Catch up: BBC North East Tech Hub Meetup
The BBC North Tech MeetUp is a free event hosted by the BBC at its Newcastle Tech Hub that brings together local tech professionals, from software developers to product managers to UX designers.
Hosted each month, it’s designed to foster connections between the BBC’s digital teams and the broader North East tech community through local tech showcases and enriching, diverse tech content.
On Tuesday 8th July Abhinav Tummala, Quality Engineer at Leighton joined the BBC and regional peers to discuss how they are using technology to deliver impactful digital services. Here he shares some of his key takeaways from the event.
This month I attended the BBC Tech MeetUp. Throughout the event there were some interesting perspectives and insightful discussions around the key themes which this time around centred on ‘Tail vs Trail’ product development and the application of AI in software development.
During the BBC’s Senior Software Developer, Jack Sheriff’s talk on ‘Tail vs Trail Product Development’ he highlighted the various aspects that teams need to consider in order to succeed, including how to strike a balance between long-term stability (the Tail) and short-term agility (the Trail).
In the ‘Tail vs Trail’ concept, the ‘Tail’ represents the foundation for example, features and services that are core to the product and require high reliability, thorough testing, and long-term support. Whereas the ‘Trail’ covers areas where experimentation and innovation happen rapidly, think A/B testing, quick feature rollouts, and Minimum Viable Products (MVPs).
One of my key takeaways from the talk was that teams need to deliberately separate and manage these two streams of work to avoid slowing down innovation while still protecting what matters most to users.
The ‘Tail and Trail’ framework is useful in today’s development environments where teams are being asked to both maintain reliability and move fast. Often as developers we need to work across products that have legacy components where we need to ensure stability alongside new features. Having a strategy to separate these modes of work allows us to innovate without constantly breaking things or slowing down delivery.
Marek Grzebyk, Software Engineer at Utility Warehouse also delivered an insightful talk on Rethinking AI in Development: Avoiding the Hidden Pitfalls. Given the rising prominence of AI and its application in software development this talk was particularly pertinent for attendees.
The talk predominantly focused on the rising importance of Prompt Engineering – the practice of drafting effective inputs for AI systems to get accurate and useful outputs. It was interesting to hear more about how failing to implement proper prompt engineering and blindly trusting the outputs produced can lead to subtle, but sometimes critical, bugs in our systems. I really enjoyed this element of the event, my key takeaway was that working with AI is important, but we need to make sure we work with it well to maintain code quality and system integrity.
With AI rapidly integrating into everything there’s a growing pressure to ensure it’s used safely and responsibly. Given the field is evolving quickly, the session also spent time highlighting growing security risks which it’s important to be aware of including prompt injection attacks – where malicious prompts manipulate AI behaviour, data leakage – where sensitive information could unintentionally be revealed and the importance of contextual filtering and output validation. As organisations adopt generative AI, security, testing and human review processes need to evolve in parallel.
For more information about the BBC Tech Meetup series and upcoming events please visit: https://www.meetup.com/bbc-tech-meetup/.
The BBC North Tech MeetUp is a free event hosted by the BBC at its Newcastle Tech Hub that brings together local tech professionals, from software developers to product managers to UX designers.
Hosted each month, it’s designed to foster connections between the BBC’s digital teams and the broader North East tech community through local tech showcases and enriching, diverse tech content.
On Tuesday 8th July Abhinav Tummala, Quality Engineer at Leighton joined the BBC and regional peers to discuss how they are using technology to deliver impactful digital services. Here he shares some of his key takeaways from the event.
This month I attended the BBC Tech MeetUp. Throughout the event there were some interesting perspectives and insightful discussions around the key themes which this time around centred on ‘Tail vs Trail’ product development and the application of AI in software development.
During the BBC’s Senior Software Developer, Jack Sheriff’s talk on ‘Tail vs Trail Product Development’ he highlighted the various aspects that teams need to consider in order to succeed, including how to strike a balance between long-term stability (the Tail) and short-term agility (the Trail).
