Elizabeth Ayer & Chris Lauer - Chasing the Energy for Change - Explore DDD 2025

Chasing the Energy for Change: A Case Study from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Elizabeth Ayer & Chris Lauer Explore DDD Conference 2025 Today your severe weather alerts are processed and delivered through a complex tapestry of legacy services in need of modernization. Thanks to a sense of mission and urgency, the people who manage these services are highly motivated to evolve towards more resilient, cloud-based services. As is so common, though, systemic factors make the overall sociotechnical environment especially resistant to purposeful change. This talk is the story of chasing that energy for change, starting with a long-overdue storm event event storm, through to embedding a thriving software architecture practice in the agency. Come hear about what we did, how it went, and what we’d recommend for others starting their modernization in complex, constrained environments. About Elizabeth Ayer: Elizabeth is a product and organizational consultant who promotes a virtuous cycle of empowered teams, fast flow, and business agility. With her background in product and portfolio management, she takes a value-oriented, collaborative approach to designing more humane structures for teams to thrive. From over 25 years of product development across technology, education, and government sectors, she has a wealth of experience that informs her facilitation, teaching, and consulting practices. Most recently, she has been working in the public sector, supporting technology program design in high-visibility, high-compliance environments. Elizabeth speaks and writes on product management for fast flow and also broader concepts of knowledge work, system design, and inclusive practices. Her consulting focus is on facilitating teams of leaders through transitions of scale and integration. About Chris Lauer: Transforming the National Weather Service to be more nimble, flexible, and mobile. Twenty years of experience in software, platforms, and product management in the federal government. Formerly: Engineering Practice Lead and Technical Product Manager for Kubernetes/TAS DevSecOps platforms at Air Force Kessel Run. Software and platforms at the NOAA NWS Space Weather Prediction Center. Software and data at the National Hurricane Center.