PREFACE

Finding the Right Balance!

The pandemic has enforced many changes. Some of them are long-lasting or at least discussed if they should be kept. The most prominent example is the possibility of working from home. Of course, working from home has many advantages, for example, less time and energy for commuting, more flexibility (especially for families with small children), and improved accessibility for disabled people. Yet, there are also disadvantages when working remotely like building trust is much faster in person than virtually, “accidental” knowledge transfer at the water cooler or in the cafeteria, or resolving conflicts. Thus, organizations need to find a balance that will suit the needs of all.

In our profession, we continuously have to weigh topics against each other. For example, how much innovation do we need versus how much preservation is required? Or how much altruism can or should we afford? Architectural and technical decisions have to be balanced continuously to ensure the system is usable, valuable, and feasible. And like a pendulum, companies keep asking in turn for more general or for more expert knowledge. And finally, if we look at organizational structures, then we keep having discussions about (dis-)advantages of pre-defined structures versus (complete) self-organization. These examples show that it is key in many aspects to finding the right balance on a continuum.

The 14 track chairs have created insightful tracks that explore these considerations. I want to point out some of the tracks, for example, SUSTAIN_ability - responsible steps into the future, Product Development in Balance, and Social Integration. And on the more technical side, we will be offering the following topics at OOP 2023 Digital: Software Architecture: New Approaches & Fundamentals, C++ & Programming Embedded Systems, as well as The State of Modern Web Development, or DevOps: The Balance between Dev and Ops.

I’m particularly looking forward to the new track concentrating on Leadership, which examines how self-leadership and self-responsibility are the foundation for balancing both staying healthy as leaders and keeping the power to support people, teams, and organizations.

OOP 2023 Digital will serve as a platform for technical experts, (project) managers, and leaders for gaining an excellent overview of state-of-the-art in modern software engineering. In order to do so, we will focus on cutting-edge techniques that have also proven to be successful in practical use.

OOP 2023 Digital is still impacted by the pandemic. Even with the last years’ experience with OOP Digital, things will be again different this time. Yet, I want to reiterate that different doesn’t necessarily mean worse but rather unique and special.

Therefore, also for the conference, we need to Find the Right Balance! Welcome to another very special OOP 2023 Digital!

Jutta Eckstein

Program Chair OOP 2023 Digital

As the program chair of the conference, Jutta Eckstein has the overall responsibility for the technical quality of the OOP conference. As an independent coach, consultant and trainer she focuses on enabling agile development on the organizational level.