Michael Carducci

There's nothing new or exciting about relational databases. We abstract them away with ORMS, grudgingly write a query here or there, but generally try to forget about them entirely. Then the performance and scalability problems begin. “Shading, the secret ingredient to the web-scale sauce” often won't help us.

The database is at the heart of nearly every system we build. Reading data and writing data account for the majority of performance bottlenecks. When it comes to SQL and relational databases, the syntax is easy, but the concepts often aren't. The most important knowledge is not obvious but it is necessary to make the right design, query, and optimization decisions.

Indexing, a glimpse under the hood of the storage engine and the query optimizer, and some best practices are all you need to know bring your DB skills head and shoulders above your peers and ready to build bigger, better, faster apps.

Agile has become an overused and overloaded buzzword, let's go back to first principles. Agile is the 12 principles. Agile is founded on fast feedback and embraces change. Agile is about making the right decisions at the right time while constantly learning and growing.

Architecture, on the other hand, seems to be the opposite. Once famously described by Grady Booch as “the stuff that's hard to change” there is overwhelming pressure to get architecture “right” early on as the ultimate necessary rework will be costly at best, and fatal at worst. But too much complexity, too early, can be just as costly or fatal. A truly practical approach to agile architecture is long overdue.

This session introduces a new approach to architecture that enables true agility and unprecedented evolvability in the architectures we design and build. Whether you are a already a seasoned architect, or are simply beginning that path, this session will fundamentally change the way you think about and approach software architecture.

Integration, once a luxury, is now a necessity. Doing this well, however, continues to be elusive. Early attempts to build better distributed systems such as DCOM, CORBA, and SOAP were widely regarded as failures. Today the focus is on REST, RPC, and graphql style APIs.

Which is best? The goto answer for architects is, of course, “it depends.”

In this session, we look at the various API approaches, how they attempt to deal with the challenge of decoupling client from server, evolvability, extensibility, adaptability, composability.

The biggest challenge is that needs change over time, and APIs must necessarily evolve. Versioning is challenging, and breaking changes are inevitable. You'll leave this session with a highlevel understanding of these approach, their respective tradeoffs and ultimately how to align your API approach with your architectural and organizational goals.

Modernizing legacy systems is often seen as a daunting task, with many teams falling into the trap of rigid rewrites or expensive overhauls that disrupt the business. The Tailor-Made Architecture Model (TMAM) offers a new approach—one that is centered on incremental evolution through design-by-constraint. By using TMAM, architects can guide legacy systems through a flexible, structured modernization process that minimizes risk and aligns with both technical and organizational needs.

In this session, we’ll explore how TMAM facilitates smooth modernization by identifying and addressing architectural constraints without resorting to drastic rewrites. We’ll dive into real-world examples of how legacy systems were evolved incrementally and discuss how TMAM provides a framework for future-proofing your systems. Through its focus on trade-offs, communication, and holistic fit, TMAM ensures that your modernization efforts not only solve today’s problems but also prepare your system for the challenges of tomorrow.

This session is ideal for architects, developers, and technical leads who are tasked with modernizing legacy systems and are looking for a structured, flexible approach that avoids the pitfalls of rigid rewrites. Learn how to evolve your legacy system while keeping it adaptable, scalable, and resilient.

Architectural decisions are often influenced by blindspots, biases, and unchecked assumptions, which can lead to significant long-term challenges in system design. In this session, we’ll explore how these cognitive traps affect decision-making, leading to architectural blunders that could have been avoided with a more critical, holistic approach.

You’ll learn how common biases—such as confirmation bias and anchoring—can cloud judgment, and how to counteract them through problem-space thinking and reflective feedback loops. We’ll dive into real-world examples of architectural failures caused by biases or narrow thinking, and discuss strategies for expanding your perspective and applying critical thinking to system design.

Whether you’re an architect, developer, or technical lead, this session will provide you with tools to recognize and mitigate the impact of biases and blindspots, helping you make more informed, thoughtful architectural decisions that stand the test of time.

Since ChatGPT rocketed the potential of generative AI into the collective consciousness there has been a race to add AI to everything. Every product owner has been salivating at the possibility of new AIPowered features. Every marketing department is chomping at the bit to add a “powered by AI” sticker to the website. For the average layperson playing with ChatGPT's conversational interface, it seems easy however integrating these tools securely, reliably, and in a costeffective manner requires much more than simply adding a chat interface. Moreover, getting consistent results from a chat interface is more than an art than a science. Ultimately, the chat interface is a nice gimmick to show off capabilities, but serious integration of these tools into most applications requires a more thoughtful approach.

