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# Systems Thinking for Performance: How to Diagnose and Fix Slow Systems without Guessing


- **Event:** World Congress 2026 Europe - Virtual Stage

## Recording

[Watch recording](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/2103-systems-thinking-for-performance-how-to-diagnose-and-fix-slow-systems-without-guessing)

## Description

Modern systems fail in ways that are hard to trace. Slow queries, blocked sessions, memory pressure, unstable integrations, and reporting workloads often overlap. Many teams respond with guesswork, which leads to partial fixes and more confusion. This session shows a structured way to diagnose performance problems using Systems Thinking and proven engineering practices. You will see how to read the signals from SQL Server, how to track production bottlenecks, how to separate workloads that compete for resources, and how to connect symptoms across services. Real examples from ERP, APIs, and reporting systems illustrate common patterns and failure modes. Attendees walk away with a repeatable process to find root causes faster, improve stability, and reduce stress during incidents.

## Speaker

### [Ivan Milanov](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/@ivan-milanov)

Engineering Leader - building better teams through Agile, Systems Thinking & Digital Transformation.


## Related talks at this congress

- [Why Systems Break After Initial Success: The Architectural Failures That Take Months to Surface](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe-virtual-stage/sessions/1649-why-systems-break) — Christian Del Monte
- [A True Story About Speeding Up the Wrong Things](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe-virtual-stage/sessions/1478-a-true-story-about) — Jo Hasenau, Petra Hasenau
- [Designing Reliable Distributed Systems: Failures, Retries & Idempotency](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe-virtual-stage/sessions/1526-designing-reliable) — Violetta Pidvolotska
- [Resilient by Design: Building Robust Architectures in High-Stakes Financial Systems](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe-virtual-stage/sessions/1592-resilient-by-design) — Lyubomir Bozhinov