Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. –George Santayana
The past is never dead. It’s not even past. –William Faulkner
Most developers and architects pursue the Latest and Greatest with great fervor, yet the history of engineering, including software projects, contains rich lessons that we risk repeating ad nauseam. This keynote recounts a variety of stories of projects that failed architecturally…and why. Ranging from the Vasa in 1628 to Knight Capital in 2012, each story tells of a mistaken interpretation of some fundamental principle and the consequences–some good, some less so. I also look at the common threads for these stories, which points to pitfalls to avoid when looking into the future.