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How Flow Works and other Curiosities
Fri, 25 April
Have you ever wondered why the sensible defaults in software engineering in 2024 work so well? We adopt key metrics from Accelerate, team structures from Team Topologies, and microservices architecture to improve the flow of value to our users—or, as Daniel Terhorst-North paraphrased, to the customer saying "Thank you."
But what exactly is "Value"? And what is "Flow"? In this session, James will draw from Information Theory and Complexity Science to take a closer look at how these concepts apply to the everyday experience of turning ideas into running software. By examining the hidden mechanisms behind how work flows in software engineering, we’ll explore how these principles drive efficient and effective delivery. Be warned: understanding flow may lead to the inevitable conclusion of reducing batch sizes—because, well, maths.
Target Audience: This session is primarily aimed at Software Architects and Technical Leads, as it focuses on key principles behind the flow of value in system design and team structures, offering insights into optimizing software delivery. Back-end Developers are the secondary audience, as understanding the flow of work and how it impacts coding practices can help improve development efficiency. OpsTech Professionals may also find value in learning how flow affects operations and the smooth deployment of software.
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About the speaker
James Lewis
Software Architect and Director, ThoughtWorks
James Lewis is a programmer and Distinguished Engineer at Thoughtworks based in the UK. He’s proud to have been a part of Thoughtworks’ journey for nineteen years and of its ongoing mission to deliver technical excellence for its clients and in amplifying positive social change for an equitable future. As a member of the Thoughtworks Technical Advisory Board, the group that creates the Technology Radar, he contributes to industry adoption of open source and other tools, techniques, platforms and languages.
James defined the new Microservices architectural style back in 2014 along with Martin Fowler. James’ primary consulting focus these days is on helping organisations to align Technology Strategy with their organisational structures to improve their ability to get stuff done.
He is an internationally recognised expert on software architecture and design and on its intersection with organisational design and lean product development. As such he’s been a guest editor for IEEE Software, written articles, delivered training and spoken at more conferences than he can remember.
