Tue, Dec 01 - Keynote: Darja Smite

Abstract

In the XXth century, software engineering has evidence the rise and fall of heroic programmers. As systems grew in scale and complexity, we learned to value teamwork, shared knowledge, collective ownership, and, eventually, the principles of agile development. But are we now reversing that journey? Remote and hybrid work began a new wave of individualization, giving software engineers greater autonomy over where, when and how they work, while also weakening some of the everyday interactions through which teams coordinate, learn, innovate, and build belonging. Generative AI takes this transformation much further. Developers can increasingly turn to AI rather than colleagues to understand code, solve problems, generate solutions, review work, and learn. With autonomous agents, we may be approaching a world in which one developer can accomplish what once required a team. Drawing on empirical studies of remote work and AI adoption in software organizations, this keynote asks what happens when individual capability grows faster than collective capability. Are we heading toward a Team of One or an Augmented Team in which collective intelligence is still important?

Bio

Darja Smite Darja Šmite is a Professor of Software Engineering at Blekinge Institute of Technology and a part-time research scientist at SINTEF Digital. For more than two decades she has studied how software work is sourced, distributed and coordinated. Her research covers sourcing, cost and benefits calculation, hybrid and remote work policies, teamwork, and, more recently, how generative AI is changing software engineering. Šmite has conducted research with and for international companies including Ericsson, Spotify, Telenor, SONY, Storebrand, ABB, DXC, among others, and brings first-hand insight from collaborations with offshore vendors and sites in India, China, Croatia, Latvia, Poland, Russia and Ukraine.