Today Mile Two hosted two of the most recognizable names in resilience engineering as part of their ongoing Lunch and Learn series.
Mr. John Allspaw, renowned software systems engineer and former Chief Technology Officer for Etsy, virtually joined Ohio State University professor Dr. David Woods to discuss complexity and uncertainty in modern software product development. A well-known mentor for Mile Two, Dr. Woods leads the company’s cognitive systems engineering (CSE) bootcamp initiative and is the founder of the resilience engineering approach.
Bringing together a CSE thought leader and an accomplished software engineering expert, this Lunch and Learn is a great example of the kind of event that allows Mile Two staff to be innovative leaders in the dynamic software industry.
Mr. Allspaw, a pioneer in DevOps engineering, presented his experiences in the history of development strategies, as well as discussing the transition from linear processes toward collective, iterative development. As Allspaw explains, “It’s not a relay race, it’s a baseball game.” He cited surprising discoveries during his time with Friendster and Etsy that changed the way the industry would operate in the future.
In the later portion of the event, Mile Two employees had the opportunity to discuss their own development environment and processes in the context of the multiple perspectives approach. In concert with Mile Two’s Chief Science Officer, Dr. Alex Morison, many employees took advantage of the opportunity to ask deep-dive questions and explore topics such as visual momentum, perspective-taking, fly-on-the-wall approach, and more. This exchange led to tailored and unique insights from both presenters for a significant portion of the event.
Mile Two’s roots are in CSE, and the company has been honing a custom software engineering process that embodies many of the considerations that Allspaw and Woods believe will continue to drive advancements in the industry. This energizing Lunch and Learn with Dr. Woods and Mr. Allspaw is sure to inspire and shape future Mile Two innovation.
About the Presenters
John Allspaw has worked in software systems engineering and operations for over twenty years in many different environments. John’s publications include the books The Art of Capacity Planning (2009) and Web Operations (2010) as well as the forward to “The DevOps Handbook” His 2009 Velocity talk with Paul Hammond, “10+ Deploys Per Day: Dev and Ops Cooperation” helped start the DevOps movement. John served as CTO at Etsy, and holds an MSc in Human Factors and Systems Safety from Lund University. Follow Mr. John Allspaw on Twitter @allspaw or Adaptive Capacity Labs @AdaptiveCLabs
Dr. David Woods founded Resilience Engineering as an approach to safety in complex systems in 2000-2003 as part of the response to several NASA accidents. David is currently professor at the Ohio State University in Dept. of Integrated Systems Engineering with pioneering research on the interaction between humans and technology in risk critical activities for almost 40 years. His books on safety and resilience engineering include Resilience Engineering: Concepts and Precepts (2006), Behind Human Error (2010), and Resilience Engineering in Practice (2011). Other publications. Follow Dr. David Woods on Twitter @ddwoods2