This is not another “AI is Magic” cheerleading session, nor an overly critical analysis of the field. Instead, this session looks at a number of valid usecases for the tools and introduces architecture patterns for implementing these usecases. Throughout we will explore the tradeoffs of the patterns as well as the application of AI in each scenario. We'll explore usecases from simple, direct integrations to the more complex involving RAG and agentic systems.

Although this is an emerging field, the content is not theoretical. These are patterns that are being used in production both in Michael's practice as a handson software architect and beyond.

Architects must maintain their breadth, and this session will build on that to prepare you for the inevitable AIpowered project in your future.

For decades we have been building “information systems” domain-specific silos. The future is “knowledge” which requires connecting and enriching information in the silos to give a more holistic view of an organization's collective knowledge; this is the future. The capabilities have been evolving and have reached their tipping point. Brownfield evolution is not only possible, its practical.

This full-day workshop introduces the key technologies powering the future, patterns and tools that bridge the gap, and a playbook to evolve legacy systems into a connected enterprise knowledge graph.

In 2017, an organization known as The Semantic Arts published their “datacentric manifesto” leading with this paragraph.

&gt “We have uncovered a root cause of the messy state of Information Architecture in large institutions and on the web today. It is the prevailing applicationcentric mindset that gives applications priority over data. The remedy is to flip this on its head. Data is the center of the universe; applications are ephemeral.”

While the vision and ideas of this manifesto are compelling, implementation details are scarce leaving the potential out of reach of many busy developers and architects.

Datacentric is a major departure from the current applicationcentric approach to systems development and management. Migration to the datacentric approach will not happen by itself.

This session is full of practical and actionable examples, insights, and approaches to this new paradigm. If you’re ready to consider the possibility that systems could be more than an order of magnitude cheaper and more flexible, then check out this session to see firsthand a new way to think about software and information systems.

“Humans became behaviourally modern the moment they committed to storing abstract information outside their brains.” —Lyn Wadley

As architects, we often bridge the gaps that exist between all of the teams and stakeholders involved in the success or failure of a system. Because of this, information is hitting us from every direction. How we capture, organize, distill, and express this information is critical to our own success or failure.

Unfortunately, while excellent at abstract thinking, our brains are equally terrible at random recall. What we need is a second brain that excels at providing us with the right information at the right time. In this session, we're going to learn Digital Knowledge Management workflows and tools that will help us build and use that second brain.

Whether you want to effect culture change in your organization, lead the transition toward a new technology, or simply get more out of your team; you must first understand that having a “good idea” is simply the beginning. An idea must be communicated; a case must be made. Communicating that case well is as important, if not more so, than the strength of the idea itself.

You will learn 6 principles to make an optimal case and dramatically increase the odds that the other person will say “Yes” to your requests and suggestions, along with several strategies to build consensus within your teams. As a professional mentalist, Michael has been a student of psychology, human behavior and the principles of influence for nearly two decades. There are universal principles of influence that are necessary to both understand and leverage if you want to be more effective leader of change in your organization.

Think back over your career as a software developer. How many great–and I mean truly great–software developers have you worked with? The chances are you can count them on one hand? Developers with 20-30 years experience can rarely name more than two or three. What does it take to be considered truly great? Michael can certainly tell you what NOT to do… from cold, bitter experience.

Ego Driven Development is a humorous and brutally honest look at a career spanning nearly two decades. We dive into war stories, train wrecks and so many misguided attempts at greatness. There is a path to becoming a truly great software engineer, but it's not always where we first look.

In tech teams it's a constant firefight. We react. Then we react to the reaction… the cycle continues. In all this noise, in all this chaos, how do we move forward. How do we remain proactive?

A great leader must be an enabler for the team. At times this means insulating the team from the noise. At other times it means improving the environment for the team. At all times, however, it requires setting clear priorities and conditions for success.

This session is focused on the art of moving forward in even the noisiest environments.

