Polyglot Testing Unleashed: How OpenFeature's Reference Implementation Validates Across Languages

How do you ensure a cloud-native reference implementation behaves consistently across Python, Go, .NET, JavaScript, Java, and beyond? Discover how the flagd-testbed project validates both the core flagd service and its language-specific integrations through a single, unified test suite. Leveraging Gherkin specifications as behavioral contracts, Testcontainers for real-world integration testing, and Renovate for automated testbed synchronization, this approach delivers reliable feature flagging across diverse environments. Reusable Gherkin steps and clear step mapping streamline bug identification, instantly pinpointing whether failures stem from the core service, language implementations, or integration layers—catching subtle bugs before they reach production. Learn practical strategies for scalable polyglot testing, reusable test specifications, and building infrastructure that grows with your ecosystem. Join us for actionable insights and real-world lessons from the flagd testbed!

18 Bluetooth Controllers Walk Into a Bar: Observability & Runtime Configuration with CNCF Tools

What happens when your "distributed system" is 18 PlayStation Move controllers on Bluetooth? Observability challenges web developers never face.

JoustMania is an open-source party game where players jostle motion controllers. Complex execution: multiple Bluetooth adapters, battery-powered devices, sensors at 100Hz. When a player complains their controller "felt different" - how do you debug it?
Challenges:
- Sampling data from 18 controllers without overwhelming telemetry
- Correlating hardware events with gameplay
- Managing high-cardinality data
- Debugging problems at 2 AM conventions

Solutions:
- Context-aware flags responding to battery, skill, system load
- Intelligent sampling capturing critical events, dropping noise
- Trace correlation between hardware and game logic
- Using OpenTelemetry to prove games are "rigged" (or not)

Demo: Change behavior via GitHub-synced flags, show real-time controller telemetry, reveal emergent behavior in physical systems.

OpenFeature’s Positive Impact on Confidence at Dynatrace

At Dynatrace, feature flags have been integral to our workflows for years. However, our homegrown solution has increasingly become a fragmented collection of flags rather than a comprehensive management tool. This has led to challenges such as unclear use cases, legacy flags with unknown or unintended uses, and complexity compounded by team transitions and shifting assignments.
To address these issues, we embraced OpenFeature to standardize and enhance feature flag observability—not just for our benefit but for the broader developer community. By integrating OpenFeature with OpenTelemetry, our Site Reliability Engineers (SREs) now have actionable insights, enabling them to confidently assess potential impacts and side effects across our systems.
Join us as we share our journey with OpenFeature at Dynatrace and how it’s transforming the way we manage feature flags.

Luck is When Preparation Meets Opportunity: How Open Source Unexpectedly Shaped My Career

It started with someone else's mistake. Watching a maintainer accidentally force-push to a contributor's branch during a live Twitch stream showed me something unexpected: even experienced open source maintainers aren't perfect, and everyone makes mistakes. That moment of vulnerability made open source feel approachable for the first time, and inspired me to make my first contribution. It was a small step that would unexpectedly reshape my entire career trajectory, taking me from curious observer to OSPO team member to OpenFeature maintainer and CNCF Ambassador.

But this isn't a fairy tale of overnight success. Along the way, I learned hard lessons about online and offline communication, faced obstacles including travel restrictions, and discovered that getting started is often the hardest part. What made the difference wasn't avoiding mistakes—it was finding welcoming communities across Java, cloud native, and beyond that helped me grow through them.

Join me for a candid look at an open source journey, where preparation met opportunity, mistakes became learning moments, and community made all the difference. Whether you're considering your first contribution or wondering if open source is worth the investment, this talk will show you why engaging with these communities - despite the challenges - can open doors you never expected.

Fun with Flags: How OpenFeature Solves Your Feature Flag Headaches

Feature flags have revolutionized the software delivery lifecycle, enabling teams to decouple releases from deployments and create a more agile development process. They're often hailed as one of the key practices in modern software development—at least in theory.

However, as systems grow in complexity, so do the challenges associated with feature flagging. From supporting multiple languages and managing targeted evaluations to avoiding vendor lock-in and safely decommissioning obsolete code, what initially seems like a straightforward problem can quickly become daunting.

The OpenFeature community is tackling these challenges head-on by providing vendor-agnostic SDKs and a suite of powerful tools designed to simplify the feature flagging experience. Join me as we explore the common pitfalls of feature flagging and discover how OpenFeature can help bring the fun back into this critical aspect of software development.

Target audience: Everyone within the SDLC can profit from feature flags, basic overview, entry into feature flagging