Stefan Priebsch
Seven Myths, Three Reasons, One Goal
#1about 9 minutes
Viewing your IT landscape as an evolving city
The history of Alexandria illustrates how software systems, like cities, are built on existing foundations and evolve over time.
#2about 5 minutes
Why legacy code is so difficult to understand
Legacy code often fails to communicate business intent and lacks automated tests, leading to a system nobody fully comprehends.
#3about 3 minutes
How successful software outgrows its original purpose
Legacy software often becomes a victim of its own success, as its original design cannot support exponential growth or business pivots.
#4about 3 minutes
The critical problem of ownership and technical debt
A lack of clear ownership and the anti-pattern of putting technical debt in the product backlog prevents legacy systems from aligning with corporate strategy.
#5about 3 minutes
Questioning the default need for a REST API
A REST API is not a universal solution and can lead to awkward command implementations or a distributed monolith.
#6about 3 minutes
The myth that a new technology is always better
Rewriting software in a new technology often just replaces known problems with unknown ones without providing immediate business value.
#7about 4 minutes
Why you don't need to rewrite everything at once
Instead of a full rewrite, you can add new software for specific use cases and use routing to gradually replace the legacy system.
#8about 3 minutes
Moving beyond the default relational database
Embrace polyglot persistence by choosing the right data store for each use case and defining a single canonical source of truth.
#9about 4 minutes
The misconception that software migration is expensive
Migration costs are often inflated by unnecessary cleanup; focus first on making the existing code work in the new environment.
#10about 6 minutes
Why heavy abstraction is not needed in microservices
Small, self-contained systems can be rewritten easily, making extensive abstraction layers an unnecessary source of complexity.
#11about 2 minutes
How to introduce new patterns like event sourcing
New architectural patterns can be introduced incrementally for new features, building bridges to the legacy system without a full rewrite.
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Matching moments
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Breaking down silos between HR, tech, and business
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Rapid-fire thoughts on the future of work
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Why HR struggles with technology implementation and adoption
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Why corporate AI adoption lags behind the hype
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Moving beyond headcount to solve business problems
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Balancing the trade-off between efficiency and resilience
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Automating formal processes risks losing informal human value
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04:57 MIN
Developing resilience by expanding your capacity for failure
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