How did you get started in the world of IT? Was it at first just a hobby or did you know right from the start that it was your calling?
My hobby as a schoolboy was making model rockets. You shoot them into the sky with a black powder propellant kit, and if you've designed the rocket correctly, a parachute opens and brings it back to earth safely. If it doesn't, the rocket will be scrap wood: if the parachute opens too early, it will tear the rocket apart as it climbs. If it opens too late, you have to dig the remains of the rocket out of the field. You quickly learn that it's more fun to work it all out. And because there was no software for this, that was the motivation for me to teach myself programming. At the time, I even made it the subject of my dissertation (it was a compulsory part of the Abitur in Bavaria) and took part in a research program for youth named “Jugend forscht”. I didn't get very far there (my measurement rocket, which I wanted to use to validate my calculated data, unfortunately exploded on the second flight due to a propellant error, so I basically only had a single data point, and that's not very much for research, of course ;-p), but I met others there who were also interested in programming. That helped me to keep going.
At JavaLand, you will be giving the presentation "Test Intelligence for historically grown systems". Why did you choose this particular topic?
For two reasons: Firstly, I see with many of our customers that the test suites of historically grown systems have also grown historically. And historically grown in this context is actually a paraphrase of "you wouldn't build it that way today, but you can't simply change it, but you can't do without it either, so we have to get to grips with it now". In concrete terms, however, this means that the tests for many mission-critical systems take far too long and have far too many gaps. That is painful. And secondly, this is an area that my colleagues and I have been researching for around a decade, and we have actually developed approaches (e.g. for prioritizing and selecting tests) that work well in practice. Finally, it is of course exciting to see where AI approaches can be applied here and whether they are really any good in practice.
What developments or trends are you currently following in the Java world?
At the moment, I'm particularly interested in where the use of AI really makes a difference in development and testing. And not whether it is possible in principle and what you could do, but what actually works and saves time and effort.
What are you most excited about at JavaLand?
The personal encounters. Even though I'm surprised at how well virtual meetings work in many areas of life when I look back over the last five years, conferences are not one of them for me here. Nothing beats a face-to-face meeting. In a lecture, over a chat at the coffee machine and over a beer after work.
What was the first thing that went through your mind when you heard about the Nürburgring as the location for JavaLand 2024?
Exciting and I'm looking forward to it!
What do you like to do most in your free time?
When my children leave me alone, I like to go out to eat and drink a cold beer, preferably on tap and from a local brewery.
Thank you very much for the interview, Elmar!
