InfoQ Homepage Software Engineering Content on InfoQ
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When Unchecked Autoscaling Generates a $120K Cloud Spend
In the wake of a staggering $120K bill due to unchecked autoscaling during a DDoS attack, industry experts stress the necessity of robust FinOps strategies. Key recommendations include capping resource limits and utilizing real-time alerts to prevent financial disasters. Balancing cost control with system availability is crucial to safeguard modern cloud environments.
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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 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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Mistral AI Releases Magistral, Its First Reasoning-Focused Language Model
Mistral AI has released Magistral, a new model family built for transparent, multi-step reasoning. Available in open and enterprise versions, it supports structured logic, multilingual output, and traceable decision-making.
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Windsurf Launches SWE-1 Family of Models for Software Engineering
Windsurf has introduced its first set of SWE-1 models, aimed at supporting the full range of software engineering tasks, not limited to code generation. The lineup consists of three models SWE-1, SWE-1-lite, and SWE-1-mini, each designed for specific scenarios.
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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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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.
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Learning from Embedded Software Development for the Space Shuttle and the Orion MPCV
Software development is much different today than it was at the beginning of the Space Shuttle era because of the tools that we have. But the art and practice of software engineering has not progressed that much since the early days of software development. Compilers are much better and faster, and debuggers are now integrated into development tools, making the task of error detection easier.
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How Senior Software Engineers Can Learn from Junior Engineers
A rigid hierarchical dynamic between senior and junior software engineers can stifle innovation, discourage fresh perspectives, and create barriers to collaboration. According to Beth Anderson, senior engineers can actively learn from their junior counterparts. She suggests creating an environment of mutual growth, psychological safety, and continuous learning.
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How Observability Can Improve the UX of LLM Based Systems: Insights of Honeycomb's CEO at KubeCon EU
During her KubeCon Europe keynote, Christine Yen, CEO and co-founder of Honeycomb, provided insights on how observability can help cope with the rapid shifts introduced by the integration of LLMs in software systems, which transformed not only the way we develop software but also the release methodology. She explained how to adapt your development feedback loop based on production observations.
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Ensuring Security without Harming Software Development Productivity
Security can be at odds with a fast and efficient development process. At QCon San Francisco Dorota Parad presented how to create a foundation for security without negatively impacting engineering productivity. She showed how you can make your security strategy almost invisible to the engineers while embedding it deep into the culture at the same time.
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Learnings from Internal Tool Migrations to Support Software Engineering Efficiency
In her presentation at QCon San Francisco, Ying Dai shared two critical software engineering migration stories - one focused on production monitoring and the other on production deployments with automated validations. Both migrations were driven by the goal of enhancing engineering efficiency, but each came with its own challenges and lessons.
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Exploring Factors that Drive Software Engineering Productivity
Understanding what drives software development productivity is the key to making high-impact investments in engineering productivity, Emerson Murphy-Hill said at QCon San Francisco. He presented the results of their investigation into factors that predict developer productivity and shared what they learned from exploring inequities in software engineering.
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Using DORA for Sustainable Engineering Performance Improvement
DORA can help to drive sustainable change, depending on how it is used by teams and the way it is supported in a company. According to Carlo Beschi, getting good data for the DORA keys can be challenging. Teams can use DORA reports for continuous improvement by analysing the data and taking actions.
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Data Teams Survey: Lag in DataOps and Value Delivered
We report on Jesse Anderson's 2024 Data Teams Survey which showed a lag in DataOps capabilities, slow LLM adoption, and a concerning decline in perceived value creation by data teams. It called out the importance of teams spread with data science, engineering, and operations capabilities. We also cover Petr Janda's recent podcast on the need for more engineering rigour for parity with other teams.