Engineering the future - Engineer's Week November 2023

The history of Engineer’s Week

Back in April 2021, the first Rabobank Engineer’s Week took place, and that’s actually not so long ago. But how did the “Engineer’s Week” come to life? Internally, the engineering culture workgroup convened to strategize on how Rabobank could showcase its identity as an IT company. That’s where the idea came to host an internal conference where everyone could participate, share their knowledge or vision on all kinds of different topics. The Community Management team crafted a platform from a simple concept, engaged in experimentation, and gradually evolved it. Throughout this process, they collaborated with the Product Owner and Scrum Master communities to maximize the effectiveness of the sessions.

Importance of Engineer’s week

The rise of Information Technology (IT) in financial services, has been one of the most significant trends in the past few decades. This intersection of technology and finance has revolutionized the way financial services are delivered, accessed, and managed. The focus and importance of “Engineer’s Week” promotes the engineering profession while highlighting its significance in shaping our world. Some key aspects the Engineer’s Week focuses on:

1. Recognition and appreciation: Engineers get the opportunity and platform to share what they have been working on with their fellow Engineer’s from all over the bank. It’s an opportunity to celebrate the innovative solutions they have been creating
2. Inspiration: Due to the diverse engineering departments at Rabobank, inspiring others can be a challenge. Engineer’s Week serves as an occasion for all to unite, fostering inspiration and education on a wide array of engineering disciplines.
3. Innovation: Engineers find it to be the perfect opportunity to demonstrate their innovations to fellow professionals, enabling them to share and potentially reuse existing solutions.
4. Career development: Participation benefits both the speakers and the attending engineers by offering valuable opportunities to enhance their career development and acquire essential soft skills.
5. Networking: While Rabobank already hosts numerous active communities for engineers to share ideas, Engineer’s Week brings everyone together to foster networking, collaboration, and the exchange of a wide variety of concepts.

Engineer’s week keynote speakers

While the bulk of sessions are hosted by Rabobank Engineers, keynote speakers hold a crucial position during Engineer’s Week. In the November 2023 Edition, the three keynote speakers were Thijs Pepping, Maarten Goet, and Pia Nilsson.

• Working with an Abundance of Generative AI by Thijs Pepping: As a researcher and humanist, Thijs Pepping explores the contours of “the new human”, a mix of flesh and blood and a digital buddy who will write the future together. But what future is that, and what kind of human do we actually want to be?
• 52 minutes to Ransomware by Maarten Goet: What threat actors are out there? How do they operate? What are their motives? How can you detect and respond fast enough to contain the adversary before they accomplish their mission? Maarten Goet shared and learned us about Ransomware-as-a-Service
• DevEx @ Spotify by Pia Nilsson: Pia has been involved in the development of Backstage from the start, she took us on Spotify’s journey to an ideal developer experience. Pia shared the 4 biggest productivity blockers at Spotify and where Spotify is now in regards to DevEx

For Rabobank Engineers, the three keynote speakers offer a broader global perspective as they are coming from diverse backgrounds. They contribute to valuable insights into industry trends across the world. A shout out to our three keynote speakers this edition!

Diversity in sessions

Covering topics from Outlook automation to data synthesis and including a session on autism and ADHD in the workplace, the array of speakers is exceptionally diverse. Each Rabobank Engineer can find a session to attend, as there is always something relevant for every individual.

In the context of speakers that I really enjoyed:

• Simplifying Azure Resources by introducing Managed Templates by Ivo Doeff, Jurjen Oskam and Mónika Nagy: All three colleagues sit at the heart of Engineering Platforms, an emerging technology approach that can accelerate the delivery of application workloads and provide self-service capabilities. In this session, they demonstrated the capabilities on using Managed Templates to deploy Azure Resources based on building blocks Squads can use to deploy their Azure Resources in a simple-way.
• Azure DevOps permission management Q&A by Jeroen Tuinstra: Ever since he first laid his hands upon Azure DevOps, Jeroen has been intrigued by the product. Jeroen possesses extensive expertise in Azure DevOps and assists various departments in optimizing the setup of Azure DevOps for maximum efficiency. In the Q&a session, he briefly went through the permission management of Azure DevOps, and shared his valuable knowledge on questions Engineers could ask.
• Pipeline testing… no, I mean testing pipelines by Henry van Merode: Henry has been working as Solution Architect within Rabobank, and is even a book owner on “Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD): A Practical Guide to Designing and Developing Pipelines”. In his session, he taught us how you can actually test your Azure Pipelines by using a tool he has developed. You can find the project open-sourced on Github.

Inspiring the next generation

Inspiring the next generation of Engineers is not only beneficial for the future of the engineering profession, but also for the betterment of society as a whole. That’s why Engineer’s Week is hosted. To ensure a continuous cycle of innovation, and advancement of engineering solutions for Rabobank Engineers. Today’s global challenges, such as climate change, requires innovative engineering solutions. We as Engineers want to inspire the next generation to tackle these challenge for the future of our planet.

Conclusion

As Engineer’s Week November 2023 Edition has ended, many great lessons are learned. Connections have been made with fellow Engineers, and inspiration is gained. While it’s definitely not the last, the Engineer’s Week November 2023 edition will continue to echo through the minds of all who participated. Every Engineer’s Week that is hosted, is a reminder that engineering is not merely a profession. Instead it’s a dynamic force of positive change for the future. Thanks for all the session that have been hosted and to the keynote speakers.