InfoQ Homepage Culture & Methods Content on InfoQ
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Growing Yourself as a Software Engineer, Using AI to Develop Software
Sharing your work as a software engineer inspires others, invites feedback, and fosters personal growth, Suhail Patel said at QCon London. Normalizing and owning incidents builds trust, and it supports understanding the complexities. AI enables automation but needs proper guidance, context, and security guardrails.
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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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Developing and Deploying Software in a Sustainable Way
Sustainable APIs benefit most from minimalism, Jochen Joswig said at OOP Conference . Deployment should consider energy, usage, carbon intensity, hardware acquisition. Remote work, long device lifespans, and green office practices can lower emissions. Efficient CI, selective builds, smaller artefacts, and optimized assets can further reduce energy use.
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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 to Do Sociotechnical Design Using Domain-Driven Design and Change Smuggling
Domain-Driven Design (DDD) can upskill sociotechnical design to navigate organizational dynamics and decision complexity in human systems. Change smuggling offers a practical way to launch small, safe-to-fail probes, nudging sociotechnical changes to emerge organically and conversationally.
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How AI with Prompt Engineering Supports Software Testing
AI is becoming a key QA tool, aiding in faster scenario generation, risk detection, and test planning. Arbaz Surti showed how effective prompting using roles, context, and output format helps to get clear, relevant, and actionable test scenarios. AI can boost testers, but human judgment is needed to ensure relevance and quality.
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Changing a Career from Developing Software to Test Automation
A developer who became a test automation engineer faced a challenging learning curve due to limited testing experience. He learned the importance of test levels, when not to automate, and how QA is vital to quality. Motivated by impact, growth, and teamwork, he values communication and continuous learning.
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How to Enable Testing a Distributed System on a Single Environment Using Proxy Routing
Without a dedicated QA environment, teams faced tech and coordination issues when testing a distributed system. A slow, unmaintainable CLI led an organization to shift left with automated testing. They built a tool for versioned deployments using CI and proxy routing, enabling developers to run isolated tests on multiple versions to catch bugs earlier.
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Why Software Engineering Governance Matters: Reducing Risk without Slowing down
Software engineering governance helps teams make decisions, Sarah Wells said at Goto Copenhagen. She argued it should support value delivery, not hinder it. Poor governance slows progress and can increase costs. A technical strategy with a radar can help teams to make better decisions, and aligning with DORA capabilities can boost their performance.
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DevGreenOps: How to Design Sustainable Digital Services
DevGreenOps, also known as DevSusOps, is an extension of the DevOps approach, in which environmental sustainability considerations are integrated into every step of the DevOps cycle, Jochen Joswig said in his talk at OOP Conference. Applying transparency, minimalism, efficiency, and awareness helps us to design sustainable digital services.
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Combining Continuous Delivery with Pair Programming: Lessons Learned
Pair programming and continuous integration can go hand-in-hand. Pushing to main multiple times a day is hard in isolation, leading to delays, large PRs, and merge issues, Ola Hast and Asgaut Mjølne Söderbom mentioned in their talk about continuous delivery with pair programming at QCon London. Pairing enables instant code review, easier refactoring, fewer bugs, and higher team resilience.
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Producing a Better Software Architecture with Residuality Theory
Software architecture is tough because it blends coding, math, and business systems. Due to surprises, architectures tend to become irrelevant over time, Barry O'Reilly said. He presented residuality theory, where he suggested stressing naive architectures to reveal hidden ��attractors” in complex business systems. This allows designs to better survive change and uncertainty.
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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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DORA Report Finds AI Is an Amplifier in Software Development, But Trust Remains Low
Nearly 90% of technology professionals now use artificial intelligence in their work. But according to the 2025 DORA State of AI-assisted Software Development report, there's still a significant gap in trust between developers and the tools they increasingly rely upon. The report findings found that while AI adoption has become "nearly universal," there are still some organisational challenges.
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Growing Your Career towards Senior Roles in Software Development
Flexible working is key to career development, enabling people to stay in tech while balancing personal needs, Sophie Weston said. Flexibility widens the pool of potential talent and enables keeping the best talent. She has championed internal promotions and "squiggly careers," allowing role shifts, including in and out of management, to support long-term growth.