Michael Feathers, software architect and author of Working Effectively with Legacy Code, attended the Global Software Architecture Summit on October 4th, 2022, to give a talk about “Aligning Architecture with Responsibility Indices.” Apiumhub had the opportunity to interview him to get to know more about his job and his experience at the conference—check it out!

Briefly introduce yourself

My name is Michael Feathers and I work as a Chief Software Architect of Globant and also as a Director of R7K Research & Conveyance, a company specializing in software and organization design.

What can you say about the Global Software Architecture Summit this year?

The Global Software Architecture Summit this year has been wonderful. Lots of high-level content as well as novel content. Good things you want to put in front of the industry and a lot of engaging conversations, I love that.

What software architecture metrics do you normally use?

In terms of architecture metrics, I haven’t really been in the architecture metrics space all that much. For the most part what I really like is Binary metrics, where you talk about the presence or absence of particular qualities in different areas of systems. I think it’s nice to basically have guardrails about what belongs in one particular area of the system and what doesn´t. Once you have that, a lot of things tend to go much better.

What are the key software architecture insights you could share with GSAS attendees?

In terms of things that are generally useful insights within architectures, I think business transparency is extremely valuable within the context of organizations developing architectures. Quite often, we hide in the technical space within our organizations and the degree to which we´re able to go and present novel views of the system that articulate the needs of the system and also act as champions of the system within the organization, we´re really better off.

The third edition of the Global Software Architecture Summit will take place on October 9–11, 2023, at the Axa Auditorium in Barcelona, and we hope to see you there! Make sure you follow GSAS on Twitter to not miss any details about the speakers and talks. If you would like to watch more interviews like this one with Michael Feathers, you can subscribe to Apiumhub’s Youtube channel.