Evelyn van Kelle and I are on the train back from @ama_conf, and we wanted to share something we promised during our talk.

Our session on debiasing software design decisions started from a frustration we both share: there's plenty of awareness in our industry about cognitive biases, but rarely anything beyond a nudge or two. The science is clear though, awareness alone isn't enough. You need a strategy.
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#DomainDrivenDesign #SoftwareArchitecture #DecisionMaking #CognitiveBias

One strategy that actually works: checklists. So that's what our talk was about. Not just naming the biases that creep into our design decisions, but giving people a concrete habit and a checklist they can drop into wherever their team already formalises decisions, Architecture Decision Records, design sessions, planning meetings, hiring panels, retrospectives.
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As promised, we've now published the checklist under the ddd-crew GitHub repos. You can read about it, extend it, contribute improved habits, or just copy-paste it straight into your own flow:

đź”— https://github.com/ddd-crew/debiasing-decisions-toolkit
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GitHub - ddd-crew/debiasing-decisions-toolkit: Structured behavioural interventions for better decisions in software, architecture, and technical leadership. Checklists, canvases, and more.

Structured behavioural interventions for better decisions in software, architecture, and technical leadership. Checklists, canvases, and more. - ddd-crew/debiasing-decisions-toolkit

GitHub

Missed the talk? Slides here:
đź”— https://speakerdeck.com/baasie/debiasing-your-software-design-decision-making

A big thank you to the @ama_conf organisation for putting it all together. Until next time!

Debiasing Your Software Design Decision-Making

Every significant software design choice—whether you’re designing a bounded context, deciding on the system boundary, settling on an architectural style…

Speaker Deck