Stream: The Courtyard
Time: 10:00 - 10:45
Hi! This is a hands-on lab. Pre-reqs for participants would be to bring their notebooks and a GitHub account. In this hands-on lab, you'll apply the full agentic SDLC to a real COBOL codebase. We'll work through every stage: using GitHub Copilot's agentic capabilities to refine requirements, discover and document existing code, build structured specifications, plan architecture decisions, implement and modernize COBOL to Java. The codebase is mainframe. The practices are universal. You'll use agentic coding techniques, deterministic guardrails, and human oversight to stay in control while Copilot does the heavy lifting. By the end, you'll have a repeatable approach to running an agentic development pipeline on complex code and a realistic sense of where AI accelerates the work, where it needs guardrails, and where your judgment is still the thing that matters.
There is currently no attachment for BYOD Lab: Agentic SDLC with GitHub Copilot in a mainframe codebase
Julia is a Software Global Black Belt at Microsoft, helping large-scale organizations accelerate dev workflows through pragmatic, end-to-end platform engineering. With a background as a Software Engineer, Dev Lead, and Cloud Solution Architect, she speaks fluent developer and management—and knows how to bridge the gap without losing either side in translation. She’s a big-picture thinker who also loves to understand the details. Web and frontend will always have a place in her ❤️. Outside work, Julia is a gamer, a proud fahrradmaus, and a former quarterback for a women’s American football team (yes, really).
Anthony Papageorgiou is an Azure Global Black Belt and Senior Solution Engineer at Microsoft, specialising in Mainframe Migration and Modernisation. With a first-class Computer Science degree from the University of Warwick and over 18 years of enterprise IT experience, he helps organisations modernise core systems and integrate them into cloud strategies. Formerly an IBM Master Inventor with 15 patents, Anthony spent 18 years at IBM leading roles in development, architecture, and strategy for IBM Z software products. He is an expert in APIs, Cloud, and Event Processing technologies and has extensive experience applying Agile, DevOps, and Design Thinking to large-scale projects. A seasoned speaker at over 100 events and author of multiple technical publications, Anthony is recognised for his ability to communicate complex concepts, drive innovation, and deliver transformative solutions for global enterprises.
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