Expert software developers’ approach to error

Drawing on decades of research with professional software developers, this talk will summarise insights about how experts and high-performing teams use 'error as opportunity' leading to better software.

Marian Petre

Marian Petre 'picks the brains' of expert software developers to understand what makes them expert. She has spent decades studying how they reason and communicate about design and problem solving. Her research is grounded in empirical studies of professionals in industry and draws on cognitive and social theory. By observing, talking to, and working with hundreds of professional software developers in organisations ranging from start-ups to the world's major software companies, she exposes actionable insights into the thinking that distinguishes high-performing teams. Petre is an Emeritus Professor at the Open University (UK) and a Visiting Distinguished Professor at University of California, Irvine. Her most recent book is "Software Design Decoded" (MIT Press), and she received a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award in recognition of her work.