iSAQB Software Architecture Gathering
1. What's your take: Will we ever change? (intentionally no more context here)
I think we are constantly changing, and that constant change is a response to our environment, and it's stressful. We aren’t sure who we are yet, we’re still caught up in a fever dream of logic and structure and trying to access the world through these, but it keeps slipping from our grasp. I think the industry is crying out for new directions but we don’t know how to create them. Digging into our underlying beliefs about reality is a good way to trigger conversations.
2. The iceberg model (used in communication theory, conflict resolution, etc.) describes that the most powerful forces and motives for people are hidden below the observable behaviours, words spoken and verifiable facts. Are things like values and beliefs underrepresented in the software architecture discourse?
We aren’t good at this kind of conversation. We tend to focus on the surface - on the frameworks, the patterns, the tools. But why do we choose the paths we choose? How do we actually view the world? And why? Our education doesn’t give us the tools to ask these questions, and so we focus on what’s accessible to us. These things are underrepresented because we don't have access to them. Our thinking is restricted by how we've been taught to view the world. This session at SAG should throw this wide open.
3. Is it a lost cause to aim for rational architectural decisions? Or do we need a broader notion of rational? How would you define it?
I think we are too enamoured with the rational. Code is rational, and code is easy. But architectures fail because we can't rationally order the business contexts our architectures execute in. When we try to work with the context, the only tools we have are logic and structure, and this gets us into trouble all the time as the business context isn't rational or structured. At the same time, code is pure rationality, so we need new concepts, new ways of thinking, to bridge this gap and make sure we don't fall into hand waving. My work tries to push architecture toward becoming a scientific practice.
4. You've been spreading the word on Residuality Theory at last year's conference and on many occasions throughout the year. Does the reception change? (i.e., people report from practical experience, you get asked tougher questions, more agreement, more pushback)
It depends on the audience. I speak to developers and architects all over the world. For senior architects, the ideas offer an explanation for what for many is an instinct honed over decades. For developers, it's a shortcut to architectural thinking. For some more invested in traditional methods, it's heresy! This year has seen the first wave of architects onstage reporting their positive experiences with residuality, and adoption is growing. What used to be controversial is now accepted. Someone called me mainstream in a podcast this year. That will take some getting used to, I preferred being the lone rebel.
5. Have you adjusted aspects of how you explain the theory and how you run workshops? What have you learned?
The theory is easy - a random simulation of stress produces architectures more likely to survive unknown unknowns. This is simple - but it's very difficult to execute on if your view of the world is shaped through traditional architectural thinking of logic and structure. That's why the concept of residues is necessary - to guide the stressing and provide scaffolding to make it possible. These ideas have been honed over 13 years and are pretty reliable now. Each 3-day class is run as an experiment that proves the theory in real time, which really helps the learning process.
Senior architects find it easy. Junior developers struggle because they often haven't met the problems in real projects and it becomes very abstract - although many juniors grasp the ideas straight away as well.
The hardest thing is probably those trying to learn residuality through the lens of traditional architecture - that's two incompatible philosophies. Teaching the underlying philosophy that shapes helps them to understand this.
6. The workshop has quite a packed agenda. Are you a rigorous timekeeper or do you have optional elements? Should people come prepared in some way?
I've done this so often that I know which slides should appear at which minute, but there's always a few unexpected twists and turns.
It's always good to watch the YouTube talks on Residuality and perhaps even read the book, then you can come prepared with questions.
Explore the full SAG 2026 program and secure your ticket for Berlin.
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