In the ‘Tail vs Trail’ concept, the ‘Tail’ represents the foundation for example, features and services that are core to the product and require high reliability, thorough testing, and long-term support. Whereas the ‘Trail’ covers areas where experimentation and innovation happen rapidly, think A/B testing, quick feature rollouts, and Minimum Viable Products (MVPs).
One of my key takeaways from the talk was that teams need to deliberately separate and manage these two streams of work to avoid slowing down innovation while still protecting what matters most to users.
The ‘Tail and Trail’ framework is useful in today’s development environments where teams are being asked to both maintain reliability and move fast. Often as developers we need to work across products that have legacy components where we need to ensure stability alongside new features. Having a strategy to separate these modes of work allows us to innovate without constantly breaking things or slowing down delivery.
Marek Grzebyk, Software Engineer at Utility Warehouse also delivered an insightful talk on Rethinking AI in Development: Avoiding the Hidden Pitfalls. Given the rising prominence of AI and its application in software development this talk was particularly pertinent for attendees.
The talk predominantly focused on the rising importance of Prompt Engineering – the practice of drafting effective inputs for AI systems to get accurate and useful outputs. It was interesting to hear more about how failing to implement proper prompt engineering and blindly trusting the outputs produced can lead to subtle, but sometimes critical, bugs in our systems. I really enjoyed this element of the event, my key takeaway was that working with AI is important, but we need to make sure we work with it well to maintain code quality and system integrity.
With AI rapidly integrating into everything there’s a growing pressure to ensure it’s used safely and responsibly. Given the field is evolving quickly, the session also spent time highlighting growing security risks which it’s important to be aware of including prompt injection attacks – where malicious prompts manipulate AI behaviour, data leakage – where sensitive information could unintentionally be revealed and the importance of contextual filtering and output validation. As organisations adopt generative AI, security, testing and human review processes need to evolve in parallel.
For more information about the BBC Tech Meetup series and upcoming events please visit: https://www.meetup.com/bbc-tech-meetup/.
The BBC North Tech MeetUp is a free event hosted by the BBC at its Newcastle Tech Hub that brings together local tech professionals, from software developers to product managers to UX designers.
Hosted each month, it’s designed to foster connections between the BBC’s digital teams and the broader North East tech community through local tech showcases and enriching, diverse tech content.
On Tuesday 8th July Abhinav Tummala, Quality Engineer at Leighton joined the BBC and regional peers to discuss how they are using technology to deliver impactful digital services. Here he shares some of his key takeaways from the event.
This month I attended the BBC Tech MeetUp. Throughout the event there were some interesting perspectives and insightful discussions around the key themes which this time around centred on ‘Tail vs Trail’ product development and the application of AI in software development.
During the BBC’s Senior Software Developer, Jack Sheriff’s talk on ‘Tail vs Trail Product Development’ he highlighted the various aspects that teams need to consider in order to succeed, including how to strike a balance between long-term stability (the Tail) and short-term agility (the Trail).
In the ‘Tail vs Trail’ concept, the ‘Tail’ represents the foundation for example, features and services that are core to the product and require high reliability, thorough testing, and long-term support. Whereas the ‘Trail’ covers areas where experimentation and innovation happen rapidly, think A/B testing, quick feature rollouts, and Minimum Viable Products (MVPs).
One of my key takeaways from the talk was that teams need to deliberately separate and manage these two streams of work to avoid slowing down innovation while still protecting what matters most to users.
The ‘Tail and Trail’ framework is useful in today’s development environments where teams are being asked to both maintain reliability and move fast. Often as developers we need to work across products that have legacy components where we need to ensure stability alongside new features. Having a strategy to separate these modes of work allows us to innovate without constantly breaking things or slowing down delivery.
Marek Grzebyk, Software Engineer at Utility Warehouse also delivered an insightful talk on Rethinking AI in Development: Avoiding the Hidden Pitfalls. Given the rising prominence of AI and its application in software development this talk was particularly pertinent for attendees.
