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Presentation: "Architectural Simplicity through Events: A war story of managing the challenge of integration and flexibility"

Track: Architectures / Time: Monday 10:20 - 11:10 / Location: Rytmisk Sal, Musikhuset

Complexity is the silent killer of productivity in software development. An unnecessarily complex solution can result in an order of magnitude larger problem for system evolution, even to the point of bringing a solution's development to a halt as 'it has just become too complex to develop further'.
 In this talk Russ Miles, principal consultant with Simplicity Itself, will share the story of how he helped architect, design and implement a flexible and highly integrated real-world solution that was drastically simplified by using events.
Event Driven Architectures are often associated with complexity (we even have 'Complex Event Processing' as a technique and toolset to manage this supposed complexity) but with the patterns and tools introduced in this talk Russ will attempt to show how this is not a case of intrinsic complexity but rather something we accidentally introduce and can avoid.
Using an implementation technology-agnostic approach, this talk will cover:
 - What is architectural simplicity and why is it crucially important
- Tradoffs of simplicity vs. complexity when buying flexibility. What to barter with, and what to avoid.
- How to think differently about your architecture, its integration challenges and its evolution over time using the Life Preserver pattern and tool.
- How to design simple events and domains.
- How to apply these patterns to your daily architectural decision-making processes.

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Russell Miles, Co-Author of Head First Software Development

Russell Miles

Biography: Russell Miles

Russ Miles wants to help you deliver simpler and better software and solutions.

"An expert is someone who has succeeded in making decisions and judgements simpler; through knowing what to pay attention to and what to ignore" – Edward de Bono, "Simplicity", 1998

"Complexity is the silent killer of delivering the right software, or change, at the right time; it is singly responsibly for killing many good ideas and companies. A focus on simplicity is the answer, but simplicity is not easy. Through our techniques and practices, I help software delivery organisations and teams ensure their solutions are as simple as possible while not missing the mark by over-simplifying." – Russ Miles, Formation of Simplicity Itself, 2013

Russ Miles is Principal Consultant at Simplicity Itself where he works with his clients to help deliver simple and valuable software and change.
Russ' experience covers almost every facet of software delivery having worked across many different domains including Financial Services, Publishing, Defence, Insurance and Search. With over 16 years experience of consultancy, coaching and training, Russ helps to change all facets of the software delivery process in order to remove unnecessary and costly complexity in everything from developer skills and practices, through applying the right processes for the job at hand, to ensuring that the right change is delivered, be it through software or otherwise.

Russ is also an international speaker on techniques for achieving the delivery of valuable software as well as a published author, most recently of "Head First Software Development" from O'Reilly Media. He is currently working on a new book and set of courses that bring together the practical tools for applying simplicity to your software delivery process, both book and courses to be available by mid-2013.

Twitter: @russmiles