What does it take to deploy to production with confidence?

How often do we question the wisdom of releasing to production on a Friday afternoon? Has the production software been tested thoroughly enough to identify vulnerabilities? If we do find security problems in production, what steps can we take to fix them? And how can we take preventative measures against potential problems or attacks? Recently, software supply chain security has become an increasingly important topic. Concepts such as SBOMs, SLSA, Reproducible Builds and CI/CD Security are often discussed to address previous concerns. This session will explore these concepts and provide guidance on how to apply them to your individual projects. We will focus on tools, guides, proposals from the OSSF Foundation, CNCF, OWASP and CDF

Main focus on Tools, Guides, Suggestions from the OSSF Foundation, CNCF, OWASP and CDF

Lights, Camera, GitHub Actions!

It's been said that automating oneself out of a job is one of the best qualities of a software engineer. When it comes to building and releasing software that statement becomes more relevant than ever. GitHub is a popular choice for hosting code and since a few years ago offers a native CI/CD solution: GitHub Actions. They are a powerful tool that's worth adding to your development toolbox but getting started might be a bit daunting. In this session we'll cover the basics of working with GitHub Actions workflows and their structure, moving into more advanced topics such as inputs/outputs, job dependencies, job matrices, reusable workflows, composite actions, and secrets.

Killing me softly..

Starting a new project, launching a new platform, releasing a new workflow. There is a plethora of documents out there suggesting best practices, considerations, patterns and possible solutions for how and when to start a project or process. Interestingly, however, there is not enough focus on retiring outdated and costly legacy applications in a way that meets business and compliance needs.

Conducting an assessment based on factors such as the value of the application to the business, the cost of retiring it, and the potential savings that can be achieved is the first step at the project level. What else can we do at application development and even more so at operations?

In this session we will discuss what challenges every project should consider when thinking about the entire software application lifecycle.

In this session we will explore fitness functions as measure of effectiveness, efficiency, and adherence to best practices. It encompasses various aspects, including functionality, readability, maintainability, and performance.
Other topics that will be included are: ( list is not exhaustive BECAUSE this is not a X things that you should know type of session )
- Code Complexity, Churn, Duplication, and Smell
- Data Migration ( data integrity and consistency)
- Incremental Rollout
- Disaster Recovery and Rollback Plan
- Security Plans, concerns and disclosures

All about dependencies

Software dependencies have several benefits for software developers. They help to deliver software quickly by providing pre-built functionality and extending the project's capabilities.

Dependencies play an important role in the software development cycle and are used at various stages such as development, execution, and testing. However, dependencies can also introduce compatibility issues, security vulnerabilities, and dependence on external updates or maintenance. It is essential that dependencies are properly assessed and managed, including version management.

In this session, we will explore different types of dependencies, highlight the hidden costs of dependency management, provide concise guidelines for using open-source libraries, and discuss important security considerations to improve the software development process.

We will focus on tools, guides, proposals from the OSSF Foundation, CNCF, OWASP and CDF

Main focus on Tools, Guides, Suggestions from the OSSF Foundation, CNCF, OWASP

Failure is not an option. It's a fact

Failure is an inevitable part of success. As an engineer, failure is not a question of if, but when. Failure in the context of innovation efforts has helped thousands of start-up companies succeed, but in the context of a known execution process it can damage results or reputation or create undue risk.
In software development we are at the intersection of innovation and known processes, so how do we benefit from failure and achieve success?
Understanding the types of failure is the key to harnessing the power behind them! This is a session for everyone because failure comes in many different forms and has several different types! We can only benefit from failure if we know how to recognise the type of failure we are facing and how to deal with it.
In this session we will explore several studies and best practices from successful companies that have embraced both.

I present multiple studies, books, white papers to showcase HOW to make it possible to leverage FAILURE and what types of failure should be address with an open strategy and which ones should be avoided

My top resources on this topics are:

HBR The special issue on failure. April 2011
HBR: Increase Your Return on Failure by Julian Birkinshaw and Martine Haas
The Failure Files perspectives on failure. Edited by David Hillson
Learning from Design Failure, Collaboratively by Shulong Yan and Marcela Borge
Learning from Success and Failure by Robert I. Sutton
Strategies for Learning from Failure by Amy C. Edmondson
The Real Reason Why Your Brain Is so Scared of Failure Failure doesn't scare you. Not knowing does By Mithu Storoni
The Skills You Need To Make Failure Productive by Vivian Giang
When We Learn From Failure (and When We Don’t) by Gretchen Gavett
The Tipping Point Between Failure and Success by Dashun Wang

One size fits all! Not at all!

A new understanding of disruptive change is just one of many lessons we have learned over the past five years. A hard one that has left us disoriented, but open to improvement. We live in an ever-changing world with IT challenges that are growing in both size and complexity.
Meeting these challenges and turning them into opportunities requires a creative, adaptable and effectively distributed team.

Understanding the underlying differences in diverse teams, such as differences in functional background, education or personality, can facilitate creativity or group problem solving - but only if a group process is well defined.

In this presentation we will explore the idea of group process and diversity beyond race/ethnicity, gender or age. What are the specific needs, requirements or strategies that need to be in place to create cohesive teams?

In this session I will present several books, studies, white papers and other materials to show how we can use and understand better team dynamics, personality and leadership structures.

- The Mix That Matters. Innovation Through Diversity by Rocío Lorenzo, Nicole Voigt
- The Secrets of Great Teamwork by Martine Haas and Mark Mortensen
- 
The Effectiveness of Teamwork Training on Teamwork Behaviors and Team Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Controlled Interventions by Desmond McEwan
- An Experimental Study of Team Size and Performance on a Complex Task by Andrew Mao
- Team Effectiveness in Software Development. Human and Cooperative Aspects in Team Effectiveness Models and Priorities for Future Studies by Torgeir Dingsøyr
- The Feedback Fallacy by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall
- Supporting the productivity and wellbeing of remote workers:
 Lessons from COVID-19 by Thomas J. George, Leanne E. Atwater
- Role of empathy, emotional intelligence, transformational leadership of the project success by Rusan Nadiia, Kozyr Boris
- Psychological Empowerment and Project Success: The Role of Knowledge Sharing by Jabran Khan , Basharat Javed
- Employees’ perceptions of relational communication in full-time remote work in the public sector by Rasa Jamsena,
- Vicious circles of gender bias, lower positions, and lower performance: Gender differences in scholarly productivity and impact by Peter van den Besselaar, Ulf Sandstro

DevOps for Java developers

In recent years, how we approach development has dramatically changed with the rise of DevOps, Cloud Computing, and Container technologies. Learn how to take advantage of microservices, serverless, and cloud-native technologies with the latest DevOps techniques to create hyper-productive and successful teams.

Lessons in leadership: Communication, team dynamics, failure and the road to success

What does it take to be a successful leader? This question has intrigued many, and there is no definitive answer. However, there are key elements that can bring us closer to success in our careers.

- Facing failure and learning from it: Failure is a natural part of the journey to success. Knowing how to identify the type of failure we encounter and how to deal with it can help us grow.
- Build a creative, adaptive and effective team: Understanding what it takes to encourage innovation and collaborative problem solving is key to improving any team.
- Practice effective communication: Effective communication involves clear, concise and empathetic expression to promote mutual understanding and teamwork, and that is hard!

In this workshop we will focus on learning effective communication strategies, exploring different types of failure and understanding what makes successful teams in distributed work environments.

Workshop with hands on activities and examples