As a System Architect, you’re facing a complex problem. How can you use feedback to simplify your work?

In my experience, start by talking to all stakeholders, document the system requirements, create a view and solicit feedback on same. At time people are not to able to articulate but when they see a structure then it becomes easy to add or subtract missing pieces. Besides the product team, talk to customer support teams, your SRE team, Devops team, network team, cyber security team etc understand the ilities . Try to visualise how things will work. Put yourself in their shoes.

Feedback originates from control theory. Instead of trying to predict a specific outcome, the system takes an action and corrects based on the observed reality. Anti-lock brakes detect when a wheel locks up and reduce the pressure. A thermostat doesn't try to calculate how long your heater or aircon has to run to make the room comfortable - it detects when the desired temperature is reached.

Feedback is essential to learning, whatever the nature of the learning. Without feedback, we are guessing without validating our guesses. So for architecture it is important to work incrementally and iteratively, gathering feedback to determine where and how our architectural choices work, and don't work. This has the important implications that architecture that is too rigid, too inflexible to accommodate change is a problem. We need the freedom to try ideas, to experiment and to change things in response to what we learn.

To simplify matters, the first crucial skill is learning to say "no." Gain insights from feedback and focus on the essentials. When building a system, it's not necessary to meet 100% of users' requirements. The optimal approach is to satisfy 80% of users' needs, offer alternative tools or solutions for another 10%, and accept that the final 10% may not be met.

System architecture thrives on feedback for optimization. Two key types exist: 1. Data-driven: Monitoring (observability) provides metrics (load, resource utilization) to automate actions like auto-scaling. 2. Human-Driven: Stakeholders provide insights based on their roles: E.g.: Customers/Users: Focus on usability and user experience (UX). Business Stakeholders: Prioritize cost optimization, speed of feature delivery, etc. Developers: Emphasize performance, maintainability, and extensibility. Integrating both data-driven and knowledge-driven feedback is essential for optimizing the overall system. This ensures the system addresses technical considerations while remaining user-friendly, cost-effective, and meeting business objectives.

Systems based on (negative) feedback are resilient: if you open a window (or your wheels hit a patch of ice) the system reacts and gets things back into a stable state. Modern software delivery or operations are the same: you can't predict what'll happen, but you can observe what happens, process the feedback, and course-correct.

Insight into User Needs: Feedback provides valuable insights into the needs, preferences, and pain points of the end-users, helping you align the system architecture with actual requirements. Quality Improvement: Continuous feedback enables the identification and rectification of issues, ensuring the ongoing improvement of the system's design and functionality. Enhanced User Experience: By incorporating user feedback, you can enhance the overall user experience, making the system more user-friendly and efficient.

Providing timely and constructive feedback is crucial as we aim to offer customized solutions that meet the specific requirements of our customers.

Adopting the "Lean Startup" concept, feedback was pivotal in validating the system's value proposition. It guided the elimination of non-essential features, focusing development on user-centric solutions, thus maximizing resource efficiency.

Feedback is vital as it provides direct insights into what stakeholders truly desire, highlighting their expectations and preferences. This understanding ensures that the system or product developed aligns closely with actual needs, fostering satisfaction and success. By incorporating feedback, architects and developers can refine their work to meet or exceed stakeholder expectations, enhancing the overall value and impact of the solution.

Feedback takes many different forms, depending on the task. Auto-scaling groups act on feedback of the current system load whereas functional design acts on user feedback or usage data. Feedback applies at virtually all stages of the development cycle

It is counter-productive to prolong individual analysis. Complex problems require multiple perspectives to get to the best possible outcomes, so share your design options with stakeholders as early as possible. This is especially difficult for those of us with perfectionistic tendencies and/or imposter syndrome. Listen, learn, and adapt.

Using feedback effectively can be extremely helpful in simplifying a systems architect's job when tackling a complex problem. I'm used to working this way: once I've collected feedback, I critically analyze it to identify common themes, trends and relevant information. I try to identify points of convergence and divergence in the feedback to gain an in-depth understanding of the problem. Additionally, I try to summarize feedback clearly and concisely, highlighting key takeaways and key recommendations. This helps me keep focus on the most relevant information and simplify the decision-making process. By collecting feedback strategically and continuously, I seek to simplify decision making and find effective solutions to complex problems.

