[Masterclass] Resilience & Adaptation in Modern Software | Laura Maguire

In today’s complex and fast-moving software environments, deep technical expertise alone is not enough to thrive at senior levels of engineering leadership. Staff Engineers, Technical Leads, and Engineering Managers are increasingly called upon to navigate uncertainty, anticipate cascading effects, and coordinate across teams and systems.

This masterclass introduces Resilience Engineering as a practical approach to strengthening socio-technical systems. Participants will explore strategies to recognize and respond to change, manage interdependencies, and adapt quickly to surprises inherent in modern software development. Through interactive discussions, case studies, and applied exercises, you will learn to guide your organization toward greater adaptability, robustness, and continuous improvement.

Goals & Outcomes

By the end of this masterclass, participants will:

• Understand the foundations of Resilience Engineering and what it means for software systems to be resilient.
• Learn and practice six core resilience capabilities essential for distributed systems operating at speed and scale:

1. 1. Recognition – Detecting and assessing changing conditions early.
   2. Revision – Updating mental models in routine and failure scenarios.
   3. Replanning – Adjusting plans in real time as conditions evolve.
   4. Reconfiguring – Mobilizing and reallocating technical and human resources.
   5. Reviewing – Reflecting on performance for continuous learning.
   6. Reimagining – Designing new capabilities to meet emerging demands.

• Gain tools for identifying, prioritizing, and initiating resilience-focused improvements in their teams and systems.
• Build confidence in handling novel, unstructured problems and designing adaptive solutions that balance speed, scale, and safety.

Audience

This masterclass is designed for:

• Software Developers who want to contribute more effectively to system resilience and broaden their impact.
• Staff Engineers & Senior Technical Leads who influence architecture and incident response.
• Engineering Managers who support teams operating at speed and scale.

Whether you write code daily, lead projects, or manage teams, this session will give you practical tools for navigating complexity.

Equipment & Requirements

To ensure the most engaging and hands-on experience, participants should have:

• A laptop with internet access.
• Access to collaborative tools (links will be provided).
• An open mindset ready to engage in discussions, share experiences, and work through real-world case studies.

About the Trainer

Dr. Laura Maguire — Principal Research Engineer

Dr. Laura Maguire is a leading expert on the cognitive work of software developers and the design of socio-technical systems capable of handling the complexity of large-scale distributed software environments.

As a Cognitive Systems Engineer & Researcher, she studies how people perform complex, high-value work and applies those insights to improve human–machine collaboration. Her work combines theory and practice, offering evidence-based designs for tooling, processes, and organizational systems that optimize both individual and team performance in software engineering.

She holds a Master’s degree in Human Factors & Systems Safety from Lund University and a Ph.D. in Integrated Systems Engineering from Ohio State University.