Bursting the End-2-End Myth: Divide and Conquer for Robust DevOps

End-to-end (E2E) testing and monitoring often seem like the best way to ensure software works well, but they can be very costly and break easily. This talk will explain why E2E testing is not the perfect solution it appears to be. Instead, we will show how breaking down the system into smaller parts makes testing and monitoring easier, more flexible, and more reliable.

100% Unit Test Coverage and beyond

Uncover the journey of achieving 100% unit test coverage in our mission-critical .NET services. Four years ago, amidst controversy, we embarked on this ambitious path. Today, we deploy multiple times daily with minimal regression issues. Delve into the rationale behind our decision, the technical and psychological hurdles we overcame, and why we're not stopping at 100% coverage. Learn how we're pushing boundaries to elevate test quality and ensure system robustness. Don't miss out on this opportunity to explore the evolution from coverage to excellence in testing practices.

Mix DevOps into your Architecture

In the realm of Agile and DevOps, architecture is omnipresent, whether explicitly articulated or not. The question arises: must architecture undergo a transformation to align with the prevailing Agile and DevOps ethos?

Within the agile movement, the role of the "Architect" and what "architecture" means began to be discussed. Is it still relevant? What does a person do? What even means "architecture"? And is DevOps technology a culture or a mindset?

With this talk, I take a structured approach to uncovering what DevOps and Architecture mean by using existing sharp and easy-to-understand definitions. I go further by building up a universal approach to supporting DevOps with any architectural method by using a scientific paper that distilled commonly used architectural frameworks.

The journey goes from non-functional requirements derived from DevOps and abstract suggestions about supporting them as part of the architecture - ready to be translated into technical measures on different layers of abstractions (From enterprise, over the system to software architecture).

The symbiosis of Continuous Deployment and Stability

Our software ensures that all the parcels you order online find their way to your home. For every parcel that travels through the parcel centers of the Swiss Post, our services provide the next action to be taken. If these services are not running, the parcel truck soon begins to the roads because they cannot unload anymore.

Even with these stakes, we deploy our mission-critical software services multiple times a day. Every commit to the master branch goes straight into production. Magic? Not at all! In this talk, we will show you how we do this and discuss our journey with a focus on quality assurance.

Achieving Quality Goals in Agile Teams: A Practical Approach

In agile development, teams often struggle to meet their quality goals, despite having the right skills and motivation. We have learned from the State of DevOps Report and our own experience that it's crucial to prioritize quality from the start. Inspired by the Agile manifesto, which values technical excellence, we suggest a simple yet powerful approach to help agile teams achieve their quality goals. Our method introduces an incentive to drive qualitative and quantitative improvements.

By assigning dedicated roles, introducing a structured ceremony, encouraging teamwork, and using automated reporting, teams can more effectively improve software quality. In this talk, we will explore the details of this approach, sharing what we have learned from implementing it and providing practical tips for creating a culture of quality in agile development environments.

Logging & Exception Handling Strategies

Do you know the problem that try-catch blocks clutter your code, but it's a mystery what errors happened despite a lot of logging statements? In this talk, we will explore effective strategies for managing exceptions in your application. You will learn how to create a consistent and clear strategy for catching, logging, and handling errors, as well as which errors to catch and which to allow to pass up the call stack. By implementing a solid exception handling strategy, you can make your application more reliable and easier to maintain.