Arty Starr

Engineering Feedback Loops

5:00 PM MDT

Science is a systematic process of engineering feedback loops that help you learn. This learning isn't arbitrary. In science, we're on a mission to discover useful clues that help us understand a system. Whether that system is a product we're trying to design, a process we want to improve, or an application we're trying to understand – the art of engineering feedback loops still applies.

In this session, we'll breakdown a foundational framework for engineering feedback loops based on Statistical Process Control (SPC) theory from the Lean Manufacturing world, applied to the art of problem-solving in software development. We'll start with explicit models for the problem-solving process itself, then discuss a framework for engineering feedback loops on top.

Ramp up your engineering skills like never before, by mastering the art of the feedback loop.

Test Harnessing Legacy Infrastructure

9:00 AM MDT

In the world of legacy code, we often end up inheriting a tangled ball of mess with a lack of automation, and no clear surfaces for testing. Yet still, under these circumstances, we're expected to safely make changes without regressions. Where do we start? How do we tackle this challenge? How do we get a handle on re-architecture?

We'll start this discussion with a first-hand use case and example – tackling the re-architecture of an 800k line JBoss application with near-zero unit tests. Ugh. The only option on the table was Selenium. UGH.

Let's talk about alternative strategies. How have you tackled similar situations? How could we build a data-driven regression framework without going through the UI?

This session will be 70% discussion, focused on the challenges you've faced in test harnessing legacy code. Be ready to share the story of a challenge your facing, or help out your fellow attendees with advice.

We'll discuss the strategies used to conquer the challenge in this case study, and how you could apply the same pattern to your own projects.

Test Automation Disasters

10:45 AM MDT

How much time have you spent automating tests, then discovered the tests were mostly useless, brittle, time-consuming, and hard to understand? How many times have you deleted everything, started over, and came with a substantially better strategy for next time?

In this session, we'll dig into one disaster story at a time, explore the nuts & bolts, then distill lessons learned and improvement ideas.

One of the best ways to evolve our brain's “Anti Pain” gut feel system is through sharing disaster experiences, reflecting on alternatives, and distilling patterns and lessons learned.

As a bonus, venting your frustrations is cathartic!

Putting Out Fires with Gasoline

1:30 PM MDT

Once upon a time, it was just me and my app – the days when all I had to know was “get data, put on screen.” Fast forward ten years later, and what the hell happened? The level of complexity that we deal with in modern software development is insane.

Are we really better off than we were 10 years ago, or have we just been putting out our fires with gasoline?

In this session, we'll turn the projector off, and focus on a deep-dive discussion, contrasting the world of 10 years ago versus today. Rather than generalizations and hand-waiving about the golden promises of automation and magic frameworks, we're going to question everything and anchor our discussions in concrete experience.

Looking back across your career in software development, how has the developer experience changed?

First, we'll dig into the biggest causes of friction in software development, and how our solutions have created new problems. Then we'll focus on distilling strategies for overcoming these challenges, and how we can take our teams, and our industry in a better direction.

Theory of Reality Construction

3:15 PM MDT

Ready Player One.

Welcome to the future of Augmented Reality. All physical limitations of what can exist around you, have now been lifted. In the world of AR, we can visualize anything we can dream… so dare to dream big.

In this session, we'll break down the Matrix into a buildable software architecture model – the algorithm of Life() expressed as a probabilistic Magnet Operating System. Next, we become Software Shaman responsible for shaping the metaphors and schemas that define the Oasis… welcome to the world of Reality Construction.

You might like to believe that “objective reality” and “perception” can be decoupled from one another, but the attempt at decoupling these things, is yet another layer of perception. The entire system of sense-making is emotionally-biased to explain our feelings. Rationality is a facade on top of an emotionally-wired brain.

What if we re-engineered the Game of Life from the ground up as an Augmented Reality Video Game? What does your Oasis look like?

Welcome to the future. Let's make it fun.