Human Factors on JAVAPRO International

When Product Owners Commit Code: Small Steps, Big Impact

Thu, 09 Jul 2026 10:01:52 +0000

Disclaimer: No Product Owners were harmed in the making of this story.
Spoiler: They survived. In fact… they thrived.

We never planned to tell this story.. and certainly not six years later. Back when it happened, it didn’t feel revolutionary. It felt… practical. A small fix to a small annoyance. The sort of thing teams do every day just to make life a bit easier.

But today, in a world where AI blurs boundaries and workflows become more fluid, the lesson behind this tiny experiment has become surprisingly relevant again. Because even before the age of “AI copilots”, our Product Owners had to leap across a much wider gap and yet what unfolded wasn’t about tools at all. It was about mindset. About curiosity. About empathy. And about what happens when teams stretch just a little bit beyond the edges of their roles.

JCON EUROPE 2026: Why the Java Community Still Meets in Person

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 07:00:00 +0000

Every year, when we start planning JCON EUROPE, one question always guides us:

How do we create a conference that developers genuinely enjoy attending?

Not just another event with slides and sponsor booths. Not a place where people passively consume information and leave. We wanted to create an environment where developers actively connect, discuss, challenge ideas, and solve real-world problems together.

Looking back at JCON EUROPE 2026, I believe this spirit was visible everywhere.

Will AI Replace Me? Understanding Our Value in the AI Era

Wed, 20 May 2026 07:00:00 +0000

If you tried to keep up with all the content that’s flooding the internet on the topic of “Will AI replace software developers?”, you’d probably found a new full-time job. Social media posts, vlogs or entire channels, even CTO keynotes… not a day goes by without new content.

This article cannot predict the future. But it can offer some orientation in a messy debate by structuring it and making its implicit (and often false) assumptions visible. Because the biggest fallacy may not be overestimating AI - but underestimating what software engineering actually is about.

Grow Beyond Senior: use your Java Expertise to Gain Autonomy and Impact the World

Tue, 09 Dec 2025 07:00:02 +0000

Where Are You in Your Career?

Before we get into the paths beyond senior developer, let’s take a moment to reflect. Think about where you are:

Are you still studying, and not a professional yet?
Are you a junior developer? Mid-level?
Are you a senior developer?

A common goal for juniors and mid-level professionals is to achieve the much desired senior level position.

You can see the path to get there. There are professionals you work with in your team that are seniors. Seniors seem to do similar things than you, at a higher capacity. You learn from them, they pick up the more complex issues, they guide you on the solutions you don’t know. You look up for them. More… You expect to be there some day.

Agile Nightmares - When Agile Methods Become an Innovation Barrier

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 09:03:10 +0000

The Scary Figures of Agility

In the dynamic world of software development and beyond, agility has established itself as a
defining approach.

However, behind the promise of flexibility, customer orientation, and continuous improvement, pitfalls sometimes lurk. Calls are increasing to declare agility as ineffective or even ‘dead’. The real reasons for this growing scepticism, however, rarely lie in the agile principles themselves, but rather in their creeping or even deliberate misinterpretation and application.

Agile, Scrum, Kanban and the Lies We Tell Ourselves About Creating Value

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 07:00:01 +0000

But often, the excitement dies down. Companies feel like Agile isn’t living up to its promises. Teams feel trapped in rituals like standups, retrospectives, and Kanban boards, with little real improvement. Meanwhile, organizations often keep using the same leadership styles, the same lack of psychological safety, and the same outdated metrics. People do the actions of sprints or continuous flow, but see only a little benefit from the big changes.

Beyond Code: Skills for Your Next Career Step

Tue, 15 Jul 2025 07:00:01 +0000

As developers, we’re accustomed to learning new frameworks and programming languages—we’re self-taught experts who leverage tutorials and online resources to expand our technical capabilities. But what happens when you reach that career plateau where coding skills alone aren’t enough to advance? After eight years as a developer, I found myself at this exact crossroads, with no clear path forward in my company. There were no defined roles like Staff Engineer, no clear expectations, and little support for continued growth beyond senior developer positions.