How Do I Decode Software Deployments?

Prerequisites

This guide assumes:

• Familiarity with Conway’s Law. Read What Is Conway’s Law? first if “communication structure shapes system structure” sounds new.
• Access to the deployed system. You need to see the service list, runbooks, and on-call rotations.
• Visibility into pipelines and release boundaries. You need to know which services ship together and which ship separately.
• A blank document or whiteboard. You will sketch a map as you go.

Walk the deployment

Treat deployed software like a fossil record. Every service boundary, API contract, and deployment pipeline carries the imprint of the people who shipped it. Walk the deployment in this order: