Combining Domain-Driven Design and Theory of Constraints to create autonomous teams and highly-aligned organisations.

1. @ntcoding
Domain-Driven Architectural|
Alignment|
Nick Tune
@ntcoding

2. Image: foodboozeshoes.blogspot.co.uk/

3. THERE IS AN ALIGNMENT CRISIS
Image: Christer Sandahl (cpdm.com), Complex Product Development Model

4. THERE IS AN ALIGNMENT CRISIS
Image: Christer Sandahl (cpdm.com), Complex Product Development Model
Signs
• Lots of meetings
• Teams blocked
• Integration chaos
• Blame culture
Costs
• Low motivation
• Low Agility
• Bad UX

5. @ntcoding
“I wish the managers would do their job
and fix all these problems so I can write
some beautiful code
-- Ex-colleague

6. @ntcoding
Can you use strategic DDD to align
organisation and technical boundaries
with the domain?
…and solve the alignment crisis?

7. DDD & Microservices for
Organisation Design?
#1

8. @ntcoding
“Every organization choice rules out some
design choices.
Mel Conway
@conways_law

9. @ntcoding
Microservices wont help if the
organisation design is bad…
…the best architects are experts in
technical and organisation design.

10. @ntcoding
Current State Context Map
Resubmit
Case
Management
Ratepayers Caseworkers
= Digital IT frontend team
= Enterprise IT backend teamReview
Renegotiate

11. @ntcoding
Bounded Context Clues
• contextual language
• data: flow, ownership, uniqueness
• domain expert uniqueness
• business process steps

12. @ntcoding
Future State Context Map
Resubmit
Renegotiate
Review
Ratepayers Case workers
= Full stack team
= Composite application

13. @ntcoding
How Can we Fix This?
Search
Web Store
Catalogue
Payments
Streaming
API
Platform

14. TRICKED YOU!
THERE ARE NO RULES
FOR IDENTIFYING
CONTEXT
BOUNDARIES…
IT DEPENDS.

15. @ntcoding
“Finding service boundaries is really damn
hard... There is no flowchart!
Udi Dahan
@udidahan

16. Create Boundaries that
Improve Flow
#2

17. @ntcoding
Finding Service Boundaries: The One Rule
that Matters…
Maximise your ability to frequently deliver and
get feedback
ntcoding.co.uk/blog/2017/01/finding-service-boundaries-one-rule

18. @ntcoding
Handovers become bottlenecks,
limiting throughput of an organisation.
Minimise handovers to improve
customer responsiveness.

19. @ntcoding
Use Theory of Constraints
to create autonomous
teams by identifying
bottlenecks.

20. @ntcoding
Identify Bottlenecks
Resubmit
Renegotiate
Review
Case
Management
Ratepayers Case workers
= Bottleneck

21. @ntcoding
No Bottlenecks - Nothing Wrong Here
Search
Web Store
Catalogue
Payments
Streaming
API
Platform

22. @ntcoding
“The point of microservices is to unblock
independent queues of work. Both in
the system of services, and the system
of people.
Andrew Clay Shafer
@littleidea

23. @ntcoding
Bounded contexts are a proxy
heuristic for autonomy.
You need to combine DDD with ToC to
truly create autonomy.

24. @ntcoding
Think ‘autonomy contexts’.
Product and tech things that change
together for business reasons, owned
by a single team.

25. @ntcoding
Autonomy Contexts
UI
MS
UI
MS
UI
MS
MS

26. Enabling Coevolution of
Organisation & Technical
Boundaries
#3

27. @ntcoding
Boundaries must evolve.
New business, domain, and technical
insights challenge existing
assumptions

28. @ntcoding
Boundaries cannot evolve if teams are
too independent.

29. @ntcoding
Which Team(s) Builds the MVP?
Management
Context
Optimisation
ContextMVP

30. @ntcoding
“[goal] Alignment enables autonomy.
Henrik Kniberg
@henrikkniberg

31. @ntcoding

32. @ntcoding
Discovery Team & Highly-Aligned Tribe
Management
Context
Optimisation
Context
MVP
Campaigns
Tribe

33. GAMING CREATES MEGA ALIGNMENT

34. @ntcoding
Alignment Tricks for Devs
• Show and tells
• Cross-team pairing
• Cross-functional pairing
• Event storming

35. A Challenge for You…
#4

36. @ntcoding
Strategy?! Organisation design?!
Theory of Constraints?!...
I’m just a developer - those are
somebody else’s problems.

37. @ntcoding
YOUR NEW MISSION
Learn Theory of Constraints
Visualise your org & tech boundaries
Redesign boundaries to improve flow
Become an alignment secret agent
Image: James Bond, Columbia Pictures

38. @ntcoding

39. @ntcoding
Help With Your Mission
- ntcoding.co.uk/blog/labels/DDD
- Alignment at Scale - Henrik Kniberg
- scs-architecture.org
- Finding Service Boundaries - Udi Dahan
- ntcoding.co.uk/workshops
@ntcoding ntcoding