7 architectural sins: why we keep making them and how we can stop
Why do we keep making the same mistakes over and over? Why do we praise best practices like TTD, DDD and Team Topologies but don’t practice them consistently? Let’s explore common architecture patterns we see in most companies, their disadvantages and how they have come to exist. We will explore how to avoid there practices using Holistic Engineering.
Target Audience: Architects, Developers, Engineering Managers, Engineering Leaders, Staff+ engineers
Prerequisites:none
Level: Practicing
Extended Abstract:
Why do we keep making the same mistakes over and over? Why do we praise best practices like TTD, DDD and Team Topologies but don’t practice them consistently? Why do I find the same problematic architectural patterns in almost every company I have worked in?
This talk will discuss seven real life architectural sins, discuss how they come to manifest and the impact they have using real case scenarios drawn from many experiences I have had with such problems. I will draw out the common factors that underpinned these difficulties, describing not only how they presented in code, but also the causes that led to them. I will introduce Holistic Engineering, the practice of designing tech thinking of all the intrinsic parts of the organic system, embracing how people, management, organisational structure, budgets, company goals, production vision, security and even the political climate impact directly your code. This talk will help you better understand the boundaries of the organic system you are making technical decisions for and apply strategies to incorporate technical and non-technical factors to your decision process for your ever evolving organic system.
Principal Architect
Vanessa Formicola is Principal Architect at Prima, ~15 years of industry experience (Microsoft/ThoughtWorks) and 5+ years in leadership roles. Experienced with high scale backend systems, legacy modernisation and infrastructure as code across multiple domains and tech stacks.
Primarily Vanessa Formicola focused on transformation of software systems and enablement of teams with varied backgrounds.
Experienced working with distributed global teams (multi-tz).
Creator of knowledge sharing/D&I communities, public speaker and social change advocate; cofounder of ShareIT and Intertwined Arts.
(Currently leaving the principal engineer role at Flo and transitioning into the Principal architect role)
SPEAKER CREDENTIALS
2025
- Holistic Engineering at QCon London (https://qconlondon.com/presentation/apr2025/holistic-engineering-organic-problem-solving-complex-evolving-systems)
- Holistic Engineering at JOntheBeach https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQyd4rVfl4w
- Holistic Engineering at FastFlowConf NL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqGtM0VKAt4
2024
- Technical reviewer of O'Reilly's Facilitating Software Architecture book (https://facilitatingsoftwarearchitecture.com/)
- Social Decision Record technique included Facilitating Software Architecture book (blog: https://medium.com/@vanessamformicola/social-decision-records-adrs-for-human-interactions-e6bb3ffe30ef)
- Part of committee selecting the talks for the Architecture Track of Devoxx UK 2025
2023
- [2023 - March] Speaker LJC - remote: TechLeading 101: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
- [2023 - May] DevoxxUK23- London: TechLeading 101: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
- [2023 - May] JOTB(Java on the beach)- Malaga: TechLeading 101: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
2022
- [2022] Speaker DevoxxUK22: TDD and other drugs
- [2022] Speaker Devoxx Belgium 22: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MtdaMgv-28TDD and other drugs
- [2022] Speaker W-JAX Munich: TDD and other drugs
- [2022] Speaker LJC(London Java Community): TDD and other drugs
Before 2022
- Cofounder, admin and facilitator at ShareIT, international knowledge sharing community: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDovIbuna41VAUNxL5xTezw/featured
- Presented Intertwined Arts in Intersectionality event for ThoughtWorks Spain (https://www.meetup.com/ThoughtWorks-Barcelona/events/276889737/)
- Presented the tech radar Vol 21 (https://www.thoughtworks.com/techradar-london)
Panellist at ITs is not just for the boys (https://targetjobs.co.uk/events/its-not-just-for-the-boys)
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