There are humans inside your software

Software is designed to work for users (UI) and machines (API), but how much thought do we put into designing the experience of the people who tend and grow it?

Beyond DevEx, this talk will explore what happens when engineering systems rely on humans to compensate for their shortcomings: heroes, invisible work, burnout, and unnecessary cognitive load. We’ll look at how teams can move knowledge and decision-making out of people’s heads and into their systems. The goal is to build environments we can relax into and where expertise is spent on what really matters.

Who is this talk for?

This talk is for software engineers, technical leads, engineering managers, and anyone who shapes the systems and ways of working that engineering teams live inside.

What will attendees take away?

• Look for the human interface. Engineering systems have a user experience too. Notice where people are compensating for the system with memory, vigilance, coordination, or expertise.

• Move cognitive load into the environment. Use documentation, automation, feedback, defaults, and other mechanisms to help people remember, discover, decide, and recover…rather than expecting them to carry everything in their heads.

• Design by experimenting, not cargo-culting. There is no universal set of "good engineering practices." Notice where your team is struggling, try a small change, learn from it, and keep improving the system based on what actually helps.