Innovating at Scale: Lessons from McDonald’s Tech Evolution

06/17/24 • 49 min

Hemi Trickey, Head of Global Enterprise Architecture at McDonald’s, shares her insights on software architecture and digital transformation. She discusses her background in telecom and digital marketing, as well as her experience with software as a service (SaaS) before it became popular. Hemi emphasizes the importance of architecture patterns, observability, and manageability in large-scale distributed systems. She also highlights the challenges of keeping up with innovation and making decisions on adopting new technologies. Hemi advises on the need for clear communication, context understanding, and change management in modernization and transformation efforts.

Takeaways

Architecture patterns and observability are crucial in large-scale distributed systems.
Keeping up with innovation requires evaluating new technologies and understanding their potential value.
Clear communication and context understanding are essential in modernization and transformation efforts.
Change management is a critical aspect of software modernization and transformation.

Hemi Trickey

Hemi has been architecting and delivering highly critical and complex software and technology solutions for almost 3 decades. She is currently head of the global enterprise architecture team at McDonald’s. Prior to McDonald's, Hemi had successful careers at Publicis Sapient as well as Alcatel-Lucent. At Publicis Sapient, she worked with clients across retail, entertainment, insurance, and financial industries. During her tenure at Alcatel Lucent, Hemi designed and developed an in-house SaaS platform from the ground up, long before SaaS became a well-known concept in the industry.

Hemi holds both B.S. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science. She has published or given talks on diverse topics including microservices, mobile application experience, fine-grained access control, predictive analytics and data warehousing.

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Takeaways

Architecture patterns and observability are crucial in large-scale distributed systems.
Keeping up with innovation requires evaluating new technologies and understanding their potential value.
Clear communication and context understanding are essential in modernization and transformation efforts.
Change management is a critical aspect of software modernization and transformation.

Hemi Trickey

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Previous Episode

Revolutionizing Healthcare: Discovering How Domain-Driven Design Leads to Improved Patient Outcomes

Mark Wardle, Chief Clinical Information Officer, and Vaughn Vernon discuss the intersection of healthcare and technology. Mark emphasizes the need for technology to improve patient care and the challenges of integrating digital systems in healthcare.

Mark also highlights the importance of Domain-Driven Design in healthcare, as it allows for a more patient-centered approach and better communication between clinicians and patients. He discusses the limitations of current electronic health records and the need for tools that support continuity of care. Mark believes that technology should be used to enhance the human connection in healthcare and improve patient outcomes.

Mark discusses the application of Domain-Driven Design (DDD) in healthcare and its potential to address the complexity and challenges in the industry. He emphasizes the need to break down healthcare systems into modular components and build them based on a shared understanding of the domain. Wardle highlights the importance of technical standards, interoperability, and the use of common models to decouple systems and improve integration. He also discusses the role of open source in healthcare and the potential for disruptive innovation. Wardle envisions a future where technology enables faster iteration, better orchestration of clinical pathways, and improved decision-making in healthcare.

Takeaways

Technology has the potential to greatly improve patient care in healthcare.
DDD is crucial in healthcare to create a patient-centered approach and improve communication between clinicians and patients.
Current electronic health records are often not user-friendly and do not support continuity of care.
Technology should be used to enhance the human connection in healthcare and improve patient outcomes. Domain-Driven Design can help address the complexity and challenges in healthcare by breaking down systems into modular components and building them based on a shared understanding of the domain.
Technical standards and interoperability are crucial for decoupling systems and improving integration in healthcare.
Open source has the potential to disrupt the healthcare industry by providing foundational building blocks and higher-value tools.
Improving orchestration of clinical pathways and decision-making in healthcare can be achieved through the use of technology and data-driven approaches.
Faster iteration, better integration, and improved decision-making can lead to a learning health and care system that continuously improves patient outcomes.

Mark Wardle

Mark is a Consultant Neurologist and Chief Clinical Information Officer in the UK. He is also a keen software developer, building a range of clinician and patient-facing applications, most recently preferring to work in Clojure and ClojureScript. He thinks digital technologies should play a fundamental role in improving and transforming health and care with Domain-Driven Design playing a key role in unbundling the electronic patient record, and turning what we think of as health applications inside-out.

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Next Episode

Choosing the Right Architectural Styles and Patterns

Summary

In this conversation, Vaughn Vernon and Udi Dahan discuss various topics related to software architecture, including service-oriented architecture (SOA), event-driven architecture, and sagas. They emphasize the importance of using the right architectural styles and patterns in the right places, rather than over-applying or misapplying them. They also discuss the role of patterns in software development and the need for a common language to facilitate communication among developers. Additionally, they explore the strengths and weaknesses of event-driven architecture and the misconceptions around API-first design. Finally, they delve into the concept of sagas as a way to handle complex business processes and policies.

Takeaways

Use the right architectural styles and patterns in the right places
Patterns are important for facilitating communication among developers
Event-driven architecture should not be over-applied or misapplied
API-first design should consider the actual business processes and not just CRUD operations
Sagas can be a useful technique for handling complex business processes and policies

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background

04:21 Understanding Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)

09:36 The Role of Patterns in Software Development

18:17 Exploring Event-Driven Architecture

35:07 The Concept of Sagas

Udi Dahan is one of the world’s foremost experts on Service-Oriented Architecture and Domain-Driven Design and also the creator of NServiceBus, the most popular service bus for .NET.

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