Scale, Flow and Microservices

Explore the fascinating connections between organizational design, software architecture, and complex adaptive systems in this thought-provoking conference talk. Delve into recent research on high-performing software development organizations and discover how it relates to studies on complex adaptive systems. Examine intriguing parallels between diverse subjects such as mice and elephants, newsagents and Walmart, and Hamburg and Leipzig. Learn about corporate metabolism, the flow of work in organizations, and the signs of organizational aging. Investigate the concept of corporate mortality and the search for the "alchemist's stone" in software development. Gain insights into scaling high-performing software and organizations, and understand how these principles apply to microservices architecture. Conclude with a summary of key takeaways and their implications for modern software development practices.

Intro
What do mice and elephants have in common?
What do Newsagents and Walmart have in common?
What do Hamburg and Leipzig have in common?
Complex adaptive systems
3 simple principles
Complex adaptive systems are everywhere
Corporate metabolism
Why do metabolic rates slow as size increases?
Flow of work in organizations
Corporate metabolism
Identifying the signs of ageing
Corporate mortality
The alchemist's stone
As cities grow...
Existence proofs
Summary/Outro