Supporting Material for Facilitating Software Architecture

It turns out that when you write a book about architectural practice in the sociotechnical world there is a LOT that can be said. Not all of that made its way into the book, and instead has found safe harour here.

The links in this page are structured by chapter, and many of the links in the book connect to these artefacts too. As I collate further supplementary things, I’ll put them here for everyones benefit too. And if you have something you thikn others might benefit from, head over to the community and/or drop me a line at info@facilitatingsoftwarearchitecture.com.

Worked Examples and Additional Material From the Book

Preface

• The original social media thread on “Anarchistic Architecture”

Chapter 2 - To Practice Architecture is to Decide

• Social media thread “Thoughts on the anthropology of software (power and freedom special edition)”

Chapter 4 - The Architecture Advice Process

• Architecture Advice Process One-Pager

Chapter 6 - Architecural Decision Records

• Starter ADR template
• The first example ADR - “Shorten Inventory IDs with Nanoid”
• The second example ADR - “Change subscription mandates without costing the customer or the company money” (with change history) (NOTE: the file name changes. You can link to these subsequent change sets from this first set.)
  • When it’s named “ADR003-Changing-subscription-payment-details”
  • When it’s named ADR003-How-do-we-handle-subscription-changes-so-the-customer-isnt-mischarged
  • When its named “ADR003-Change-subscription-mandates-without-costing-the-customer-or-the-company-money”

Chapter 7 - Replacing Hierarchy With Decentralized Trust

• The BossaNOVA approach to org design experimentation

Chapter 8 - An Architecture Advice Forum

• Alternative Advice Forum Flavours
• An example AAF Terms of Reference
• An example AAF Standing Agenda
• An example invitation to your first AAF

Chapter 10 - Collectively-Sourced Architectural Principles

• Alternative Architectural Principle Flavours

Chapter 11 - Using a Technology Radar

• An example Technology Radar: Spreadsheet data and published radar.
• Zoomable figures of the spreadsheet data.
• Alternative Technology Radar Flavours.

Chapter 14 - Variability and the Interconnectedness of Decisions

• A spike example

Chapter 15 - The Transition of Power and Accountability

• Thoughts on typical saboteurs of the advice process and decentralized deciding in general.

Chapter 16 - On Leadership

• Why “Autonomous” Teams Don’t Realize Their Full Acountabilities.

Talks, Panels and Interviews About Facilitating Software Architecture

• A Commune in the Ivory Tower - an introduction to the Architecture Advice Process with adoption tips
• How We Decide - an overview of the process of deciding, with an assessment of the various approaches to deciding in groups (as described in chapter 3 of the book)
• Minimal Viable Alignment (and Why It Matters) - an introduction to means of achieveing minimal viable alignment when organizing for flow and self-management. Covers testable cross-functional requirements, actionable tech strategy, and more (as described in chapter 9 of the book)
• The End of Ivory Tower Architecture - Episode 68 of Bruce Eckell and James Ward’s Happy Path Programming podcast
• LeadDev Bookmarked Podcast
• The Architecture Advice Process with Andrew Harmel-Law - I was a guest on Neal Ford’s O’Reilly Software Architecture Hour on the 23rd July, 2023
• The Changing Nature of Architecture - I was a guest’s on Jabe Bloom’s “Platform Thinking” podcast on the 29th June, 2023
• InfoQ Architecture Podcast - Discussing the architecture advice process with Thomas Betts
• (Architectural) Decision Making Gathering - I co-convened this 2023 VirtualDDD Open Space and co-keynoted with Diana Montalion with the talk “Architecture over Architects”
• The DDD Europe “Everybody” Keynote - DDD Europe 2022, with Gayathri Thiyagarajan, Diana Montalion, Mike Rozinsky and Dan Young. (Miro board with all the raw data we collected and also the results of our processing.)

Additional Material

• Further Reading - Links to books mentioned in Facilitating Software Architecure, and more.