Building Theories is Building Value

Explore the importance of building theories and abstractions in software development through this GOTO Berlin 2016 conference talk. Delve into the concept of Model-Minded Development and its impact on code readability and understanding. Learn how developers weave models and build theories to explain problems and solutions. Examine the parallels between theory building in science and programming, and discover why elegant theories are preferable. Investigate the challenges of programming without theory building, using examples like long division and Roman numerals. Understand the significance of aligning internal and external models for improved team performance. Explore the three categories of models and how to link code to established models in books. Gain insights into creating balanced systems and models for more effective software development. Discover how these concepts apply to software teams and projects, ultimately leading to more valuable and comprehensible programs.

Intro
How does your team build software?
Developers weave models
What is Model-Minded Development?
Understanding addition
Understanding software
Theory building in science
Theory building in programming
Elegant theories are better
DDD breakthrough
Programming without theory building
Long division
Distributed cognition
Internal - external model alignment
Roman numerals, really?
Arabic numerals, unhelpful positions
Misaligned models = poor performance
Fragile magic
You and your scribbles
Teamwork + external representation
How do teams steer ships?
Challenges
Success factors
3 categories of models
Show all 3 models in code
Reusable and ad hoc models
The "von Neumann architecture"
Link your code to those models in books
Models and your project
Example behavior with/without models
Goal: Balanced systems and models
Software teams