Accelerating development without losing control

Accelerating development without losing control

The state of software development in 2026 is at a critical juncture. Although AI-assisted development tools promise unprecedented speed, without proper foundations, this velocity can become recklessness rather than progress. This hands-on workshop will demonstrate how to embrace modern development practices, including AI agents, while maintaining control mechanisms that ensure quality, architectural integrity, and long-term sustainability.

Participants will learn how to leverage automation and modern tools not as a replacement for discipline, but as a means of enabling higher-velocity development that is still grounded in rigorous quality assurance. The workshop focuses on the principle that speed without control leads to technical debt and system fragility, while control without speed fails to meet modern market demands. The way forward is to establish comprehensive automated safety nets that enable teams to work faster because they can trust their quality controls.

Through practical exercises involving PHP and industry-standard tools, participants will implement a comprehensive quality infrastructure that facilitates rapid development. The workshop progresses from traditional quality practices to their evolution in AI-assisted workflows, demonstrating test-driven development patterns in which humans write specifications as tests and AI agents generate implementations.

Participants will leave with skills that they can apply immediately to accelerate their development processes while strengthening, not weakening, quality controls. The workshop shows that the practices that enable safe AI collaboration are the same as those that enable high-velocity human development. This convergence is the true path to sustainable speed, achieving both velocity and quality through automation and discipline.

The first time I present "Accelerating development without losing control" will be at the Web Summer Camp on in Opatija.

About me

I am the creator and maintainer of PHPUnit, the de facto standard testing framework within the PHP ecosystem. Used by millions of developers, it is embedded in the build pipelines of start-ups, Fortune 500 companies, and public sector organisations alike. I serve on the board of the PHP Foundation and am a co-founder of thePHP.cc, where I advise organisations on testing strategy, software architecture, and dependency management.

I have over 25 years of experience working with Open Source software, having contributed to the PHP language itself as well as the tools on which that ecosystem depends. For most of that time my work has been about exactly the tension this workshop addresses: giving developers the automated safety nets that let them move quickly without losing control of quality, architecture, and long-term sustainability. PHPUnit exists so that teams can trust their changes, and that same trust is what makes higher velocity safe, whether the implementation is written by a human or generated by an AI agent. That experience informs my writing and speaking on software quality, the discipline behind sustainable speed, and the practices that keep AI-assisted development grounded in rigorous quality assurance.

Customized and exclusive

This workshop is also available as a customized, exclusive training for your team. Your preferred date, any number of participants, online and remote or on site and in person. Contact me to discuss the details.

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