InfoQ Homepage Culture Content on InfoQ
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InfoQ Launches High-Performing Teams Certification Program
InfoQ has opened enrollment for a new five-week certification program covering engineering team design, delivery flow, AI-enabled work, and metrics, facilitated by InfoQ editor and podcast co-host Olimpiu Pop.
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Building a Collaborative Platform Culture in a Bank
A platform is a collaboration system, not infrastructure. Culture follows structure: platform teams can build open support sessions, create super user awards for contributing developers, and establish shared open standards to grow an engineering mindset. Developers and product teams depend on a platform team, which in turn depends on application teams; to go forward, they need shared standards.
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How Code in the Age of Artificial Intelligence Becomes Write-Only and Disposable
Artificial intelligence (AI) makes all code write-only,. It’s too dense to read, and tests define the behaviour and become the documentation. Code is also disposable; it becomes easier to rewrite than to debug. Humans can't review AI-generated code at scale. Intent decouples from implementation; developers should focus on creativity.
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How to Shape the Engineering Culture in Software Companies
You can find your way through an organization by figuring out what artifacts people leave behind, David Grizzanti mentioned at InfoQ Dev Summit Boston. He compared culture to anthropology, suggested studying behaviors, power dynamics, and decisions first, and then patiently model and reward new norms, build allies, and use influence and leading by example, to shift engineering culture over time.
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Decentralizing Architectural Decisions with the Architecture Advice Process
Our system architectures have changed as technology and development practices have evolved, but the way we practice architecture hasn’t kept up. According to Andrew Harmel-Law, architecture needs to be decentralized, similar to how we have decentralized our systems. The alternative to having an architect take and communicate decisions is to “let anyone make the decisions” using the advice process.
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Lessons from Growing a Software Leadership Team
Thiago Ghisi explained how he guided managers and senior ICs to build a resilient leadership group beneath him in his talk Lessons from Growing Engineering Organizations at QCon London. Regular syncs, expectation calibration, and alignment on broader goals made leaders multipliers of culture and performance. Culture is what you do, not what you say.
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How a Small Enablement Team Supported Adopting a Single Environment for Distributed Testing
Po Linn Chia presented how they re-used a single development environment to deploy multiple service versions for testing their distributed system in her presentation "No QA Environment? No Problem" at Dev Summit Boston. A small enablement team, cultural buy-in, and gradual learning helped teams collaborate, reduce cognitive load, and scale testing practices.
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What Testers Can Do to Ensure Software Security
A secure software development life cycle means baking security into plan, design, build, test, and maintenance, rather than sprinkling it on at the end, Sara Martinez said in her talk Ensuring Software Security. Testers aren’t bug finders but early defenders, building security and quality in from the first sprint. Culture first, automation second, continuous testing and monitoring all the way.
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Creating Impactful Software Teams That Continuously Improve
Culture shapes how we feel, work, and succeed, says Natan Žabkar Nordberg. People thrive in different environments—some need autonomy, others structure. Trust must be given first, not earned. Leaders should guide, not control, fostering autonomy and safety.
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The Decisions You Don't Know You're Making: QCon Keynote Explores Hidden Choices in Engineering
Engineering teams make their most consequential decisions not in architecture reviews or sprint planning, but through invisible choices embedded in metrics, defaults, and everyday behaviors. In their QCon San Francisco 2025 keynote, Shawna Martell and Dan Fike challenged the industry's focus on documented decision-making while the decisions that truly shape systems and culture go unrecognized.
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How Software Engineers Can Grow into Staff Plus Roles
Software engineers can boost their impact by helping other teams, focusing on business-driven work, and building strong relationships, David Grizzanti mentioned at InfoQ Dev Summit Boston. Growth can come from mentoring, setting cultural norms, thinking strategically, and designing a career path based on what motivates you.
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DevSummit Boston: Humans in the Loop: Engineering Leadership in a Chaotic Industry
At the InfoQ Dev Summit, Google’s Engineering Director Michelle Brush addressed software leaders, emphasizing the evolving landscape of software engineering amidst rising automation. She championed a shift toward higher-level cognitive skills, systems thinking, and foundational knowledge, urging engineers to embrace complexity for enhanced resilience and decision-making in their work.
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How to Develop Your Skills to Become a Principal Engineer
Becoming a principal engineer requires more than technical skill, it’s about influence, communication, and strategy. Success means enabling teams by shaping culture, Sophie Weston said. She suggested developing deep skills in multiple domains, with collaborative skills. Skills from life outside work, like sports, volunteering, or gaming, can add valuable perspective and build leadership potential.
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Cultivating a Culture of Resilience in Software Organizations
Resilience helps individuals and organizations respond to challenges. Personal resilience is built through adapting, technical resilience by mastering a variety of tools, and organizational resilience through flexibility and strong networks. In fast-changing software industries, recognizing tech shifts and fostering learning, flexibility, and collaboration, enhances resilience.
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How to Foster a Continuous Improvement and Learning Mindset in Software Development
According to Ramya Sriram, individuals and teams must embrace a continuous improvement and continuous learning mindset to stay competitive and relevant. She spoke about continuous improvement and learning, where she explored how her company fosters a culture of innovation through programs that support experimentation, providing employees with the time and space to explore new approaches and adapt.