Better Software East 2017 Concurrent Session : Risk Aware, Not Risk Averse

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Thursday, November 9, 2017 - 11:30am to 12:30pm

Risk Aware, Not Risk Averse

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Most of us dread failures. But things go wrong. We can become paralyzed by the fear of being the creator of the next outage or critical bug. After a failure, we often hold a postmortem, but this rarely addresses how we can be more proactive in preventing catastrophes. Considering our missteps, failures, and outright crash and burns, we can learn how to ask the right questions at the right time. Siva Katir has thirteen years of experience causing and surviving failures—from the mundane to the maddening. Siva shares the lessons he has learned analyzing his, his co-workers, and his organization’s snafus—from shopping carts that let people purchase things for free to personnel tracking software that couldn't track personnel. Come listen, laugh, and learn how to see patterns that help us improve. Discover how to train yourself to anticipate potential problems well before any code is ever written. It is not about being risk averse—but risk aware.

Siva Katir
PlayFab, Inc.

Siva Katir has more than a dozen years of experience developing cloud, desktop, and mobile systems. Currently he works for PlayFab, a backend-as-a-service for some of the largest video games today, where he wrestles with maintaining near-perfect uptime on a massive scale with a small team. Siva has designed and developed high-availability infrastructures—from synchronizing order and inventory data between multiple companies to managing work permits, worker statuses, and their physical locations across multiple oil refineries. His diverse work experience includes deploying CI pipelines, managing servers, running his own software company for six years, and serving as CTO of another. Siva is passionate about programming and sharing his knowledge with others.