DDD Perth 2026 Agenda
River Room 1 (Lv 3)
River Room 2 (Lv 3)
River Room 3 (Lv 3)
Cygnet room (Lv 2)
Black Swan (Lv 2)
8:00 am - 8:50 am
Registration
8:50 am - 9:30 am
Welcome and Housekeeping
9:30 am - 10:15 am
10:15 am - 10:45 am
Morning Tea
10:45 am - 11:30 am
10:45 am - 11:30 am
River Room 1 (Lv 3)
George Coldham
10:45 am - 11:30 am
River Room 2 (Lv 3)
Eunice Sari
10:45 am - 11:30 am
River Room 3 (Lv 3)
Flic Manning
10:45 am - 11:30 am
Cygnet room (Lv 2)
Ashley Aitken
10:45 am - 11:30 am
Black Swan (Lv 2)
Tanya Hallett
11:30 am - 11:40 am
Changeover
11:40 am - 12:25 pm
11:40 am - 12:25 pm
River Room 3 (Lv 3)
Dunja Lewis
11:40 am - 12:25 pm
Black Swan (Lv 2)
Amanda Tolfo Porto
12:25 pm - 1:25 pm
Lunch
1:25 pm - 1:45 pm
1:25 pm - 1:45 pm
Black Swan (Lv 2)
Alisa Blakeney
1:45 pm - 1:55 pm
Changeover
1:55 pm - 2:40 pm
1:55 pm - 2:40 pm
River Room 3 (Lv 3)
Kai Striega
1:55 pm - 2:40 pm
Cygnet room (Lv 2)
Sierra McDowell
2:40 pm - 2:50 pm
Changeover
2:50 pm - 3:35 pm
2:50 pm - 3:35 pm
River Room 1 (Lv 3)
Amanda Pitcher
2:50 pm - 3:35 pm
River Room 2 (Lv 3)
Cheryl Watts, Dale Field
2:50 pm - 3:35 pm
River Room 3 (Lv 3)
Trent Cain
2:50 pm - 3:10 pm
Black Swan (Lv 2)
icetana AI
3:35 pm - 4:00 pm
Afternoon Tea
4:00 pm - 4:45 pm
4:45 pm
Wrap Up and Prize Draw
Beyond Arrows and Boxes: System Diagrams People Can Actually Understand and Use
🕓 10:45 am - 11:30 am📍 Cygnet room (Lv 2)
Every software project has diagrams with boxes and arrows. They look simple, but the arrows often hide the most important parts: what started the work, what information moved, what changed, who needs to know, what happens later, and what can fail.
That may be good enough for simple systems. It breaks down quickly when systems involve APIs, queues, integrations, background jobs, automation, retries, failures, workflows and multiple teams.
This session shows a clearer way to model modern systems without pretending every interaction is just another arrow. Using Commands, Events and Views, you will learn how to make diagrams that show behaviour over time, not just boxes connected by lines.
We will look at practical patterns for user interactions, integrations, automation, long-running processes, read models and event-driven architecture. The focus is not notation for notation’s sake, but helping developers, architects, business analysts, product people, managers and technical leaders have better conversations about how systems really work.
No deep architecture knowledge required. You will leave with a practical way to model modern systems that wait, fail, retry, react and evolve.
Speaker
Ashley Aitken
Business IS & IT | Enterprise App Development | Startups & Disruptive Innovation | Professional Training & Coaching
Ashley is an IT consultant, business analyst, software engineer, disruptive innovation specialist, and professional trainer and coach. He helps organisations with enterprise software systems, innovation, and coaching / training. His software consulting company is Running Code Productions: https://www.runningcode.com.au His startup and innovation consulting company is Innovately: https://www.innovately.com.au He has a PhD in Computer Science & Software Engineering from UNSW and expertise in CQRS/ES, backend and frontend development, cloud deployment, and Artificial Intelligence. His PhD was on how the neural networks of the cerebral neocortex may work. He is an evangelist for the Lean Startup (Eric Ries) with Customer Development (Steve Blank) approaches to startup and corporate innovation and runs the Lean Startup Perth meetup. He has completed the Founder Institute, Curtin Accelerate, Edutech startup accelerators. Ashley has co-founded three tech startups (sadly unsuccessful but great learning experiences) and two consulting and professional training businesses, His latest startup is the Lean Explorers Club, which you can check out at https://leanexplorers.club
Meet the Experts
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10:30am – 11:25am
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11:25am – 12:20pm
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12:20pm – 1:15pm
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1:15pm – 2:10pm
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2:10pm – 3:05pm
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3:05pm – 4:00pm
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No bio provided.
2026 Sponsors
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Digital
Other Sponsors
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