LeadDev London 2022 Andrew Harmel-Law

Overcome the barriers to effective architecture by adopting the advice process, leveraging trust, and fostering a sense of ownership through lightweight ADRs and inclusive decision-making.

Key takeaways
  • The speaker mentions that engineers are often blockers, unable to make decisions and adopting ivory tower mentality.
  • The advice process is presented as a way to overcome these issues, involving seeking advice from others, recording the advice and sharing the decision.
  • The author suggests replacing PowerPoint with conversations, learning, and development, as these are the true drivers of architecture.
  • Failure patterns are identified, including bad decisions, off the grid decisions, and neglecting to fill in the context.
  • The speaker emphasizes the importance of trust, as the lack of it can hinder the effectiveness of the advice process.
  • Lightweight ADRs are advocated for, allowing for rapid decision-making and improvement.
  • Involving people in the decision-making process allows for a sense of ownership and responsibility.
  • The author presents a summary of pain points, including the need for a centralized architecture, the power struggle between engineers and management, and the need for trust.
  • The speaker concludes that the advice process can be a scalable solution for architecture, even for giant organizations.