Speaker
Abstract
AI is changing software development far faster than our engineering practices are evolving, and many teams are struggling to adapt their processes and tools to keep up. In this talk, I'll share what we're learning about three connected threats to software health: technical debt, cognitive debt, and intent debt, and how they manifest in practice when we rely on AI. I'll also explore new approaches for helping both humans and AI better understand evolving software systems created by humans and AI working together, with practical ideas for measuring, managing, and reducing these forms of debt.
$2,835, Conference (3 days). Current pricing ends September 8th. All pass options.
QCon San Francisco 2026 is a three day conference for senior software engineers, architects and team leads. An international program committee of working engineers selects every session. Patterns and practices, not products and pitches.
Part of the track
Engineering the Developer Experience Hosted by Ankit Jain Co-Founder & CEO @AviatorFrom the same track
Wednesday 18 November
10:35 Ballroom A Session Features vs Futures Kent Beck Original Signer of the Agile Manifesto, Author of the Extreme Programming Book Series, Rediscoverer of Test-Driven Development Details coming soon. 11:45 Ballroom A Session Understanding as a Deliverable: How AI Changes What Healthy Software Looks Like Margaret-Anne Storey Professor of Computer Science @University of Victoria, Co-Creator of the SPACE Framework and the Triple Debt Model for Software Health, a Canada Research Chair in Human and Social Aspects of Software Engineering AI is changing software development far faster than our engineering practices are evolving, and many teams are struggling to adapt their processes and tools to keep up. 13:35 Ballroom A Session No More Small Systems, How AI May Bring Large System Problems to Everyone Adam Bender Technical Lead for Enterprise Engineering @Google Once you figure out how to use AI to make your organization productive, you will soon find you have a whole new set of problems. While some of those problems will be novel thanks to LLMs, many of them are just the result of there being "more stuff". 14:45 Ballroom A Session Building a Culture of Engineering Excellence in the AI Era Details coming soon. 15:55 Ballroom A Session Navigating AI Panic in Software Engineering Details coming soon.