We talk a lot about technical debt — postponed refactorings, shortcuts to clean up later. But what if some of our hardest problems aren’t caused by code at all? What if our biggest technical debt is social in nature?
Unspoken tensions, misaligned conversations, and collaboration rituals that look healthy on the surface can reinforce power imbalances and leave people unseen or unheard. Social debt often shows up as slow decisions, repeated misunderstandings, lip service to agreements, brittle commitment, and fragile trust. Like technical debt, it accrues interest; unlike code, there is no git revert — and no ADR that can magically fix it.
This session explores sociotechnical architecture beyond Inverse Conway: what happens when design ideals like decoupling and autonomy collide with human interdependence? Can we really treat social and technical concerns as separate bounded contexts — and if not, what does that imply for how engineers and architects design systems?
Through shared inquiry and active participation, we’ll blend sociotechnical theory with real situations from practice — yours included — and use them as design material to explore sociotechnical architecture in action.
Expect to participate, and contribute from the outset — to explore doubts, insights, struggles, and discoveries with each other.
Xin Yao is an independent consultant, trainer, and sociotechnical architect based in Copenhagen. She supports organizations across Europe in navigating complex design, architecture and modernization challenges. Her work blends Domain-Driven Design, collaborative modeling, sociotechnical thinking, psychological safety, and conversational leadership.Drawing on her background as a chief architect and...