The talk predominantly focused on the rising importance of Prompt Engineering – the practice of drafting effective inputs for AI systems to get accurate and useful outputs. It was interesting to hear more about how failing to implement proper prompt engineering and blindly trusting the outputs produced can lead to subtle, but sometimes critical, bugs in our systems. I really enjoyed this element of the event, my key takeaway was that working with AI is important, but we need to make sure we work with it well to maintain code quality and system integrity.
With AI rapidly integrating into everything there’s a growing pressure to ensure it’s used safely and responsibly. Given the field is evolving quickly, the session also spent time highlighting growing security risks which it’s important to be aware of including prompt injection attacks – where malicious prompts manipulate AI behaviour, data leakage – where sensitive information could unintentionally be revealed and the importance of contextual filtering and output validation. As organisations adopt generative AI, security, testing and human review processes need to evolve in parallel.
For more information about the BBC Tech Meetup series and upcoming events please visit: https://www.meetup.com/bbc-tech-meetup/.
The BBC North Tech MeetUp is a free event hosted by the BBC at its Newcastle Tech Hub that brings together local tech professionals, from software developers to product managers to UX designers.
Hosted each month, it’s designed to foster connections between the BBC’s digital teams and the broader North East tech community through local tech showcases and enriching, diverse tech content.
On Tuesday 8th July Abhinav Tummala, Quality Engineer at Leighton joined the BBC and regional peers to discuss how they are using technology to deliver impactful digital services. Here he shares some of his key takeaways from the event.
This month I attended the BBC Tech MeetUp. Throughout the event there were some interesting perspectives and insightful discussions around the key themes which this time around centred on ‘Tail vs Trail’ product development and the application of AI in software development.
During the BBC’s Senior Software Developer, Jack Sheriff’s talk on ‘Tail vs Trail Product Development’ he highlighted the various aspects that teams need to consider in order to succeed, including how to strike a balance between long-term stability (the Tail) and short-term agility (the Trail).
In the ‘Tail vs Trail’ concept, the ‘Tail’ represents the foundation for example, features and services that are core to the product and require high reliability, thorough testing, and long-term support. Whereas the ‘Trail’ covers areas where experimentation and innovation happen rapidly, think A/B testing, quick feature rollouts, and Minimum Viable Products (MVPs).
One of my key takeaways from the talk was that teams need to deliberately separate and manage these two streams of work to avoid slowing down innovation while still protecting what matters most to users.
The ‘Tail and Trail’ framework is useful in today’s development environments where teams are being asked to both maintain reliability and move fast. Often as developers we need to work across products that have legacy components where we need to ensure stability alongside new features. Having a strategy to separate these modes of work allows us to innovate without constantly breaking things or slowing down delivery.
Marek Grzebyk, Software Engineer at Utility Warehouse also delivered an insightful talk on Rethinking AI in Development: Avoiding the Hidden Pitfalls. Given the rising prominence of AI and its application in software development this talk was particularly pertinent for attendees.
The talk predominantly focused on the rising importance of Prompt Engineering – the practice of drafting effective inputs for AI systems to get accurate and useful outputs. It was interesting to hear more about how failing to implement proper prompt engineering and blindly trusting the outputs produced can lead to subtle, but sometimes critical, bugs in our systems. I really enjoyed this element of the event, my key takeaway was that working with AI is important, but we need to make sure we work with it well to maintain code quality and system integrity.
With AI rapidly integrating into everything there’s a growing pressure to ensure it’s used safely and responsibly. Given the field is evolving quickly, the session also spent time highlighting growing security risks which it’s important to be aware of including prompt injection attacks – where malicious prompts manipulate AI behaviour, data leakage – where sensitive information could unintentionally be revealed and the importance of contextual filtering and output validation. As organisations adopt generative AI, security, testing and human review processes need to evolve in parallel.
For more information about the BBC Tech Meetup series and upcoming events please visit: https://www.meetup.com/bbc-tech-meetup/.
