EDA GIVES TEAMS WINGS
Great that you have arrived, these are the best seats in the house!
“Imagine this, you’re enjoying a pizza or walking the dog, and still tuning in to the latest insights from our work. On your own time, in your own way. That’s exactly the kind of freedom event-driven architecture, or EDA, gives us,” says Jan-Pieter, DevOps engineer at Essent.
In episode 11 of our podcast, Sami joined the conversation. As a Lead Solutions Architect with more than four years of experience at Essent, he knows better than anyone how EDA works in practice. More about Architecture? Listen/ read episode 10 with Toon Wijnands!
What is EDA exactly?
According to Sami, EDA isn’t new, but it is a gamechanger. “It removes the coupling between teams. Instead of everything being stuck together like dominoes, you simply publish your event and whoever wants to can pick it up.”
He compares it to an e-commerce platform: a customer places an order, and from there each system responds independently. “The payment service handles its part, the inventory gets updated, shipping starts. All at their own pace. And if one system fails, the whole process doesn’t collapse. That’s the beauty of it.”
From frustration to freedom
Before EDA, teams often hit roadblocks. A simple new feature could take months because every change had to ripple through multiple systems. Sami explains: “Adding a discount sounded easy, but because of tight coupling between teams, it turned into a mini waterfall project of six months. With EDA, teams can now move faster and innovate more freely.”
The secret? Awareness and an active community. “We created an EDA group with engineers and architects from across Essent. Together we wrote guidelines and encouraged teams to start publishing their own business events. It’s liberating.”
Language barriers and misunderstandings
One of the most interesting points Sami made was about language. “If I say pizza, I might mean pepperoni with cheese. You might picture chicken or fish. That difference in language, or what we call ‘ubiquitous language’, is essential. EDA makes it possible for each domain to use its own language without creating confusion.”
Without EDA, developers often fall into what Sami calls ‘fear driven development’. “Nobody dares touch a piece of code anymore because everything is so tightly connected. Change one thing, and something else breaks. EDA breaks that cycle.”
what’s next?
At Essent, EDA is being rolled out step by step. It fits perfectly with other developments like domain-driven design and microservices. Sami expects most teams to adopt it by the end of the year. “It’s a cultural shift. Take it slow, start small, and make sure observability is in place. Then success follows naturally.”
Sitting at the same table
Perhaps the most powerful outcome of EDA is how it brings business and IT together. “During event storming sessions, marketers, content editors and developers all sit in the same room. Everyone adds input, and together you define the events that matter. That’s co-creation in its purest form,” says Sami.
Or, as Jan-Pieter summed it up: “EDA gives teams freedom, speed and trust. And just like a podcast, everyone can join in at their own moment. That’s innovation with flavor.”