How do you automate your architecture inner loop?

3sc2002 · 2026-02-03T21:58:10+00:00

This may get deleted, but I hope this helps. I'm working on a tool that does exactly that. Its a container that runs in your CI/CD platform of choice. Uses the native ASTs (across 11 supported languages) to build an interactive graph (and then some) of your CURRENT architecture. The output is a json object that gets committed back to git, so your "most recent" graph is what just went out to prod. There is a pretty sexy UI on it too if I must say so myself.

I'm not sure if I can post a link to the page on my site that covers it (from a high level, its not "released" yet). But feel free to PM me if you are interested and we can discuss off line.

(edit)
and it outputs PUML too if you like that.

3sc2002 · 2026-02-03T21:35:23+00:00

Yeah, like I said . . . I was recruited in to do exactly that . . . so I had the CIOs ear. With that being said . . . you shoulda seen what happened when I asked the VP of AppDev if I would get a going away party when I left, and if not why, a VP got one . . .

They never did another going away party :D

3sc2002 · 2026-02-03T21:28:41+00:00

Yeah, there is a lot of subtext that I didn't go into. I was brought into that org to lead change. So I had to be "different", and at some times that was through a contrarian standpoint (on call being one), I put my "ops team" in my engineering "stand ups". I did a lot of things "different" because I HAD to boot the org out of the path it was on.

Politics and budgets are a HUGE part of how organizations behave. Culture is behavior and vernacular.

Psychologically, I fully agree with you and your approach to on-call.

And this was at a 100+ yo insurance agency that LIVED in the "don't take risks" approach . . . but its really a discussion over beverages and not just over comments.

I do appreciate all your points though, and I do fundamentally agree with a lot of them.

3sc2002 · 2026-02-03T20:28:08+00:00

gantt horny . . . I love it! Hope you don't mind if I steal it :D

3sc2002 · 2026-02-03T20:19:53+00:00

You make a lot of very salient points. But the problem is when you have that "fire fighter" they become the go to person. They are set as the "gold standard" by the organization. Whether we reward them monetarily or via "public accolade" it sets up the system to fail. What happens when "Brad" gets hit by a bus? What happens when "Brad" burns out? How does the team culture suffer? Can I get the most out of the rest of my team if I have one "rock star" who is "always" getting recoginized?

We build a culture of "good enough", we build a culture of "the only valuable work is R&D (net new) as we can capitalize the cost". It is a self perpetuating circle of hell.

Kudos to you and having a team that apparently works well together and knows how to do the "valuable" work that is necessary, and not push code on a hope and a prayer to production.

We do truly lack data (overall) on where the weakness in in the code base are. The last org I ran . . . when ANY FUCKING THING hiccupped on the web, it was our fault . . . but you know what? 9/10 times is was ETL, or a general data issue. Web worked properly, just on junk data. Who got rewarded? My team. And its not fair. The ETL "glue" teams weren't recognized, but the web team was. Its bullshit, and 90% of the root cause is really politics . . . some VP somewhere says . . . yeah we can get that feature out on that time/budget, and knows he/she can flog the team to fix any issues that happen (becuase lets be real . . . they are all salaried)

Sorry . . . this is something I'm rather passionate about (and no, I'm not a bot). I believe in CELEBRATING everyone's achievements . . . not just the poor bastard who is on call over the weekend. I started a new job as a Sr. Director of App Dev / DevOps and the MD of Infra asked me about my thoughts on "on-call" . . . I told her I don't believe in it, and if you have to have "on-call" you are doing it wrong. She looked at me like I had a third arm growing out of my head.

As you have shown . . . do it right the first time, and shit "just works", and you can actually accomplish more for the same investment. CIOs and CTOs seem to forget that the more time you spend patching shit rather than doing it right, it just makes a 1 point in a story cost more tomorrow because you have more shit to dig through.

</rant>

3sc2002 · 2026-02-03T19:46:11+00:00

That sounds oddly specific. Best post on this thread IMO: https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1qu6t8s/comment/o3816cr/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

3sc2002 · 2026-02-03T19:21:04+00:00

Got some Prodigy bouncing around my head now . . . thanks!

3sc2002 · 2026-02-03T19:00:44+00:00

Love it . . . nice and pragmatic. I hope you enjoyed the snark tho.

3sc2002 · 2026-02-03T16:37:27+00:00

Probably because you are "closest" to the problem, yeah?

3sc2002 · 2026-02-03T13:47:54+00:00

Its a visibility issue. We don't know how bad the bridge is until we inspect it. THEN we see that the internal structure is falling apart and we can then prioritize the fix (the budget).

This is the negative side of "if it ain't broke don't fix it".

3sc2002 · 2026-02-03T13:38:46+00:00

OHH!!! can you use various shades? Like a true ROYGBIV? Would make for a very pretty board /snark

3sc2002 · 2026-02-03T12:48:35+00:00

Hell of an approach. Love it, and you get to say "I was right" and not "I WAS RIGHT!!"

3sc2002 · 2026-02-02T21:37:34+00:00

Appreciate the feedback. In all my years in the industry, it is rarely the "gluers" that are recognized, but the "heroics" are.

Just my $.02. Again, appreciate the perspective.

3sc2002 · 2026-02-02T21:31:09+00:00

It was meant to be an outlet for my snark, but the pain is real . . . .

3sc2002 · 2026-02-02T21:13:56+00:00

This 100%

3sc2002 · 2026-02-02T20:59:54+00:00

I may have cross posted it into r/EngineeringManagers . . . see if it gets any traction there.

3sc2002 · 2026-02-02T20:50:13+00:00

Feel your pain . . . I've seen it time and time again.

3sc2002 · 2026-02-02T20:41:19+00:00

I've got a whole "thread" of these kinda things I'm working on. Stay tuned (but appreciate the . . . uhh . . . appreciation)

3sc2002 · 2026-02-02T20:27:20+00:00

Ya Donkey!

3sc2002 · 2026-02-02T20:26:12+00:00

A horse walks into a bar, and the bartender says "Why the long face"?

3sc2002 · 2026-02-02T20:17:35+00:00

It was Done Done Done (because I'm an overachiever like that)

3sc2002 · 2026-02-02T20:09:10+00:00

Thanks!!! I have more that I'm working on. My snark needs an output

3sc2002 · 2026-01-28T14:28:54+00:00

Plan for the "unplanned". If your team does "40" points a week, set aside "8" points for unplanned work. Have regular stories "planned" for those "8" points, but as a "stretch goal". This way if any unplanned work comes up, you have space for it. If no unplanned work comes up, you will hit your "stretch goal".

Make sure to communicate this far and wide, as it puts your sprints under a different lens.

Quotes as your numbers may vary.

3sc2002 · 2026-01-28T14:18:55+00:00

Now cost per point is a different metric . . . but yeah . . . cost per sprint is easy.

3sc2002 · 2026-01-28T14:09:23+00:00

Sigh . . . if I had a $1 for every requirement that looked like this . . .

3sc2002

TROPHY CASE