpoint assumptions like “economy of scale” or “Reuse”

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Don’t force solutions in

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Events enable a new type of simplicity

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It’s more emotions than skills

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Confidence must be built

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Decisions need to happen

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Maps and new Habits

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Good old times were wrong, sorry

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Thank You! Alberto Brandolini @Ziobrando

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Contacts: • Blog: • https://blog.avanscoperta.it << Cool new stuff! • https://medium.com/@ziobrando • http://ziobrando.blogspot.com • Twitter: @ziobrando • Mastodon: @[email protected] • Consulting & Training: [email protected] • http://eventstorming.com • http://www.avanscoperta.it