Uploaded December 2023 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago

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In this keynote, Mark Voelker & Monica Bajaj share valuable insights on how architecture works at Okta, focusing on the dual-pronged charter - improving the tech stack and leveling up the people stack. They discuss how architects at Okta collaborate closely with the engineering teams to give context and better decision-making scope. They also touch on the importance of documenting processes, decisions, and context as an integral part of the company culture at Okta.

Wrapping up the talk, they illustrate their points with a real-life case study around Scaling their Extensibility feature before answering audience questions about balancing innovation with architectural consistency, feedback in fine-tuning architectural governance and ensuring its effectiveness.


00:00 Introduction
04:41 The dual purpose Architecture Charter
09:46 How Okta does Architecture: The Nuts and Bolts
13:18 Case Study Extensibility
28:25 Wrap Up
29:34 Q&A


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This talk was recorded at Elevate 2023, Plato's flagship engineering leadership conference hosted in San Francisco on Nov 7 and 8 2023.