Architecture is often described as “the stuff that's hard to change” or “the important stuff (whatever that is).” At its core, architecture defines the very essence of software, transcending mere features and functions to encompass vital capabilities such as scalability, evolvability, elasticity, and reliability. But here's the real question: where do these critical capabilities truly originate?

In this session, we'll embark on a journey to uncover the secrets behind successful architectures. While popular architecture patterns may offer a starting point, it's time to unveil the startling truth – both monolith and microservicesbased projects continue to stumble and falter at alarming rates. The key to unparalleled success lies in the art of finetuning and tailormaking architectures to precisely fit the unique needs of your organization, environment, and the teams delivering the software.

Step into the future as we introduce a groundbreaking, problemcentric approach to defining and evolving system architectures. Our practical techniques will empower you to transform constraints, both architectural and environmental, into powerful enablers of robust, valuable, and longlived software systems.

Join us and elevate your architecture game to new heights!

The age of hypermedia-driven APIs is finally upon us, and it’s unlocking a radical new future for AI agents. By combining the power of the Hydra linked-data vocabulary with semantic payloads, APIs can become fully self-describing and consumable by intelligent agents, paving the way for a new class of autonomous systems. In this session, we’ll explore how mature REST APIs (level 3) open up groundbreaking possibilities for agentic systems, where AI agents can perform complex tasks without human intervention.

You’ll learn how language models can understand and interact with hypermedia-driven APIs, and how linked data can power autonomous decision-making. We’ll also examine real-world use cases where AI agents use these advanced APIs to transform industries—from e-commerce to enterprise software. If you’re ready to explore the future of AI-driven systems and how hypermedia APIs are the key to unlocking it, this session will give you the knowledge and tools to get started.

In Part 1, you learned the core principles of influence and persuasion. How to we take this back to the office and apply what we've learned?

We dive deep in to specific strategies to get both the team and the business on board with your ideas and solutions. We cover several realworld patterns you can follow to be more effective and more persuasive. Part 1 was conceptual, part 2 is practical.

Great leaders inspire, excite, and empower those in their teams. These leaders help create a team that is more than the sum of it's parts; in short, a great leader can be a force multiplier for the team.

But what makes these force multipliers? Is it simply raw talent? Charisma? How are these leaders different from the bad leaders who become bottlenecks and roadblocks?

In this session, we explore the answer to that question and identify the skills and principles that create force multipliers. Put these skills into action and you can be one too!

Microservices has emerged as both a popular and powerful architecture, yet the promised benefits overwhelmingly fail to materialize. Industry analyst, Gartner, estimates that “More than 90% of organizations who try to adopt microservices will fail…” If you hope to be part of that successful 10%, read on…

Why is the failure rate so high?

Succeeding with microservices requires optimizing for organization-level goals with all teams “rowing in the same direction” which is easier said than done. While the microservices architecture may have been well-defined at some point in history, today the word “microservices” is used as an umbrella to refer to a vast and diverse set of coarse-to-fine grained distributed systems. In short, thanks to the phenomenon of semantic diffusion, the term “microservices” means many different things to many different people.

The promised benefits of microservices (e.g. extremely high agility, scalability, elasticity, deployability, testability, evolvability, etc.) are achieved through a highly contextual hyper-optimization of both the logical architecture of the system as well as optimization of technical practices, tooling, and the organization itself. Operating based on someone else's reference architecture (optimized for their problem space, not yours) or attempting to apply the architectural topology without the necessary team and process maturity is often just laying the foundation for yet another microservice mega disaster.

There simply is no one-sized-fits-all approach to component granularity, optimal inter-service communication, data granularity, data replication and aggregation, minimizing or managing distributed transactions, asynchronous event orchestration or choreography, technology and platform selection/management, along with so many more decisions that are highly contextual. In short, adopting this architecture requires correctly making hundreds of decisions on a path that is fraught with traps and landmines. This is one of the hardest architectures to execute well. In markets with ever-increasing competitiveness, slow and costly trial-and-error is untenable.

Mastering Microservices

Mastering microservices requires that architects and developers understand the numerous tradeoffs (and their consequences) to arrive at an architecture that is both in-reach of the development teams and organization as well as capable of delivering the promised (and often necessary) -illities. This requires deep understanding of the terrain the architect will be exploring, extensive hands-on practice, and the latest tools, patterns, and practices; all of which this workshop is designed to deliver.

