Conference

Schedule

  • Day 1

    Oct 28 Workshops

  • Day 2

    Oct 29 Workshops

  • Day 3

    Oct 30 Plenaries

  • SOFTCON Bytes

    Pre-conference workshops. 3 Fridays, 3PM

  • Opening & Welcome Remarks
    Where
    Virtual

  • The demand for custom software among large enterprises has increased dramatically over the past few years, yet the age-old challenges in software projects still exist. AI provides a way to rethink how software is built, addressing the inefficiencies across the software development lifecycle that ultimately makes better-quality apps built much faster.

    There has been immense growth in AI-powered tools for software development, and many tech and business leaders are left confused with the choices available in the market. This talk will provide insights to help decision-makers sift through the noise and select the best possible solution given their situation. The talk will also propose a framework wherein AI and ""humans in the loop"" will be working hand-in-hand to for requirements engineering tighter and software builds faster.

    In the context of software dev shops, the talk will be useful in understanding how AI helps achieve better internal efficiency across the SDLC so that teams are able to increase capacity and realize business growth.

    AI
    Where
    Virtual

  • Automated tests are crucial for efficient software development, but flaky tests that inconsistently pass or fail without code changes can severely undermine their value. Such non-determinism sends confusing signals to the team, making it difficult to interpret test results. This erosion of trust in the test suite leads to disregarding signals, integrating features with real failures, and nullifying the purpose of testing. Instead of speeding up progress, flaky tests slow it down, obscure actual bugs, and increase costs. As a result, automation in testing becomes a double-edged sword if not properly maintained.

    In this talk, we will examine the causes and consequences of flaky tests, particularly within Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines. We explore how flaky tests erode trust in test results, delay releases, consume resources, and mask genuine bugs.

    We delve into the common pitfalls of test automation that lead to increased maintenance overhead and decreased reliability. We also emphasize the importance of establishing testing guidelines, leveraging reporting tools, using artificial intelligence (AI), and documenting flaky tests to improve overall test suite health.

    I will also share practical and effective mitigation strategies, emphasizing the importance of code quality, design patterns, advanced tools, comprehensive logging, team collaboration, and regular reviews.

    Finally, we will discuss actionable steps for creating meaningful automated tests, focusing on principles derived from real-world situations from my experience. By adopting these strategies, engineers can build a more reliable and trustworthy test automation suite, leading to faster and more stable software releases.

    Key Takeaways:
    1. Evaluate how flaky tests can erode trust and slow down developments.
    2. Analyse the context and purpose of tests to avoid common pitfalls.
    3. Concrete strategies for identifying and mitigating flaky tests.
    4. Exploring the role of AI and reporting in creating reliable tests.

    QA/QE
    Where
    Virtual

  • As AI advances, we find ourselves heading towards a new era. By living and working with AI technologies, we will operate at a level far beyond our previous potential. This will create a paradigm shift for us and positively impacting everything. With such exponential opportunity, we must fundamentally rethink the Future of QA and how people lead, grow and change in this new context.
    Testing
    Where
    Virtual

  • Running an application in a target platform includes several stages starting from coding to staging including static code analysis, building, testing and monitoring workflows. In every single step, we can use several different tools. In the ideal scenario, when we push our code, it goes through a pipeline where it is styled and formatted, built, packed, installed, tested, integrated and verified. Sounds crazy, we just push the code and all those listed jobs are executed automatically in push on green flows.

    This dream scenario can easily turn into a nightmare. If the pipeline is broken frequently, or running slowly, or is not covering the whole scope; we may start worrying about it. If the pipeline is not failing at all, that is not good news either. It may be a sign to check the quality of tests.

    Learnings from this session include key take-aways such as:

    A checklist to choose automation tools and make the best use of them
    Tips to get rid of flakiness in the deployment pipelines
    A guideline to build a quality mindset and tips for a strong quality gate
    and a set of sample quality metrics to track the product and process maturity

    Testing
    Where
    Virtual

  • This session discusses the comparison of different agentic platforms and some best practices to making them effective.
    AI
    Where
    Virtual

  • Java 8, a cornerstone since its 2014 release, has long been integral to the Java application development landscape. However, the arrival of Java 17 in 2021 marked significant evolution in the ecosystem: it introduced a bunch of groundbreaking features that Java has introduced in a phased manner over the years. Let's delve into some of the pivotal new features available in Java 17, such as Text Blocks, enhancements to the String class, Sealed classes, Record Types, and Pattern Matching which aim to improve productivity, performance, readability, and extensibility of large-scale Java workloads.

    The session will also sneak-peak into potential challenges associated with migration to v17, such as modularity, deprecated or removed features, GC policies and much more.

    The session aims to help developers and organizations navigate the transition from Java v8 to v17, ensuring they can leverage the new capabilities effectively while managing the transition smoothly.

