Holistic Engineering: Organic Problem Solving • Vanessa Formicola & Andrew Harmel-Law • GOTO 2025

This interview was recorded for GOTO Unscripted. #GOTOcon #GOTOunscripted
https://gotopia.tech

Check out more here:
https://gotopia.tech/articles/403

Vanessa Formicola - Principal Architect & Engineer at Prima
Andrew Harmel-Law - Technical Principal at Thoughtworks & Author of "Facilitating Software Architecture" ‪@AndrewHarmelLaw‬

RESOURCES
Vanessa
https://bsky.app/profile/vanessaformi...
https://x.com/V_Formicola
  / vanessa-formicola  

Andrew
https://bsky.app/profile/andrewhl.bsk...
https://twit.social/@ahl
https://x.com/al94781
https://github.com/andrewharmellaw
  / andrewharmellaw  
https://andrewharmellaw.github.io

Links
https://facilitatingsoftwarearchitect...
   • Holistic Engineering:organic problem solvi...  
   • Domain Storytelling • Stefan Hofer, Hennin...  
   • Balancing Coupling in Software Design • Vl...  
   • Insights on How Team Topologies Drive Orga...  
   • Mastering Tech Leadership in 50 Minutes • ...  
   • Tidy First? A Daily Exercise in Empirical ...  
   • Breaking the Architecture Bottleneck • And...  
   • Adaptive Socio-Technical Systems with Arch...  
   • Event Storming: 50.000 Orange Stickies Lat...  
   • Facilitating Software Architecture • Andre...  
   • Decision Making & Heuristics • Rebecca Wir...  
   • Ethics in AI: Biases & Responsibilities • ...  
   • Privacy, Crime, National Security, Human R...  

DESCRIPTION
Principal Software Engineer Vanessa Formicola introduces the concept of "holistic engineering" – the practice of making technical decisions while factoring in non-technical forces that inevitably impact code and architecture. Through patterns like the "solo coding event", "everything but the kitchen sink" and "space abuse" she demonstrates how human behaviors, organizational dynamics, career frameworks, and company processes leave traces in codebases that no one intentionally designed.

Vanessa argues that technical leaders must look beyond pure technical excellence to understand the organic system they're working within, advocating for honest conversations about constraints and realistic architectural decisions that account for human factors.
The discussion extends to the emerging need for ethical engineering as our technical decisions increasingly impact society at unprecedented speed, with practical advice for teams to analyze their own systems through the lens of tech, people, and product dimensions.

TIMECODES
00:00 Intro
01:19 What is Holistic Engineering?
06:28 Patterns in the wild
09:31 The domain library problem
11:58 The gap between theory & practice
13:34 Taking a broader view: The challenge of organizational forces
15:17 Recognizing the slippery slope
18:13 Strategies for recognition & mitigation
26:55 Starting small: Team-level analysis
33:51 The future: Ethical engineering & changing technology
36:50 Code as a mirror
38:11 Outro

RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Andrew Harmel-Law • Facilitating Software Architecture • https://amzn.eu/d/5kZKVfU
Adam Tornhill • Your Code as a Crime Scene • https://amzn.to/3FI5E2V
Christopher Alexander • A Pattern Language • https://amzn.to/3Urefj3
Diana Montalion • Learning Systems Thinking • https://amzn.to/3ZpycdJ
Donella H. Meadows • Thinking in Systems • https://amzn.to/3XtqYCV
Adrienne Braganza Tacke • "Looks Good to Me": Constructive Code Reviews • https://amzn.to/3E75XrD
Stefan Hofer & Henning Schwentner • Domain Storytelling • https://amzn.to/3EroBH7
Vlad Khononov • Balancing Coupling in Software Design • https://amzn.to/4iGpbDv
Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais • Team Topologies • http://amzn.to/3sVLyLQ

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