Co-presented with Pam Rucinque at YOW! Perth 2022

1. Reviving the art of software
design
Pam Rucinque & Andy Marks

2. Is
the single biggest contributor
to your organisation's
codebases?

3. "the quick brown fox
jumps over the lazy
dog"

4. export function
isPangram(sentence) {
return new Set(sentence
.toLowerCase()
.replace(/[^a-z]/g, '')
).size === 26
}
"the quick brown fox
jumps over the lazy
dog"
Pangram.isPangram(
) // => true

5. design is still important
there are reasons
w we are responsible w
change starts small
we're bad at design

6. Why we
care
(including obligatory awkward audience participation)

7. Source: martinfowler.com/bliki/DesignStaminaHypothesis.html
Good design saves
time

8. Source: martinfowler.com/bliki/DesignStaminaHypothesis.html
Good design saves
time

9. Source: martinfowler.com/bliki/DesignStaminaHypothesis.html
Good design saves
time

10. Source: martinfowler.com/bliki/DesignStaminaHypothesis.html
Good design saves
time

11. Distributed systems
design is complex
Monolithic
Service-oriented
Microservices
Serverless

12. Distributed systems
design is complex
Monolithic
Service-oriented
Microservices
Serverless
Inside
the box
design

13. Distributed systems
design is complex
Monolithic
Service-oriented
Microservices
Serverless
Inside
the box
design
Outside
the box
design

14. Distributed systems
design is complex
Monolithic
Service-oriented
Microservices
Serverless
Inside
the box
design
Outside
the box
design
Why we care

15. How did
we end up
here?

16. Larger toolsets make
mastery harder
How did we end up here

17. Larger toolsets make
mastery harder
How did we end up here
Source: cncf.io

18. Larger toolsets make
mastery harder
How did we end up here
Source: cncf.io

19. Monolithic
Service-oriented
Microservices
Serverless
“Less code” led to less
attention to design
How did we end up here

20. Monolithic
Service-oriented
Microservices
Serverless
“Less code” led to less
attention to design
average
codebase
size
↓
How did we end up here

21. Outsourcing of design
atrophied our skills
How did we end up here

22. Outsourcing of design
atrophied our skills
How did we end up here

23. Outsourcing of design
atrophied our skills
How did we end up here

24. Outsourcing of design
atrophied our skills
How did we end up here

25. Outsourcing of design
atrophied our skills
How did we end up here

26. Startup mindsets
normalised breaking things
How did we end up here

27. Startup mindsets
normalised breaking things
How did we end up here

28. What
can
we do?
● "Less code" led to less attention to design
● Outsourcing of design atrophied our skills
● Larger toolsets make mastery harder
● Startup mindsets normalised breaking things

29. To afford (more)
time
for design...

30. Fix the culture
What can we do

31. To allow us to
focus on
fewer tools...

32. Constrain technology
options
What can we do

33. To raise awareness
around
good software design ...

34. Rediscover the classics
What can we do

35. To embed knowledge
using
practical experience ...

36. Practice with intent
exercism.io
freeCodeCamp.org
leetcode.com
rosettacode.org
architecturalkatas.com
What can we do

37. To know if
the correct design decisions
are being made...

38. Verify your design
describe "Observability" do
it "streams metrics" do
expect(service.has_metrics()).to
be(true)
end
it "has parseable logs" do
expect(service.has_logs()).to be(true)
end
end
Credit: https://www.thoughtworks.com/en-au/insights/articles/fitness-function-driven-development
What can we do
with fitness functions

39. Summary

40. Good design saves
time
Distributed
systems design is
complex
Why we care How did we end up
here?
What we can do?
Constrain
technology options
Rediscover the
classics
Fix the culture
Verify your design
Practice with intent
In summary...
“Less code” led to
less attention to
design
Outsourcing of
design atrophied our
skills
Larger codebases
make mastery harder
Startup mindsets
made us break things

41. “Make it work,
Make it right,
Make it fast”
- Kent Beck

42. And the winner is….
Solution 1