On Autopilot in Your Architecture Decisions?
Martijn Veldkamp
“Strategic Technology Leader | Customer’s Virtual CTO | Salesforce Expert | Helping Businesses Drive Digital Transformation”
October 24, 2024
Last Wednesday was a very foggy day to travel by car to the office. I noticed that a lot of people either where running all their foglights or just their daytime lights making them nearly invisible.
Ever driven through “thick” fog, only to realise that your car’s daytime running lights are on, but your full headlights aren’t? It happens more often than you think. In today’s world of automation, many of us assume everything is taken care of, until we hit a foggy patch. The we discover we’re not as prepared as we thought. This unconscious reliance on automated systems can lull us into a false sense of security.
This is a lot like what happens in the world of enterprise architecture.
The Fog of Autopilot in Architecture
Just as drivers forget to turn on their headlights in the fog, we, too, sometimes find ourselves moving on autopilot in our architecture decisions. How often do we rely on processes that “just work” without stopping to verify if they’re the best approach for this situation? We fall into our favourite patterns, depending on the same tech stacks, the same vendors, or the same integration points, because they’ve worked before.
But in this application landscape where the unexpected happens regularly (new regulations, evolving customer needs, emerging technologies), running on autopilot can be risky. What happens when a critical decision needs to be made, and we realize we’ve left the headlights off?
Where Are You on Autopilot?
If you’re honest with yourself, where are you currently driving in “fog” mode? Is it in cloud adoption, choosing the best application for a certain workload, technical debt management, or returning to your favourite capability map? Perhaps it’s in your approach to security, assuming that what worked yesterday will work tomorrow.
I’ve seen and experienced how easy it is to coast along with what feels comfortable. But without stopping to switch on the right lights and thus gaining visibility into potential pitfalls or opportunities. We risk making critical oversights that could cost our organisations time, money, or worse, customer trust.
Call to Action
What parts of your architecture are you running on autopilot? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Let’s share examples and learn from each other where we might be forgetting to “turn on the lights” in our architectural decisions.