Feedback is the lifeblood of successful development. It comes in various forms, guiding everything from system optimisation to user friendly design. Auto scaling groups adjust based on system load, while user feedback and usage data shape functional interfaces. This continuous feedback loop fuels improvement throughout the development cycle.

User Surveys and Interviews: Conduct surveys or interviews with end-users to gather their opinions and insights. Beta Testing: Release a beta version of the system to a limited user group to collect real-world usage data and feedback. Monitoring and Analytics: Implement monitoring tools and analytics to track system performance and user behavior. Feedback Forms: Provide easy-to-access forms or channels for users to submit feedback directly.

Prioritization: Analyze feedback to prioritize issues and improvements based on their impact on user experience and system functionality. Iterative Development: Incorporate feedback into the development process, adopting an iterative approach to address concerns and refine the system gradually. Validation: Use feedback as a means of validating assumptions, ensuring that the architectural decisions align with actual user needs.

Feedback analysis was streamlined using "Data Visualization" tools, which highlighted key areas for improvement. By employing an "Agile Development" framework, the team could swiftly iterate on the system, incorporating feedback in real-time to enhance functionality and user experience.

The techniques of managing complexity enhance our ability to gather, and react to valuable feedback. System design that is good at managing complexity is modular, cohesive, has excellent separation of concerns, uses abstraction to hide detail between modules and manages coupling effectively. In total these characteristics maintain our ability to react to feedback and change things as we need to.

Especially for high-demanding systems, automated monitoring tools play a key role. Also, sampling and data aggregation might be necessary in some scenarios, due to the high volume. Prioritize the feedback that needs more attention, based, for example, on impact/blast radio. It's important to have an open mind about what to look for and, when to change, fostering a culture of continuous improvement, and avoiding having static metrics that might get outdated, not presenting relevant insights about the system's performance.

Proactive Communication: Encourage open communication channels with users to proactively seek feedback, rather than waiting for them to provide it spontaneously. Incentives: Offer incentives for users to provide feedback, such as early access to new features or acknowledgment for valuable insights. Diversify Feedback Sources: Gather feedback from various sources, including user forums, social media, and direct communication channels, to ensure a comprehensive understanding.

All challenges faced part of execution of a is point in time issues. It’s a multi faceted issue and factors like scale, budget, speed to market, tech debt aggregates the issues. Excessive feedback from all sometime results in analysis paralysis. Data, that’s too actionable data is the feedback I heavily rely on along with the biggest pain points of customer would help help solve the problem keeping North Star goals in mind.

When providing feedback, it is important to include an explanation of what went wrong, what is expected, and any pain points that need to be addressed. In order to provide the engineering team with comprehensive information, it is necessary to expand and provide detailed explanations that will assist them in effectively solving the problems at hand.

La retroalimentación activa es esencial durante la definición de la arquitectura para aclarar y acotar las interacciones del sistema y sus componentes dentro de su contexto. Esto es por que a pesar de que el arquitecto debe conocer y entender el sistema, es virtualmente imposible tener los detalles finos y cubrir todo lo esperado. El trabajar en equipo es parte fundamental incluso cuando el trabajo a realizar es tan individualizado como lo es el del arquitecto.

As a System Architect, incorporating feedback into your workflow is essential for simplifying complex problems and optimizing system design. This collaborative approach ensures that architectural decisions are aligned with the requirements of end-users, developers, and project managers. Continuously evaluate the performance and effectiveness of your system architecture through regular feedback loops. Solicit input from team members & stakeholders on various aspects, including usability, scalability, performance, and maintainability. This ongoing evaluation allows to identify areas for improvement and make iterative refinements to the architecture as needed.

The practice of "Reflective Feedback," where the team regularly reviewed and discussed feedback together, fostered a culture of continuous learning and adaptation. This not only improved the system's architecture but also enhanced team collaboration and innovation.

- Involve stakeholders (devs, testers, users) early on and conduct regular design reviews to catch issues before they snowball. - Prioritize core features and actively seek feedback on complexity. Sometimes, less is more! - Break down a complex system into smaller, testable components for easier feedback & development.