**Software architecture can look straightforward when the requirements are fixed. In reality, they rarely are.** In this interactive session, we’ll put that to the test. Hosted by Nick Choudhry, Senior Software Craftsperson at Codurance, you’ll be split into small teams and given the same fictional company: a fast-growing platform company dealing with scaling issues, unreliable search, slow deployments and increasing pressure from the business. Your challenge is to redesign the architecture. Sounds simple enough. Except every 10 minutes, a new constraint will be introduced. Traffic increases. Availability requirements change. Teams need to deploy independently. Infrastructure costs are capped. And just when you think you’ve got everything under control, you discover a legacy database that can’t be touched for another 12 months. The aim isn’t to come up with the “perfect” architecture. It’s to explore how technical decisions change when the constraints change, and how engineers balance scalability, reliability, cost, team autonomy and technical debt in the real world. At the end, each team will share the decisions they made, the things they deliberately chose not to change, the trade-offs they accepted and the areas they’re still most worried about. We’ll then put some of the more controversial decisions on trial, with one person arguing for them, another arguing against, and the room deciding: would you actually ship it? Expect an open, interactive and practical session, with plenty of discussion, debate and different approaches to solving the same problem. Whether you’re a software engineer, tech lead, architect or simply interested in how systems evolve under pressure, come along and get involved. Pizza and refreshments provided! If you are struggling to get in the venue, please ring Joel on 07857893604.

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