Understand and improve Systems with LASR and arc42 in a playful way.

A system is the sum of the decisions and considerations made in order to meet a wide range of requirements. Unfortunately, poor decisions are often made in many systems because the information required to make the necessary trade-offs is often lacking. This includes, among other things, an understanding of functionality, quality requirements, technology and even previous decisions.

This talk aims to show developers and architects (developing or evaluating) a way to use practices from LASR (lightweight approach for software reviews) and arc42 to uncover and communicate strengths, weaknesses, conflicts and compromises in a playful and easy way (even on bad days with too little sleep or coffee) and to document them in the long term, so that it offers real added value, is not a burden and can be used to make well-founded decisions for targeted and effective improvements with the knowledge gained.

Value for the audience:
We demonstrate how simple and lightweight methods (arc42 and LASR) can be used to collaboratively understand, evaluate, and document software systems. We also show how the resulting knowledge can be prepared in a decision-maker-friendly way, enabling customers or management to make informed choices about necessary—and often long-overdue—improvements.

Problems addressed:
Software systems are riddled with technical and organizational challenges and compromises. All too often, there is a lack of conscious management that goes beyond a simple "debt backlog" in the ticketing system—leaving critical issues unaddressed until it’s too late.

“Management” often fails to respond to problems and proposed solutions from development teams due to a lack of effective communication tools that bridge the gap between different languages and levels of abstraction. As a result, teams feel ignored, while managers remain poorly informed.

Software and architecture documentation is often neglected or dismissed as too time-consuming or even unnecessary. This leads to avoidable misunderstandings and issues throughout the entire lifecycle of a system's development.

Talk language: English
Level: Advanced
Target group: Entwickler, Architekten, Scrum Master, Product Owner

Company:
Novatec Consulting GmbH

Mariano Mertinat