If you or your organization hopes to venture down this path, or if you already have but the organization and system is struggling to deliver necessary -illities, or if you just want to have a better understanding of the complex yet powerful architecture category; this workshop is for you.

In the rapidly evolving field of software architecture, the difference between theory and practice has never been more pronounced. Despite a wealth of knowledge, architects and systems designers face an alarming rate of project failures, underscoring the need for a more nuanced approach to architecture and system design.

We invite you to embark on a transformative threeday journey with this upcoming “Holistic Software Architecture masterclass,” designed for those ready to significantly enhance their effectiveness in the realm of software architecture, leadership, and system design.

This workshop transcends traditional patterns and fragmented methodologies, focusing instead on a holistic strategy that addresses the specific needs of complex software problems. We delve into the core of software architecture, moving beyond the surfacelevel patterns and technologies to explore the hidden and external factors that influence project success. The piecemeal, statusquo of software architecture methodologies are unified into a new, holistic approach with the TailorMade software architecture model.

What You Will Achieve:

Mastery Over Complexity: Learn to navigate the multifaceted challenges of software architecture, from deriving tailormade solutions that meet unique project requirements to conducting tradeoff analysis for informed decisionmaking.
A New Toolbox: Arm yourself with new tools, models, and techniques aimed at reducing risk and uncertainty, transforming constraints into enablers for robust and valuable software systems.
Strategic Insights: Gain practical insights into architectural styles, distributed systems, and the interplay between business needs and architectural decisions, all while aligning your enterprise's objectives.
RealWorld Application: Engage with realworld case studies and exercises that bring theoretical concepts to life, enhancing your practice with actionable knowledge.
Communicative Excellence: Elevate your communication skills, ensuring you can articulate your vision clearly, build consensus across teams, and navigate the complex terrain of software engineering.

Why Attend?

Innovative Approach: Our workshop offers a fresh, practical perspective that cuts through the traditional solutioncentric methodologies, providing a roadmap to deterministic results and highly predictable outcomes.
Comprehensive Understanding: Delve into the architectural process, acknowledging organizational and environmental considerations for a rounded perspective on design and execution.
The Architect’s Toolbox: Beyond imparting knowledge, this workshop equips you with longlived mental and problemsolving tools, empowering you to make impactful architectural decisions.
Communicative Competence: Learn to effectively communicate your architectural vision, aligning with business needs and facilitating smooth implementation.

Whether you’re an aspiring architect seeking to broaden your horizons or an experienced practitioner aiming to refine your skills, this workshop is designed to arm you with the mental models and tools necessary for success in today’s complex landscape.

Join us to elevate your role to that of an Architectural Artisan, skillfully navigating the challenges of modern software design. Your journey towards mastering tailormade software architecture starts here.

Mob Programming is a style of programming in which the entire team sits together and
works on a single task at a time. Teams that have worked this way have found that
many of the problems that plague normal development just melted away, possibly because communication and learning increases. Teams also find that the quality of their code increases. They find their capacity to create increases. However, the best part of all this is that teams end up being happier and more cohesive.

In this session we introduce the core concepts of mob programming and then get handson mobbing on a coding kata.

REST APIs often fall into a cycle of constant refactoring and rewrites, leading to wasted time, technical debt, and endless rework. This is especially difficult when you don't control the API clients.

But what if this could be your last major API refactor? In this session, we’ll dive into strategies for designing and refactoring REST APIs with long-term sustainability in mind—ensuring that your next refactor sets you up for the future.

You’ll learn how to design APIs that can adapt to changing business requirements and scale effectively without requiring constant rewrites. We’ll explore principles like extensibility, versioning, and decoupling, all aimed at future-proofing your API while keeping backward compatibility intact. Along the way, we’ll examine real-world examples of incremental API refactoring, where breaking the cycle of endless rewrites is possible.

This session is perfect for API developers, architects, and tech leads who are ready to stop chasing their tails and want to invest in designing APIs that will stand the test of time—so they can focus on building great features instead of constantly rewriting code.

The difference between a junior and a senior dev isn't coding skills. A developer's coding skills are just their ante; necessary to get into the game but, like an ante, they only get you into the game.

Everything that happens from that point on depends on what else you bring to the table.
In this session, we explore the key skills necessary to make an impact, be effective, and will ultimately pave the way to grow into senior/principal level developers and architects.

