Almost three years ago I started a podcast without really knowing where it was going.
The only thing I knew was that it was good to talk about things – to talk out loud about ideas.
Because when we give voice to our ideas, they actually become real. They are not just banging around inside of our head, or words on a page. The only time you can really understand if an idea has an audience or a chance to spark a thought, is when you voice it.
So, a podcast was born without much direction, and it showed.
At the beginning of 2022, it was an automation podcast called “Automation for the Nation”. This was me exploring my interests as an independent consultant with a website and time on my hands.
Within six months it became a DevOps/Engineering podcast called the “Software Delivery Club”.
This was more engineering focussed. But quickly I pivoted it again. Now it was a Legacy podcast but my guests… well let’s just say they were still quite eclectic. I spoke to Domain Driven Design experts, I spoke to startup founders, I spoke to Observability Engineers and Devops people. About what though? Legacy? What is that and why was I talking?
At the same time as producing the podcast, I was writing, I was talking on social media and that quickly turned into talking at conferences and I was lucky enough to speak at a few places and meet some great people.
It seemed like I was finding a groove – however all of it felt like I was still searching for something. I eventually ran out of steam with the podcast. I also ran out of energy and enthusiasm for public speaking. Despite securing quite a few talks earlier this year, I decided not to participate.
My question was still, what am I really talking about here? Until I had something to say, I would keep my council.
Well, it’s taken almost a year since the last episode, but I think I feel now ready to start talking about Legacy once again. More than that, I now know why I love talking about Legacy and I know what the thread is that links them all.
And the strange thing is, it’s been staring me in the face all along.
Legacy is Human
Legacy is the human part – it’s the residue (in Barry O’Reilly’s definition) of what we as humans have created. The Legacy part, is the residue – it’s the part that worked and continues to work. It’s the part that delivers the business value. This is important. More than that, it’s vital because Legacy is the system.
Because it’s the human remains of what was intended. All of the history is there.
Everything that I was trying to link before comes through Legacy and the link it makes to humans.
Why do we consider Conway’s Law? Because we acknowledge that our organisation defines the architecture that we’ll eventually build.
Why do we want to provide great observability on our software stack? Because we value the people that work on our legacy and want to provide excellent support mechanisms and reduce the time to recovery for our customers and ourselves.
Why do we do DDD? Because it enables us to better understand the context of our users and to design an architecture that will both better support their needs and support our need for simplicity in maintainability and support.
Why do we do DevOps and Continuous Delivery? Because it acknowledges that it’s the most friction free way of delivering and supporting software.
It was there all along.
What’s Next?
Honestly, I don’t know.
I thought that with this realisation I would throw myself into making more episodes exploring the parameters of legacy through a human lens and then talk to some people who can provide some good perspectives on them.
However, energy is finite, and I’ve realised I can’t do this alone. My audience for these ramblings is vanishingly small, so why go to all the effort?
For now, you can catch up with all of the episodes of Lovin Legacy through your favourite podcast outlet. And perhaps if you find a thread of interest, pull on it.