ATMTL 2025 – Our software systems are like cities: living, complex, and constantly under renovation

Abstract

Everyone knows the scooter metaphor, but it breaks down when we talk about large-scale software systems in continuous evolution.

Because at scale, a system looks much more like an entire city—one that grows, gets renovated, and must remain open while construction is ongoing.

So… what if we changed the metaphor?

In this session, we invite you to explore another image: that of a living city. A city with its old districts, critical infrastructure, innovative zones, evolving needs… and real, unavoidable limits.

Discover with us how this metaphor sheds light on:

• technical debt (streets that never get repaved),
• reengineering (renovating a district without demolition),
• evolutionary architecture,
• DevOps (a city that never closes),
• monitoring (sensors, data, weak signals),
• team autonomy (self-organized districts and work sites).

A richer, more grounded metaphor that opens the door to a renewed view of agility at scale.

Jean-Marc Lavoie

DevOps and Agile Coach

Jean-Marc Lavoie founded SingularIT Solutions in 2007, through which he works as an architect and developer for large organizations.

Sylvie Trudel

Professor

Sylvie Trudel currently teaches Software Project Management, Agile Software Development and Software Measurement.