ADAConf 2025 - Workshops

Architecture as a Collective Practice: A Role-Playing Simulation

You’ve just joined Mago, a globally renowned digital publisher. It’s your first day as an architect… and a crisis is unfolding. The CEO needs answers. The system is creaking. No one agrees on what to do next.

In this role-playing simulation, you and your teammates must make sense of the chaos and deliver an architectural recommendation. Along the way, you'll consult Non-Player Characters in key roles across the organisation, such as Chief Architect, CTO, CPO, CDO, and a very busy Managing Editor. Each one brings a different perspective. You’ll see some models. You’ll think together. You’ll find signal in the noise. But nobody really knows how the game will end.

This first-of-its-kind role playing workshop invites you to enjoy the egalitarian experience of “doing architecture” as a collective, cross-functional practice. Done well, this practice delivers domain-aligned, team-decoupling, and cohesion-building recommendations. The ingredients that make meaningful change happen in complex systems.

You'll build real-world skills as you:

• Co-create and evolve architectural models
• Practice systemic reasoning under pressure
• Pivot and adapt to systematic constraints
• Create new mental models from the foundations of existing ones
• Deliver coherent, context-aware recommendations
• And yes, have wicked fun doing it together

At ADAConf, we talk a lot about architecture as a socio-technical practice. This workshop brings that idea to life. We will learn from each other about communication, decision making and the fine art of improvisational systems design.