DevOps Days Podcast DevOpsDays.org

When building reliable services unexpected user behavior can prove deadly. Yet few engineering teams make use of talent from their product and design orgs if they are working on something internal. This talk will demonstrate how a product mindset and design thinking can super charge technical discussions and build stronger systems. Don't rely on the user to be "smart!" It can trap you in an impossible architecture.

All your tech is old. Even your new stuff is already old: somebody's already building something that's better. And they're probably going to give it away for free! So, what can you do about that? I have thoughts.

We all spend a lot of energy trying to discover tech debt, and eliminate it. Fat chance! In this talk, I will convince you that all tech is debt, and that it's futile to try to live debt-free. Why? Because none of your tech is an asset; it's *all* liability. From the minute it's created, it's already old. It has security vulnerabilities. It's not idiomatic to whatever the latest trends are. It's eating you from the inside! So what can you do about it? Throw away as much as you can. Let someone else build the rest. And most importantly, focus on your real assets: your people, your culture, your brand. Your customers! Technologists are an asset. But tech? That's debt.

I'm a software engineer who spends her time writing code and developing apps. I have a pretty good grasp of the vocabulary and technologies relevant to my job. But what happens when another facet of engineering, one that is gaining a lot of traction and has a large footprint of its own starts becoming more and more relevant to my day to day tasks? Well, that's exactly what happened to me last year when DevOps became a big part of my role. This is my attempt to impart all of that knowledge onto you.

Taking advantage of AWS Parameter Store and some automation magic to make secret change management a problem of the past. We will talk about:
The importance of secrets management Use Cases Parameter Store vs. Secret Manager Secret Vault and Application Integration points OSS Tools for Automation

Resilience Engineering (RE) is both multidisciplinary field of study as well as a community of practitioner-researchers from multiple high-tempo, high-consequence domains such as aviation, medicine, power distribution, space operations, and critical infrastructure. In recent years, the world of software engineering and operations has become involved and more acquainted with this almost 20 year-old field and community. This talk will give a “lay of the land” on what RE is, what it is not, what efforts are relevant to the DevOps community, what attendees can do to learn more.

As developers, we take great pains to make our applications accessible to users on a range of devices and browsers. There are more adults with disabilities in the US than there are users of Internet Explorer. So why do we spend more time worrying about polyfills for out-dated browsers than we do on ensuring the accessibility of our applications for users of all ability levels? This talk will emphasize the importance of incorporating accessibility best practices throughout our design and development workflow. Simulated experiences of engaging with inaccessible software will provide insight into the realities that millions of users face day to day. Drawing on recommendations from the Department of Justice, we will discuss action steps for evaluating and improving the accessibility of software.

Meg is a science and technology educator turned software engineer working in Washington, DC. She approaches new technologies with curiosity and confidence, building on her interdisciplinary education and experiences. These range from making technology decisions in the non-profit and education sectors to engineering full-stack solutions in a number of programming languages and frameworks. Her interest in accessible development begin with work as a blended learning instructor developing original digital content for a diverse youth audience.
Kim is an attorney and disability rights advocate. Her interest in accessible technology stems from her own vision impairment and her use of assistive software on a daily basis. In her career she has worked in various disability policy areas including housing rights and access to reasonable accommodations in employment. Kim has dedicated her career to the full inclusion of people with all types of disabilities.