A Commune in the Ivory Tower? - A New Approach to Architecture
- Speakers
Andrew Harmel-Law, Diana Montalion, Mike Rozinsky, Gayathri Thiyagarajan and Dan Young
- Description
This year we’ve architected an alternative approach to the keynote at DDD Europe. We’ve designed an opening session that aims to spark connection, as well as welcome participation, ideas, and conversation as everyone comes together at the beginning of the conference.
Meet Andrew. As an architect Andrew thinks a lot about architecture. Mostly he thinks about how irrelevant architecture is if it doesn’t get shipped to production. He worries a lot too. He worries about how to help all the teams he’s supposed to be helping, without slowing them down, getting in their way, or making their lives harder rather than easier.
Andrew’s worries have led him to explore the potential offered by a different mindset; one that tells a different story about the role of "Architects", while bringing the practice of "Architecture" to the fore.
As you learn about this practice of doing architecture, we’ll invite you to reflect on the meaning of this to you, and to share your own thoughts and ideas. You’ll also have the opportunity to discuss things with others if you want to.
We’ll be asking questions like, ‘How can everyone contribute to architecture, without things reducing to chaos?’, ‘How might this succeed or fail in my context?’, and ‘How might we improve these ideas?’
During the session Andrew, Diana and Gayathri will bring their own reflections and perspectives into the attendee-wide conversation, as Dan and Mike manage the process for everyone in the room.
- About Andrew Harmel-Law
Technical Principal, ThoughtWorksTwitterLinkedInBlogCompany Website
A highly enthusiastic, self-starting and responsible Tech Principal; Andrew specialises in Java / JVM technologies, agile delivery, build tools and automation, and domain driven design.
Experienced across the software development lifecycle and in many sectors including government, banking, and eCommerce, what motivates him is the production of large-scale software solutions, fulfilling complex client requirements. He understands that people, tooling, architecture and process all have key roles to play in achieving this.
Andrew has a passion for open source software and its communities. He has been interested in and involved with OSS to a greater or lesser extent since his career began; as a user, contributor, expert group member, or paid advocate.
Finally, Andrew enjoys sharing his experience as much as possible. This sharing is not only seen in his formal consulting engagements, but also informally through mentoring, blog posts, conferences (speaking and organising), and open sourcing his code.
- About Diana Montalion
Mentrix Group: Principal, ArchitectureTwitter
If you’ve read The Economist, donated to Wikipedia, or contributed to The World Monuments Fund, you’ve interacted with systems that Diana helped to architect.
She has 18+ years experience delivering initiatives, independently or as part of a professional services group, to clients including Stanford, The Gates Foundation and Teach For All. She is co-founder of Mentrix Group, a consultancy providing enterprise systems architecture, technology strategy, and content systems development. She also takes meeting notes with a fountain pen and is an aspiring plant chef.
- About Mike Rozinsky
#conflicthuggerTwitterLinkedInCompany Website
I am a #conflicthugger, wearing different hats to meet differing needs.
For over 20 years, I have partnered to create impact through a variety of conflict management, people development, facilitation, change enablement, visual storytelling, and organizational development practices and workshops.
Together these approaches seek to build a community of support, make things discussable, draw out options for exploration, provide for agency, and empower people. The aim is to achieve constructive change, awareness, and alignment inclusively while realizing personal, team, community, and organizational goals.
- About Gayathri Thiyagarajan
Mum, Engineer, Technologist - In that orderTwitterLinkedIn
A software engineer with over 13 years experience in Java development. I have been working on designing and developing distributed systems for the past 5 years. I am passionate about Domain Driven design and architecture.
I have experienced first hand how much DDD can help in designing and building distributed architecture. I have been working as a DDD consultant for a high profile public sector client for the past year and half. I am looking forward to sharing the significant amount of knowledge I have gathered in course of that time.
- About Dan Young
Curiosity-led Consultant & FacilitatorTwitterLinkedInBlogCompany Website
In the last 20 years I’ve tinkered with network engineering, collided with consulting, played in product strategy and fallen into entrepreneurship. I’ve experienced a few hairpin corners along the way, including a shift in perspective from finding answers to designing questions, and from the idea of “building" a future to the idea of "growing" it.
These days I’m often thinking about the way people come together in their work or communities, and what possibilities there are to make this better. My role is to be a facilitator and curiosity-led consultant, creating participatory gatherings and sowing seeds for invitation-based change.