Residuality Theory - in very few words - is a method of designing software architectures inspired by how the most talented architects do it: i.e. starting from the stress conditions that the system could eventually face as it operates.

Barry O'Reilly is a software architect with 25 years of experience in the IT industry. He has held leading roles at global software companies and has spent many years educating architects.

Residuality theory looks at the world not as a bunch of static things or still pictures, but as a constantly moving set of processes which we can't really see and grasp. It requires designers to move away from a static view of the system: by letting the architecture design be inspired by its “stressors”, O'Reilly thinks that not only can we design more resilient systems but also more efficient ones.

Remember that you can always find transcripts and key highlights of the episode on our website: https://boundaryless.io/podcast/barry-oreilly‎


Highlights 

👉Static representation of reality as a practice of software architecture is embedded in Western philosophy 
👉Residuality is a way to look at the world as a constantly shifting, moving set of processes 
👉The residue is what remains from the system after it breaks down: it's the leftover of the system. And those leftovers will define the future of the software system
👉Criticality as an indication of the system’s ability to function across a wide range of attractors
👉The impossibility to separate organizational design from software architecture


Topics


(00:00) Barry’s quote	
(00:59)	 Introduction
(02:12)	 What residuality theory is
(12:59)	 Residuality: philosophical background.
(18:24)	 Residuality: from software to organizations.
(27:01)	 Residuality and micro services: is a match possible?
(36:13)	 Is residuality fit for the society we’re living in, or is it a next generation’s thing?
(43:03)	 How to (easily) adopt a residuality approach
(48:48) Barry’s breadcrumbs	
	
More about Barry’s work:


- Twitter: https://twitter.com/technologytulip     
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barry-o-reilly-b924657     
- Website: https://www.blacktulip.se 
- Nassim Nicholas Taleb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb 
- Antifragile https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifragile_(book) 
- NK model https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NK_model 
- Transcendental idealism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendental_idealism 
- Post-structuralism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-structuralism 
- The Biological Reality of Organizing  https://www.boundaryless.io/podcast/alicia-juarrero
- Bezos’ famous API mandate https://nordicapis.com/the-bezos-api-mandate-amazons-manifesto-for-externalization/ 
- Characteristics of decision-making during coding https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303515570_Characteristics_of_decision-making_during_coding 
- Promise Theory http://markburgess.org/promises.html 
- Cynefin framework https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynefin_framework 
- Building Scalable Organizations that can Deal with Uncertainty https://www.boundaryless.io/podcast/dave-snowden/  

Barry’s suggested breadcrumbs:

- Residuality Theory https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96IqczEd88A 
- Ralph D. Stacey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_D._Stacey  
- Complexity and Organizational Reality Uncertainty https://www.routledge.com/Complexity-and-Organizational-Reality-Uncertainty-and-the-Need-to-Rethink/Stacey/p/book/9780415556477 
- The Reflective Practitioner https://rauterberg.employee.id.tue.nl/lecturenotes/DDM110%20CAS/Schoen-1983%20Reflective%20Practitioner.pdf

Recorded on 22 February 2023.

Find out more about the show and the research at Boundaryless at https://boundaryless.io/resources/podcast


-  Twitter: https://twitter.com/boundaryless_ 
-  Website: https://boundaryless.io/contacts 
-  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/boundaryless-pdt-3eo 

Music from Liosound / Walter Mobilio. Find his portfolio here: https://blss.io/Podcast-Music

The Boundaryless Conversations

S04 Ep. 14. Barry O'Reilly Software architecture for a rapidly changing world

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