From Mother Sauces to Testable Software

From Mother Sauces to Testable Software

Marie-Antoine Carême revolutionised the art of cooking with a groundbreaking insight: all French sauces can be traced back to four basic sauces: béchamel, velouté, espagnole, and allemande. This was nothing less than the discovery that complexity arises from systematised fundamentals. Genius became craftsmanship.

Auguste Escoffier went one step further: he took Carême's culinary system and organised it: the people, the processes, the standards. His brigade system made it reproducible, scalable, and teachable. Haute cuisine did not become less artistic as a result, but more professional.

This is exactly what we need in software development. Testable architecture is a culinary system in which each component knows its fundamentals, understands its role, and functions in a verifiable manner.

This presentation shows the direct line from Carême's systematisation of complexity to Escoffier's organisational genius to modern software architecture patterns. What connects these developments is the realisation that good design does not require genius, but is the codification of principles that anyone can learn and follow.

This presentation currently exists only as an idea and has not yet been accepted by a conference.

About me

My name is Sebastian Bergmann, and I have been working as a software developer and consultant in the PHP ecosystem for over 25 years. I support development teams in creating better software through modern practices, tools and training.

I am deeply committed to Open Source, maintain critical Open Source projects in the PHP ecosystem, and help shape the work of the PHP Foundation as a member of its board. I have also represented the interests of Open Source at the European Commission and am active in the Open Source Working Group ("Arbeitskreis Open Source Software") of the German Informatics Society ("Gesellschaft für Informatik").

I live and breathe Open Source and help shape how developers around the world test, write, and maintain their code.

More events where you can meet me are listed here.

My interactive online training courses are designed to provide you with practical knowledge that you can apply immediately. The next ones starting soon are listed here.

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