hafentalks #1 - Chad Fowler: Impermanence as the key to good systems thinking

smallMethodConfDec 24-25, 2016Berlin, Germany

Kill "Microservices"before it's too late

Coupling

The system is the assetCode is a liability

Impermanancethe ironic key to systems that

survive

Homeostasis

Tiny components

A Dose of Dissonance:

"Massive, elite team"

"Huge, efficient codebase"

"Long, successful project"

"Enormous, agile company"

The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on our Capacity for

Processing Informa@on

George A. Miller (1956)Harvard UniversityFirst published in Psychological Review, 63, 81-97.

Immutable infrastructure

Disposable components

Mutability of the system is enhanced by immutability of its

components

The system is the assetCode is a liability

Radically heterogenous

No shared code

Dumb, inefficient communica/onSince this (in large part) is the system, op5mize for understanding

Decoupling

Code that works and has never been modified is good code.

— Mike Feathers (implied)

Immutable == disposable

Metrics vs Tests

Impermanent Organiza.ons?

"small" project == "impermanent" project

Language stabiliza.on

Microservices is not an architecture.

Small is not the goal.

Healthy, longevity is the goal.

Systems that survive are made of components that can change.

"If it hurts, do it more o0en."Mar5n Fowler

Impermanence -> Decoupling, Longevity, Agility

Thank you!