When we talk about reliable systems, we talk a lot about human error. Human error in an incident or a bug report is often treated with a bit of a facepalm reaction. The term masks a lot of scenarios from accidents to exhaustion to everything in between. However, human error helps us understand where our processes failed and how we can prevent the same error from happening again. In short, we need to think in terms of a framework of guidelines and guardrails. In this short talk, let’s discuss how guidelines like runbooks and guardrails like automation can help us address the fact that everyone will, at some point, make mistakes.

Delivering software quickly and securely is important for every organization, but it's even more important at the US Department of Defence (DoD) where reliability directly impacts national security. Nicolas Chaillan (Chief Software Officer, US Air Force) will discuss the DoD Enterprise DevSecOps Initiative—an initiative he leads along with the DOD’s Chief Information Officer that brings automated software tools, services and standards to DoD programs. He'll also share about Platform One, the Air Force's DoD-wide DevSecOps Enterprise Level Service that provides managed IT services capabilities, on-boarding, support, and baked-in zero trust security. This insight from operating at the most rigorous level will help you level up your own organization.

For over a decade, the DevOps movement has been using cultural change to power technological transformation and help companies deliver better products faster and more reliably. While many organizations have embraced this change and reaped the benefits, it hasn't come without challenges and many more remain. In this session, Emily Freeman (author of DevOps for Dummies) shares what's next for DevOps and how it will impact your organization.

The most successful organizations are the ones that embrace change and use it to become stronger and more resilient. In this panel discussion, we'll talk with engineering leaders about how they adapted to the challenges of 2020, what successes (and failures) they've seen, and where the future of reliable engineering teams is headed.