Euro-English for software developers
Language-related bugs for international teams
Software developers in Europe inevitably work on international teams and adopt a Euro English dialect. Euro English works surprisingly well, much to the annoyance of native English speakers. What’s less obvious are the subtle ways that Euro English can introduce both software and development-process bugs.
Language issues belong to software architects because architecture is communication. The concepts you build software with, and the words you use, shape a system as much as the software components you use. Architects design how developers talk about a system as much as they design how developers build one.
This talk introduces a collection of language-related software development gotchas that have little to do with how good your English is. You’ll learn what ‘business English’ is for, whether to translate domain model terms into English, and what you should do about ‘trainings’ not being a proper English word. You’ll also become equipped to recognise previously invisible problems, and new ways for your whole team to improve.
About the speaker
Peter Hilton is a product manager, writer, speaker, trainer, and musician from Southern England. Peter has spent the last 21 years working in software development in the Netherlands, learning Euro-English and gradually getting less upset about it. As well as language and music, Peter’s software development interests include no-code automation, web application development, functional design, agile software development and software documentation.
