The document discusses design thinking and how it relates to software architecture. It explains that design thinking was popularized as a process by David Kelly and is based on the work of Herbert Simon. The core design process involves empathizing with users, defining problems, ideating solutions, prototyping, and testing. Software architects can contribute to design thinking by assessing the feasibility and viability of solutions, helping eliminate ideas that cannot be developed, and applying design thinking principles to software components. Involving diverse skills and viewpoints in design thinking can benefit organizations.

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SOFTWARE
ARCHITECTURE AND
DESIGN THINKING

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Design Thinking – Origin
• The phrase Design Thinking was popularized by David
Kelly, the founder and CEO of Ideo
• His most significant contribution lies in the fact that he
recognized design as a process and described it as an
iterative, human-centric activity
• The foundations can be traced back to a book by the
economist/cognitive scientist and Nobel Laureate,
Herbert A Simon, in his book – The Sciences of
Artificial, in the year 1969
• Many of the ideas in this book evolved into the principles
of Design Thinking

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The Design Process
At its core, the design process encompasses five main
steps
• Empathize: put yourself in the user’s shoes and identify
needs and problems
• Define: the problem statement
• Ideate: create ideas, challenge existing state-of-the-art,
find solutions
• Prototype: find solutions for the problems identified in
the first three steps and build experimental prototypes
• Test: test your solution and refine it by revisiting any or
all of the previous steps

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Design Thinking and Software Architecture
• Design Thinking needs to be supplemented by support from software
architecture teams for favorable outcomes to build innovative digital
solutions
• Two important questions to be
kept in mind while following the
design process
• Feasibility: is the solution practical,
given the state of technology at any
point in time?
• Viability: is it likely to become a part
of a sustainable business model?

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Role of Software Architecture
Software architects can contribute towards
• Assessing the feasibility of solutions right in the
ideation phase – thus eliminating fruitless prototyping
• Helping design teams ‘fail fast’ with ideas and
solutions that cannot be supported by software
development
• Ascertaining the viability or the possibility of
sustainable success of a digital solution by assessing
the scalability of the proposed solutions
• Assessing the testability of ideas generated

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Benefits
• Software architects can benefit by applying Design
Thinking principles into the components that are
under the hood
• Server-side software
• Data storage
• By adopting experimental products, they can
appreciate what kind of experience is good for the
user, or even bring in new ideas from software that is
really in the fringe areas of the geek spectrum

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Conclusion
• Even professionals from other disciplines such as
finance can contribute to assessing the viability of the
solutions
• It might be beneficial to involve people with diverse
skills and viewpoints in the Design Thinking process
• An organization must consider exposing people from
all disciplines to the design process as well as the
method of Design Thinking
• However, design and UX professionals must
eventually lead the effort and own the outcomes

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