InfoQ Homepage QCon Software Development Conference Content on InfoQ
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Green IT: How to Reduce IT’s Environmental Footprint
Green IT focuses on reducing IT’s environmental footprint, by rethinking how you build, deploy, and power IT systems. At QCon London, Ludi Akue presented how her team did a lifecycle assessment, set a 10% emissions reduction goal, simplified architecture, and optimized frontends, to align with climate goals.
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Lessons Learned from Growing from Junior to Staff and beyond
Bruno Rey suggested thinking about career growth in circles: self, team, company, and customers. Success comes from understanding broader impacts, embracing compromise, and acting fast, especially in startups. He advised seeking mentors for honest feedback, being open to unexpected or crisis-driven opportunities, and thriving in change with an anti-fragile mindset.
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An AI-Driven Approach to Creating Effective Learning Experiences at QCon
An experiment was created around a certification program influenced by AI at QCon London, which included special events during the conference, a pre-conference breakfast where participants could learn about upcoming activities, and an AI-driven workshop immediately following the conference. Wes Reisz spoke at InfoQ Dev Summit Boston about a program he led using AI.
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Levelling Yourself up as a Software Engineer While Climbing through the Ranks
As software engineers grow into senior, Staff+, or principal roles, they take on greater responsibility, complex projects, and influence beyond code, Suhail Patel explained in his talk about growing oneself as a software engineer at QCon London. Growth isn’t linear; it requires mastering communication, strategy, and soft influence. Writing, speaking, and 1:1s can help to expand impact.
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How Amazon Uses Guardrails in Software Development
Carlos Arguelles spoke about Amazon’s inflection points in engineering productivity at QCon San Francisco, where he explained that shift testing left can help catch issues early. He suggested using guardrails such as code reviews and coverage checks. Your repo strategy, monorepo or multirepo, will impact the guardrails that need to be in place.
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How to Build Secure Software without Sacrificing Productivity
Security can clash with development efficiency. Focusing on minimizing breach impact can be more effective than prevention. Dorota Parad argues for flexibility in compliance and collaborating with security teams to define practical protections. Limiting blast radius and using automation can boost security with minimal productivity loss.
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How Pair Programming Enhanced Development Speed, Focus, and Flow
Ola Hast and Asgaut Mjølne Söderbom gave a talk about continuous delivery with pair programming at QCon London. Their team uses pair and mob programming with TDD; there are no solo tasks or separate code reviews. This approach boosts code quality, reduces waste, and enables the sharing of knowledge. Frequent breaks help to maintain focus and flow.
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Navigating Complexity, from AI Strategy to Resilient Architecture: InfoQ Dev Summit Munich 2025
Tired of conferences that don't address your real challenges? The InfoQ Dev Summit Munich 2025 schedule is different. It's packed with sessions on the topics that keep us up at night: responsible AI adoption, leadership friction, and EU data sovereignty
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How Software Engineers Can Grow Their Career
To grow their career, Bruno Rey suggests that software engineers should develop ambition, increase their capacity, and seek opportunities. He advises being proactive, broadening your influence by learning from peers, and stepping outside your comfort zone. Software engineers can keep a brag doc to ensure that their work is visible and plan their growth with realistic long-term goals.
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QCon AI New York 2025: Program Committee Announced
Meet the QCon AI New York Program Committee, senior software leaders shaping a practical AI conference for engineers building at scale.
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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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Using Social Drivers to Improve Software Engineering Team Performance
According to Lizzie Matusov, technical drivers like velocity offer an incomplete view of team performance. Social drivers—trust, autonomy, purpose, and psychological safety—provide a fuller picture and reveal important areas of opportunity for improvement. She spoke about the social drivers behind high-performing engineering teams at QCon San Francisco.
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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 Developers Can Eliminate Software Waste and Reduce Climate Impact
High performance and sustainability correlate; making software go faster by improving the efficiency of algorithms can reduce energy requirements, Holly Cummins said at QCon London. She suggested switching systems off when not in use to reduce the environmental footprint. Developers can achieve more by doing less, improving productivity, she said.
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Inflection Points in Engineering Productivity for Improving Productivity and Operational Excellence
As companies grow, investing in custom developer tools may become necessary. Initially, standard tools suffice, but as companies scale in engineers, maturity, and complexity, industry tools may no longer meet needs. Inflection points, such as a crisis, hyper-growth, or reaching a new market, often trigger investments, providing opportunities for improving productivity and operational excellence.