Notes on Technology Strategy Patterns
lethain.comTechnology Strategy Patterns by Eben Hewitt is a methods-based approach to engineering strategy, with a particular focus on the methods wielded by McKinsey consultants, software engineering mainstays like Thoughtworks, and philosophy. A valuable read for anyone looking to build their own theory of engineering strategy. In June, 2019, I bought a copy of Technology Strategy Patterns by Eben Hewiit. A the time, I was trying to argue against a large, proposed migration to Java at Stripe, collecting thoughts that became Reclaim unreasonable software. Skimming through Patterns, I didn’t quite find what I was looking for, and I largely forgot about it for the next few years.
Strategy resources
One of the hardest parts of learning about engineering strategy is finding useful resources on a topic where so much is kept private. This appendix highlights some of the public resources that I’ve found valuable during my learning experience. My prior writing Writing an engineering strategy is a chapter from The Engineering Executive’s Primer on setting engineering strategy as an executive Write five, then synthesize is a chapter from Staff Engineer on driving engineering strategy without executive authority (primarily through documentation) Books In addition to my own Staff Engineer and The Engineering Executive’s Primer, both of which have chapters on engineering strategy, related books that I would encourage reading are:
Introduction to refinement tools
Perhaps the most important piece of the Steps to build an engineering strategy is strategy refinement. As we already worked through the overview of strategy refinement in the “Steps” section of this book, the goal of the “Refinement” section is to go into much greater detail about the three core mapping techniques: strategy testing, systems modeling, and Wardley mapping. As we work through them, keep in mind that there are many other techniques out there, such as the many covered in Eben Hewitt’s Technology Strategy Patterns. This section covers those that I’ve found most useful, and you can find breadcrumbs to those preferred by others in the appendix on strategy resources.