Technical Coherence is an engineering organizational design pattern proposed by Jack Danger Canty1 to reduce operational overhead and cognitive load. It has three pieces;
- Identify the user experience domains the company must support for the products being built
- Identify the shared product domains that underpin multiple user experience
- Staff three layers of engineering teams: Two layers for the product domains, one layer for infrastructure
The first two steps help to define the shape of the product (suite) and system. This design must be one holistic system with interfaces owned by Engineering.
Jack Danger Canty 1
I call it “technical Coehrence” because it drives toward a single, articulable system that implements the full product, can fit on a whiteboard, and improve security, correctness, performance, resilience, maintainability, and development speed.
1. Danger, J. Executive Engineering: Practical Engineering Theory for Software Leaders. (The Technical Executive, 2024).