André Silva
Software Engineer @ General Motors - Maintainer @ OpenFeature
Dublin, Ireland
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I am a passionate software developer originally from Portugal and currently based in Ireland. I specialize in building robust applications using .NET and am a dedicated advocate for open standards in feature management. As a maintainer for OpenFeature, I contribute to the project's .NET library, help shape its telemetry conventions and support efforts to standardize feature flagging across the industry.
I am committed to creating tools that simplify and enhance users’ daily lives, and I actively share my expertise through technical writing and community engagement.
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Don't Just Flip the Switch: Measure What Happens Next
You're gradually rolling out a new feature to your users. But what's actually happening? Are users in region A seeing faster checkouts while region B is quietly timing out? Is version B of your pricing page converting better, or are error rates creeping up in ways your dashboard doesn't show? Most teams can tell you a flag is on. Fewer can tell you what it's actually doing to their system and users.
OpenFeature gives you a vendor-agnostic way to dynamic feature flag evaluation. OpenTelemetry gives you vendor-agnostic observability. Both are CNCF projects, and when you wire them together, flag evaluations show up in your traces, metrics, and events. You can go from "it's live" to "here's the P95 latency impact per region, per variant, per user cohort".
This talk walks through that setup end to end: instrument an app, roll out a feature, then use the telemetry to understand the real impact. We'll also get into traces vs. metrics vs. logs. They each have a sweet spot, and picking wrong costs you either in cardinality or in blind spots.
Building Secure Package Pipelines
This session guides you through creating a secure package pipeline that any open-source maintainer can achieve. I will show how we eliminated secrets with OIDC authentication, introduced automated SBOM generation for each release, signed builds with cryptographic attestations and used matrix CI to test across platforms.
We use bots to keep our dependencies up to date, CodeQL to scan our repositories for vulnerabilities and automate releases with Release Please. To increase the security of GitHub Actions, we pin hashes and permissions. These measures reduce risks associated with compromised dependencies, supply chain attacks and manual errors, while also improving compliance and trust for everyone.
By the end, you will have a blueprint for securing your projects. The ecosystem will benefit from improved security practices, increased transparency and better compliance with standards. Contributors can fork, audit and extend projects, knowing the integrity of the build process is assured.
Silent Superpowers: Why Breaking Production Isn’t Scary Anymore
Imagine unleashing new features into the wild without the fear of breaking things... Enter the world of feature flags. Picture this: your team ships code to production seamlessly, yet the power to unveil new functionalities remains entirely in your hands. This dynamic decoupling lets you test features live, roll them out gradually, and gather real-world feedback, all while mitigating risks and accelerating confident releases.
In the realm of applications, feature flag libraries weave effortlessly into your codebase, championing agile strategies like trunk-based development and dark launches. But why stop there? Step into the future with OpenFeature, an open-source, vendor-neutral standard that unifies feature flag management. With it, you wave goodbye to vendor lock-in and welcome streamlined experimentation across diverse environments.
Harnessing OpenFeature and vendor-neutral feature flags unlocks:
• Lightning-fast, risk-free deployments with hidden features until the perfect moment
• Precision targeting for canary releases, A/B tests, and tailored user experiences
• A harmonised, standardised approach to flag management across your tech ecosystem
Embrace this cutting-edge methodology to revolutionise your release process: achieve agility without sacrificing stability, and turn every deployment into an opportunity to innovate with confidence.
For this demo, I will be using Aspire and integrating it with OpenFeature to showcase the potential of these two technologies.
KCD Porto 2025 Sessionize Event
NDC Porto 2025 Sessionize Event
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