Microservices architecture has become a buzzword in the tech industry, promising unparalleled agility, scalability, and resilience. Yet, according to Gartner, more than 90% of organizations attempting to adopt microservices will fail. How can you ensure you're part of the successful 10%?

Success begins with looking beyond the superficial topology and understanding the unique demands this architectural style places on the teams, the organization, and the environment. These demands must be balanced against the current business needs and organizational realities while maintaining a clear and pragmatic path for incremental evolution.

In this session, Michael will share some real-world examples, practical insights, and proven techniques to balance both the power and complexities of microservices. Whether you're considering adopting microservices or already on the journey and facing challenges, this session will equip you with the knowledge and tools to succeed.

“Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done. One could write a history of science in reverse by assembling the solemn pronouncements of highest authority about what could not be done and could never happen.”

Robert Heinlein

The landscape of software is changing. The development work of the next decade will undoubtedly involve creating solutions to problems that currently seem impossible. Of course, every miracle is “Easy, once you know how…”

That “knowhow” is linchpin knowledge; facts, or ideas, or patterns that single-handedly bring the whole solution together; the one dot that connects all the dots. This keynote is a fun, thought-provoking session on how to identify and capture that linchpin knowledge in work and in life.

Statistically speaking, you are most probably an innovator. Innovators actively seek out new ideas, technologies, and mental models by reading books, interacting with a broader social circle, and attending conferences. While you may leave this conference with the seed of an idea that has the potential to transform your teams, products, and organization; the battle has only begun. While, as a potential changeagent, you are ideally positioned to conceive of the powerful new ideas, you may be powerless to drive the change that leads to adoption. Your success requires the innovation to diffuse outward and become adopted. This is the art of Innovation.

Fortunately there has been over a century of study on the topic of how innovations go from novel idea to mainstream adoption. The art of innovation is difficult, but tractable and this session illuminates the path. You will get to the heart of why some innovations succeed while others fail as well as how to tip the scales in your favor. You'll leave armed with the tools to become a powerful change agent in your career and life and, ultimately, become a more powerful and influential person.

“What you must learn is that these rules are no different than the rules of a computer system. Some of them can be bent. Others can be broken. "
-Morpheus

The world of technology seems logical, objective, and to operate by consistent rules. Reality can be illogical, subjective, and even random at times. Yet we accept subjective reality as-is; our single perspective is all we can really know.

In the end, reality constrains engineers and magicians reshape reality. Perhaps reality is not what it seems.

Join Michael Carducci, magician and software architect, as he takes you on a journey through the marriage of the logical and the illogical, the intersection of magic and technology. Discover what each has to teach the other, and how you can apply the lessons to transform your skills and your career.

With over 25 years of experience in both fields–and a lifetime of successes and failures–Michael shares his deeply reflective, unique, and authentically honest perspective on both careers, dealing with problems, challenges, wins, and losses.

This talk combines illusion, engineering wisdom, life lessons, and the stories that connect them. You'll be astonished, engaged, and leave with an entirely new perspective on technology and life.

By the end of this conference you will have learned many new tools and technologies. The easy part is done, now for the hard part: getting the rest of the teamand managementon board with the new ideas. Easier said than done.

Whether you want to effect culture change in your organization, lead the transition toward a new technology, or are simply asking for better tools; you must first understand that having a “good idea” is just the beginning. How can you dramatically increase your odds of success?

You will learn 12 concrete strategies to build consensus within your team as well as 6 technique to dramatically increase the odds that the other person will say “Yes” to your requests.

As a professional mentalist, Michael has been a student of psychology, human behavior and the principles of influence for nearly two decades. There are universal principles of influence that neccessary to both understand and leverage if you want to be more effective leader of change in your organization.

In this session we discuss strategies for getting your team on board as well as when/how to approach management within the department and also higherup in the organization.

Knowledge graphs have been quietly powering the future, unlocking new capabilities that were unimaginable to most just a few years ago. The few, however, have been imagining this future for decades and we've finally arrived at, what industry analysts are calling, “The year of the knowledge graph”

This session provides a historical look at the roots of Knowledge Graphs and how the ideas have evolved over the decades along with breakthroughs in various fields, have brought us to the brink of a new era in technology. Join us to see how far we've come and what is possible next!