DevOpsDays Kansas City

Embrace the Break: Engineering for Chaos, Without Disruptions.
2024-05-16 , Auditorium

People are well, unpredictable. And sometimes so are their projects. In this talk we’ll go over how to embrace the possibility of breakage, all without risking a possible disruption. From conducting experiments, migrating databases, or implementing new features — we’ll walk through how to mitigate different pitfalls, and what we can learn when we design with chaos in mind.

We know we don’t live in a perfect world, so why do we build in a manner that requires perfection? Let’s explore how the development process might look if we embraced our breaking points. Attendees will learn the benefits of engineering for chaos, including understanding risk mitigation, how to build internal safety nets and the magic that can happen when you create safe spaces to experiment and explore.


People are well, unpredictable. And sometimes so are their projects. In this talk we’ll go over how to embrace the possibility of breakage, all without risking a possible disruption. From conducting experiments, migrating databases, or implementing new features — we’ll walk through how to mitigate different pitfalls, and what we can learn when we design with chaos in mind.

Erin Mikail Staples is a developer experience engineer, stand-up comedian and dog mom living in Brooklyn, NYC🗽 by way of Reno, NV 🤠.

In her 9-5, she works as a ✨ a Developer Experience Engineer✨ at LaunchDarkly. Her work includes contributions to technical demos and content, faciliating relationships with developer communities, among other fun shenanigans. After hours, Erin hosts the DevRel(ish) podcast, and performs and produces comedy in NYC.

Erin's various shenanigans have taken her to speaking at events like PyData Berlin, and PyCon, garnered Jeff Staple's attention, appeared in The New York Times, broadcasted across the sound waves on the Practical AI podcast, or in USA Today's Storytellers Project, exist in the archive of the Museum of Alternate History and her mom's dogs's Instagram account.