GOTO - The Brightest Minds in Tech Breaking the Architecture Bottleneck • Andrew Harmel-Law & Marit van Dijk
Nov 25, 2025
Andrew Harmel-Law, a Technical Principal at ThoughtWorks and author of 'Facilitating Software Architecture,' joins Marit van Dijk, a Java Champion and Developer Advocate at JetBrains. They delve into how traditional architectural approaches often create bottlenecks in agile teams. Andrew advocates for a facilitative approach, shifting architects from decision-makers to conversation enablers. They discuss the importance of collaborative decision-making, creating shared mental models in teams, and nurturing psychological safety for maintainable codebases.
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Architecture Becomes A Bottleneck
- Traditional top-down architecture often becomes a bottleneck when teams move fast with CI/CD and modern practices.
- Andrew Harmel-Law realized architects must stop blocking flow and rethink how they add value.
Architects Should Orchestrate Conversations
- The core role of an architect is ensuring the right conversations happen at the right time.
- You don't need to be inside every conversation, but you must guarantee the right people engage with the right information.
Use The Advice Process And ADRs
- Use the advice process: seek advice, not permission, from those with expertise and those affected.
- Document the decision and context in an ADR and gather feedback before acting.
