The Playbook - Lessons & Learnings (The Scars)
Every scar becomes a principle. These are real stories - not theory - where governance gaps turned into wasted weekends, duplicated work, panic deadlines, and avoidable chaos. And more importantly: how the scars became the backbone of Governance-First.
These are not abstract models. They are what happens when culture, clarity, and ownership fail - and how maturity prevents it from happening again.
Case Study 1 - Planday Migration
Pattern: Problem → Governance Gap → Corrective Principle → Cultural Outcome
Problem
Three developers built three different migration flows. Nobody knew which one was correct. Everyone assumed someone else had the "real one."
Governance Gap
No charter. No contract or shared documentation. No Definition of Ready / Done. Panic deadlines and unclear scope. Zero alignment before execution.
Corrective Principle
Publish the migration design before writing a single line of code. Align on DoR / DoD. One shared flow → one shared source of truth.
Cultural Outcome
One migration flow. No duplicated effort. Weekends protected. Team alignment. Predictable delivery. Maturity replaced panic.
Case Study 2 - The Service-to-Service Temptation
"Let's just call Planday directly... it will be faster." The famous last words before a system collapses.
Problem
Cosmos → Planday direct call. Bypassed the Service Bus entirely. No envelope. No contract. No publish-subscribe model.
Governance Gap
DDD boundaries ignored. Tight coupling introduced. No resilience. Hidden logic. No telemetry or replay. No standardized error handling.
Corrective Principle
Always publish to the Service Bus. Consumers subscribe - no direct calls. Contracts stay explicit and testable. No shortcuts. No secret tunnels.
Cultural Outcome
Testable boundaries. Decoupled, resilient architecture. Replayability by default. Transparent traffic. Zero vendor lock-in at the call level.
The Scar Patterns - What We Learned
These stories repeat everywhere. Different companies, same failure modes. Governance gaps always produce the same symptoms.
- Work duplication
- Panic-driven leadership
- No shared understanding
- Tight coupling by accident
- Engineers guessing the truth
- Last-minute heroics
- Weekend death marches
- Scope confusion
- Zero auditability
- Surprises during release
The Principles Behind the Scars
These universal patterns emerged from the pain.
- Write the contract before the code
- Publish everything through the Bus
- Shared documentation is the source of truth
- Every flow is owned, observable, and auditable
- Boundaries protect teams from each other’s mistakes
- Positive Disruption is mandatory
The Lesson - Every scar becomes a principle
The failures weren’t theoretical. They happened because governance wasn’t part of the culture. But once the principles were adopted, misalignment disappeared, panic calmed, and systems became testable and resilient. Weekends were safe again.