Sarah Taraporewalla

Principal Technical Consultant, ThoughtWorks

Towards technical excellence

Complex is easy, it’s simple that’s hard

It’s easy to find a complex solution to a complicated problem. But it takes another level of expertise to craft a simple solution. There is a direct relationship between the complexity of a system and its cost of ownership. Complex systems are difficult to understand – they take time for new team members to learn. Diagnosing critical issues in complex systemsat 3am, when you’re half asleep, takes many cups of coffee. However, when we focus on discovering a simple solution, all that changes for the better.

Simple solutions require different approaches than the ones we usually use to create complex systems.

In this session, Sarah Taraporewalla will describe these approaches, which include Domain Driven Design (DDD) and its adoption of Ubiquitous Language; an understanding of how cognitive biases interfere with complexity, and modelling tools which help simplify and aide in communication. By sharing some examples of complex systems she has seen, you will learn the reasons behind the complexity, and what approach she used to help simplify them.

About Sarah Taraporewalla 

Sarah Taraporewalla is a Principal Consultant working for ThoughtWorks, where she specialises in developing robust software for the future, delivered today.

Sarah has acted as a developer, software architect, technical lead and Agile coach on many projects. She has spoken at both internal and external conferences, skills matter courses and geek nights. Although primarily focused on software design, she also has a lot to say about how software can be developed to accommodate the changing pace of business and how people should be treated within teams.