41: Steel Thread, Event Storming & Target Architectures — Zac Beckman's Guide to Predictable Delivery

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Zacharias Beckman is a technology leader and creator of the Customer Obsessed Delivery Playbook.

In this episode, you're going to learn what the Customer Obsessed Delivery Playbook is and why having a checklist is critical for complex software projects, how event storming and steel threads can help prevent costly surprises in software delivery, how Zac used lessons from government projects, cruise lines, and iPhone launches to shape a better approach to technical delivery, why a visual “subway map” model can make software development easier to navigate, and how to keep customer needs front and center throughout an entire project.

Timestamps:

[00:00] Introduction

[01:57] Why software projects need a checklist approach

[03:04] Mistakes early in Zac’s career that led to building a playbook

[05:08] The role of structure and guardrails in complex delivery

[06:04] Creativity versus consistency in engineering playbooks

[07:45] Giving teams flexibility to experiment

[09:55] Evolution of the playbook from large companies to startups

[11:03] How startups and big companies use the playbook differently

[12:58] How the playbook can uncover process gaps in existing teams

[16:30] Inspiration behind using a subway map for software delivery

[18:01] Problems Zac saw in government projects that sparked change

[19:12] Miscommunication between customers and tech teams

[20:55] How R&D uncertainty compares to building cars or bridges

[22:05] How to structure checkpoints and quality gates in delivery

[23:04] Why event storming is a crucial early exercise

[24:09] Zac’s first experience with event storming on cruise ships

[25:40] Why cruise ships are a major software engineering challenge

[26:40] How event storming reveals hidden complexity

[27:35] Importance of having business and tech teams in event storming

[28:01] What a steel thread is and why it matters

[29:12] Differences between a steel thread and an MVP

[30:02] Building end-to-end scaffolding before scaling

[31:05] Real-world example of a steel thread fixing a telco iPhone launch

[32:33] How Lightbend proved their solution in six weeks

[33:30] Why building the full system first is a mistake

[34:02] What a target state architecture is

[35:10] Why you need an incremental path to a target state

[36:05] Risks of pulling future features into early development

[36:58] Why customer needs often change during projects

[37:40] How to avoid failed big bang product launches

[38:00] How to keep the customer visible throughout delivery

[39:05] How event storms connect to engineering artifacts

[40:20] Avoiding translation errors from customer to code

[41:00] Testing outputs based on original customer events

[42:45] The importance of empirically measuring project outcomes

[43:50] Why teams must create their own processes

[44:30] How to tie product features to measurable business outcomes

The best way to connect with Zac is by subscribing to his Substack and reading his Blog.

Find more from Adam on LinkedIn and YouTube, and check out Adam's CTO coaching company Synova Tech.