    Java
    Where
    Virtual

  • Most application developers treat a database as file storage, especially if they are near-totally reliant on their ORM. This leads to poor performance and deadlocks that only show up when the system scales. This talk covers some intermediate topics beyond the basics that will save developers from heartache and pain.
    Programming
    Where
    Virtual

  • In this talk, we’ll take a "Glimpse of Elixir". We'll explore how this powerful, yet approachable language can handle everything from real-time web applications to scalable systems, all within the Erlang ecosystem. We'll also see how Erlang handles concurrency and how it works in a distributed environment.

    Whether you’re a backend developer seeking reliability, a frontend developer interested in real-time apps, or simply curious about new technologies, this session will inspire you to give Elixir a try.

    Backend Engineering
    Where
    Virtual

  • This session discusses the Futures Triangle, developed by Sohail Inayatullah. It is a strategic foresight tool used in product development to map the interplay between the pull of the future, push of the present, and weight of the past, helping teams anticipate challenges and opportunities while shaping innovative and resilient product strategies.
    Product Development
    Where
    Virtual

  • This 2-hour workshop offers a real discussion on vibe coding and AI-assisted development. It is a quick run-through of how vibe coding was leveraged to significantly boost developer productivity; and how junior engineers can be upskilled on this role-changing AI paradigm.
    AI
    Where
    Virtual

  • In the rapidly evolving landscape of AI-driven software development, choosing the right toolset can significantly impact your team's efficiency, innovation, and success. This session introduces a structured, repeatable process specifically developed through our experience evaluating AI tools for software testing within the SDLC.

    We'll share practical insights gained from assembling the ideal cross-functional team, establishing clear and targeted evaluation criteria, and executing detailed comparisons of AI testing tools to assess compatibility, scalability, and integration ease.

    While our experience centers on AI tool selection for software testing, attendees will find our home-made approach, adaptable and valuable as a starting point for qualifying AI solutions in other phases of their SDLC. You'll walk away with a proven, experience-based process that can be tailored to your team's unique development context.

    Agile/DevOps
    Where
    Virtual

  • The rapid evolution of the software industry, driven by AI and ML, often overshadows the importance of core computer science principles like operating systems. What's the best way to learn operating systems and make this relevant for the software industry? We create an OS! Our undergraduate Operating Systems course takes a practical approach by having students construct a working OS emulator as their project.

    In this talk, I will share how we revamped an OS course to be more of a hands-on approach rather than conceptual. The project's reference to Linux/Windows shells and commands like ""nvidia-smi,"" ""free,"" and ""vmstat"" highlights its connection to real-world operating systems. Students are exposed to the challenges and complexities of OS development, preparing them for potential careers in systems programming, embedded programming, OS development, or related fields.

    My talk will cover the proposed mapping of OS theory (e.g., I/O, process scheduling, demand paging, etc.) to actual dev skills and the OS emulator project specifications (written in C++). Lastly, I will share our teaching experiences and general student feedback regarding our approach, where 200+ students have already taken our revamped OS course.

    Programming
    Where
    Virtual

  • This talk covers how to adapt software testing and quality management to the use of AI technologies. It includes understanding what are the opportunities where AI can be used in quality assurance and understanding the practical tools available. It also aims to provide the audience options on how they can start to use AI in testing.
    QA/QE
    Where
    Virtual

  • When deploying web applications, we typically have to set up several servers to host our application and its components. In this hands-on workshop, we will develop a Python application and deploy it to AWS Lambda using Serverless Framework. AWS Lambda is the serverless compute service of AWS where you can deploy applications without configuring any servers. We will also use AWS cloud native services like DynamoDB and SQS. We will also grapple with the questions that need to be asked as your Python Serverless application grows in complexity.

    The flow of the workshop will be:
    - 10 mins: Introduction to Serverless Technology
    - 10 mins: How we structure Python applications when deployed in Serverless
    - 10 mins: Hands-on Workshop Introduction
    - 90 mins: Hands-on Workshop Proper

    The rules are:
    - Participants will be required to bring laptops
    - Participants will be grouped into teams of 4 people
    - The group with the most points at the end of the workshop wins. In case there is a tie, the team that is the fastest wins
    - AWS Accounts will be provided
    - Internet connection required to hold the workshop as we would be deploying our applications to the cloud

    The hands-on workshop's milestones are:
    1. Deploy a simple hello world Python application in AWS Lambda
    2. Create a CRUD API that uses DynamoDB as database
    3. Use SQS and S3 to demonstrate event-driven architecture

    Programming



REGISTER

NOW!

28-30 October 2025 | Online (Days 1-2) + Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria (Day 3)

Full XP

Php7K+

  • SOFTCON Bytes
  • Online Workshops
  • Plenary Sessions
  • Access to Expo
  • Replays of Sessions
  • Access to Networking
Buy a Ticket

GET THE EARLY BIRD RATE!

© 2025 Philippine Software Industry Association