Author: Alexander Thurow

On 06.11.2025 I will be holding my talk „Thoughts on (Modern?) Software Development – Observations From a 20-Year Journey” at codecentric AG’s Berlin office (in person and in German).

The talk’s sources can be found here, the Meetup event page can be found here:

https://www.meetup.com/codecentric-berlin/events/311505419

The event location will be:

codecentric AG
Köpenicker Str 31 · Berlin

Google Maps: https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=52.50805%2C%2013.427258

In the ensuing discussion some additional sources were mentioned:

• TBA

On 29.10.2025 I will be holding my talk „Thoughts on (Modern?) Software Development – Observations From a 20-Year Journey” at the Agile Munich Meetup in codecentric AG’s Munich office facilities (in person and in English).

The talk’s sources can be found here, the Meetup event page can be found here:

https://www.meetup.com/agilemunich/events/311522109

The event location will be:

codecentric Plaza
August-Everding-Straße 20
81671 Munich

Google Maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/8vcX59tiHLkZaZLY7

In the ensuing discussion some additional sources were mentioned:

• TBA

On 17.09.2025 I held my talk „Thoughts on (Modern?) Software Development – Observations From a 20-Year Journey” at the Scrum Event London Meetup (remote and in English).

The talk’s sources can be found here, the Meetup event page here:

https://www.meetup.com/scrumevent/events/310507943

In the ensuing Q&A session (and in the talk) some additional sources were mentioned:

• Simon Wardley-recommended „You Vibe It – You Run It?“ post about AI as a “non-learning supporting“ technology
• Talk by „Richard Sheridan“ related to „Joy, Inc.“ + thread about the book
• Timothy Clark: The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety
• Patrick Lencioni: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
• Frédérick Laloux: Reinventing Organizations
• Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister in „Peopleware“ (re-visited): „The High-Tech Illusion“
• Robert C. Martin in „Clean Agile“: The XP „Circle Of Life“ (possibly the „better“ Scrum by Kent Beck)
• Uwe Friedrichsen: „Thoughts on AI and Software Development“ (very good analysis about the state of things in AI in the year of 2025)
• Baldur Bjarnason: „The Intelligence Illusion“
• Baldur Bjarnason: „Out of the Software Crisis“
• Alex’s „featured hashtags“

On 28.08.2025 I held my talk „Thoughts on (Modern?) Software Development – Observations From a 20-Year Journey” at the Scrum Masters HH Meetup (remote and in German).

The talk’s sources can be found here, the Meetup event page here:

https://www.meetup.com/scrum-master-meetup-hamburg/events/310385905

In the ensuing Q&A session some additional sources were mentioned:

• Talk by „Richard Sheridan“ related to „Joy, Inc.“ + thread about the book
• Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister in „Peopleware“ (re-visited): „The High-Tech Illusion“
• Robert C. Martin in „Clean Agile“: The XP „Circle Of Life“ (possibly the „better“ Scrum by Kent Beck)
• Uwe Friedrichsen: „Thoughts on AI and Software Development“ (very good analysis about the state of things in AI in the year of 2025)
• Baldur Bjarnason: „The Intelligence Illusion“
• Baldur Bjarnason: „Out of the Software Crisis“
• Yuval Noah Harari: „Nexus“ and his TED interview
• Joseph Weizenbaum documentation: „Plug & Pray“
• Alex’s „featured hashtags“

On 18.08.2025 I held my talk „Thoughts on (Modern?) Software Development – Observations From a 20-Year Journey” at the joint event of Softwerkskammer Cologne and REWE digital Events Cologne (in person and in German).

The talk’s sources can be found here, the Meetup event pages can be found here:

https://www.meetup.com/softwerkskammer-koln/events/309359339

https://www.meetup.com/rewe-digital-events-cologne/events/309583766

The event location was:

REWE Digital
Schanzenstraße 6-20
Gebäude Kupferwerk 2.20, 1 OG
Köln

Google Maps: https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=50.964565%2C%207.014446

In the ensuing discussion some additional sources were mentioned:

• Talk by „Richard Sheridan“ about „Joy, Inc.“ + thread related to the book
• Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister in „Peopleware“ (re-visited): „The High-Tech Illusion“
• Baldur Bjarnason: „The Intelligence Illusion”
• Baldur Bjarnason: „Out of the Software Crisis“
• Joseph Weizenbaum documentary: „Plug & Pray”
• Toot about the XP „Circle Of Life“
• Uwe Friedrichsen: Thoughts on AI and Software Development
• Dave Thomas: „Simplicity”
• Matt Beane: „The Skill Code”
• Gunter Dueck’s re:publica 2015 talk about „swarm stupidity“
• John Allspaw: “How Your Systems Keep Running Day After Day“ (very good talk, e.g.: „What happens when your senior developers start to communicate their mental model?”)
• James Somers: “The Coming Software Apocalypse“ (bad title, great content)
• James Somers: „The Friendship That Made Google Huge“ (about THE central senior pair programming team at Google)
• Arlo Belshee: „Promiscuous Pairing – What Really Makes Pairing (and Mobbing) Work”
• Neil Postman: Technopoly
• Alex’s “featured hashtags“

On 09.07.2025 I held my talk „Thoughts on (Modern?) Software Development – Observations From a 20-Year Journey” at JUG Paderborn (remote and in German).

The talk’s sources can be found here, more details can be found here:

http://jug-pb.gitlab.io/blog/2025/modern-software-and-elixir.html

The event location was:

adesso SE Paderborn
Lise-Meitner Str. 1c
33104 Paderborn

Google Maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/F9ackQLkcrR3W42y8

In the ensuing discussion some additional sources were mentioned:

• Dan McKinley „Choose Boring Technology“: https://mcfunley.com/choose-boring-technology
• Talk by „Richard Sheridan“ about „Joy, Inc.“ + thread related to the book
• Baldur Bjarnason: “The Intelligence Illusion“
• Baldur Bjarnason: “Out of the Software Crisis“
• Laloux, Frederic: Reinventing Organizations visuell
• Toot zum XP „Circle Of Life“
• Alex’s reading list