GOTO - The Brightest Minds in Tech Why Software Architecture is Mostly Communication • David Whitney, Ian Cooper & Hannes Lowette
Dec 19, 2025
David Whitney, Director of Architecture at NewDay, and Ian Cooper, Senior Principal Engineer at Just Eat Takeaway, delve into the evolution of software architecture. They discuss the shift from traditional to collaborative approaches, highlighting the tension between emergent and designed architectures. Key points include the importance of communication, the danger of pattern cargo-culting, and the need for sustainable design over quick fixes. They emphasize that architectural challenges are ultimately about people, requiring empathy and shared language to succeed.
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Architecture Is Inherent
- Architecture exists whether you name it or not because design decisions scale from code to system form.
- Architecturally significant decisions are judged by cost to change and impact on reasoning about the system.
Choose Slash‑And‑Burn Or Sustainable
- Explicitly choose between a slash-and-burn or sustainable architecture strategy for your product.
- If you need long-term change, reinvest in design and plan for adaptation rather than piling on quick fixes.
Prioritize Undo Cost When Deciding
- Identify which decisions are cheap to undo (type 1) and which are expensive (type 2) and focus effort accordingly.
- Spend minimal time on trivial choices and invest in getting costly, hard-to-change decisions right.