Kevlin Henney

Certainty is the comfort zone of software architecture. The idea that architecture offers a dependable, stable and solid foundation on which to build. Sadly, such certainty is in conflict with the nature of reality. By definition, most software development is development in the presence of incomplete knowledge. Any development process that offers certainty of knowledge through early planning is faking and bluffing that certainty. This talk looks at the relationship of knowledge to software, the codification of knowledge in architecture, the acquisition of knowledge to development process, and how we can make progress in the presence of known unknowns, unknown unknowns and unknowable unknowns.

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Speaking history

iSAQB Software Architecture Gathering

16 November 2026 Berlin, Germany “Beyond the Known Knowns”

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