Holistic Engineering: Organic Problem Solving for Complex Evolving Systems

Every day developers have to work with code influenced by past decisions made by non-technical departments. Every day there are defects and other obstacles caused by non-technical factors that are nonetheless reflected in your code. Isn’t it time we make the implicit explicit, and embrace the organic, evolving nature of our software?

In this talk I will share many experiences I have had with such problems. I will draw out the common factors that underpinned these difficulties, describing not only how they presented in code, but also the causes that led to them. I will introduce Holistic Engineering, the practice of designing tech thinking of all the intrinsic parts of the organic system, embracing how people, management, organizational structure, budgets, company goals, production vision, security and even the political climate impact directly your code. This talk will help you better understand the boundaries of the organic system you are making technical decisions for and apply strategies to incorporate technical and non-technical factors to your decision process for your ever evolving organic system.