Software Systems Aren’t Just Software (with Diana Montalion)

Video Description

If you want to build really large software systems well, you have to stop thinking of them as just software systems. Beyond a certain size, everything your software touches becomes part of the wider system. You’re part of the system, your users are part of the system, and every other employee & department & priority eventually forms part of that system. And that can make it incredibly difficult to make changes, or even to understand which changes will actually matter. That might be overwhelming, but there's hope. Understanding how systems work and how to improve them is something that can be learnt, and improved at. So in the pursuit of better systems understanding, I’m joined this week by Diana Montalion, coder, architect, and author of Learning Systems Thinking. She takes us through how she sees systems, and how we can get better at discovering and understanding our own systems, as we both chew through some difficult systems we’ve worked on in the hope of figuring out how to do it better next time… – Learning Systems Thinking (book): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Learning-Systems-Thinking-Essential-Professionals-ebook/dp/B0D9KWZRT2 Diana’s Website: https://montalion.com/ Scientific Management (Tailorism): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_management Jay Wright Forrester: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Wright_Forrester Support Developer Voices on Patreon: https://patreon.com/DeveloperVoices Support Developer Voices on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DeveloperVoices/join Diana on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianamontalion/ Diana on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dianamontalion Kris on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/krisajenkins.bsky.social Kris on Mastodon: http://mastodon.social/@krisajenkins Kris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisjenkins/ – 0:00 Intro 3:39 What Is "Systems Thinking"? 12:48 System Leadership vs. Management 20:47 Conceptual Integrity & Developer Autonomy 45:24 The Production Line Fallacy 55:13 Can Architecture By Dictatorship Work? 1:07:52 Self Organisation as a Leverage Point 1:15:32 Are System Design Skills Transferrable? 1:28:13 How Do You Discern High-Value Connections? 1:40:28 Can We Practice Systems Design? 1:48:37 Outro