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FINOS Open Source in Finance Forum in London: Event Summary

Writer's picture: Paula KennedyPaula Kennedy

The Syntasso team attended last month's FINOS Open Source in Finance Forum in LondonĀ and learned a lot! We presented a joint session with Chris Plank from NatWest, had many amazing chats at our sponsored booth, and attended many very interesting sessions. Weā€™ll offer a big thank you to all involved!


Here are our key takeaways and notes from the FINOS OSFF 2024 event!


Chris Plank talking about platform patterns at FINOS OSFF
Chris Plank talking about platform patterns at FINOS OSFF

Financial Services in the Age of AI

The opening keynote panel, ā€œNavigating AI Adoption in Financial Servicesā€, was superb! Colin Eberhardt,Ā Ian Micallef,Ā Emily Prince, andĀ Cara DeliaĀ discussed how the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence impacts financial services, specifically software delivery and the use of large language models (LLMs).


Key learning:


  • AI is bringing new challenges to financial services, and we must react to this proactively.

  • AI is a new and powerful tool, but we need a new mental model for engaging with it (since AI does not always tell the truth)!

  • Financial organisations need to be responsible for adopting AI.


Navigating AI Adoption in Financial Services
Navigating AI Adoption in Financial Services

Tackling Bias in Software Engineering

The lunchtime keynote, ā€œPractical Steps for Tackling Bias in Software Engineering in the Age of AI,ā€ was equally thought-provoking.


Our key takeaways:


  • "People who are different to you will challenge youā€Ā Lee-Ann Sansom, FCCA

  • Questions to ask when using AI (or any software): ā€œCan I do this? ā€œhow do I do this?ā€ But most importantly, ā€œShould I do this?ā€Ā Jason Smith

  • ā€œInclusion shouldn't require a business case, like security, it needs to just be done as a part of a viable businessā€Ā Declan O'Gorman




Building an Engineering Community

If we had to summarise this talk in one sentence, it would be, ā€œFeel the fear and build your engineering community today!ā€ Ā James McLeodĀ ofĀ NatWest GroupĀ gave a fantastic talk about why building software engineering communities is so important and advice on how to do it well.


Key takeaways:


  • Your community is evolving; you need to listen to them.

  • Give your community an identity, brand and sense of belonging.

  • Provide opportunities for community members; give to get!

  • Recognise and reward contributions.


Relatedly, we are also hearing a lot of chatter about "innersourcing" in the platform engineering community.


Unlocking Innovation: Platform as a Product in NatWest with Kratix

Although biased, this was the day's highlight for me, watchingĀ Chris Plank andĀ Derik EvangelistaĀ tell the story of howĀ NatWest GroupĀ are using KratixĀ to deliver "Platform as a Product."


Key challenges thatĀ NatWest GroupĀ uses KratixĀ to help with:


  • Offering capabilities to developers in a self-service manner through an API or portal.

  • The democratisation of the internal platform enables a ā€œmulti-player mode" for multiple teams to contribute their services and solutions to the platform.

  • Reducing cognitive load for developers by building ā€œgolden pathsā€, combining low-level components into higher-level abstractions through ā€œCompound Promisesā€.



Chris Plank talking about Platform as a Product at NatWest
Chris Plank talking about Platform as a Product at NatWest

It was also awesome to see Kratix get a mention in the closing keynote!


Kratix getting a mention in the FINOS OSFF keynotes
Kratix getting a mention in the FINOS OSFF keynotes

Wrapping up: The community rocks!

As with all FINOS events, the community is what makes attending this so beneficial. The entire Syntasso team had a blast, and it was a lot of fun to catch up with financial friends old and new!

It's always fun to catch up with Kunal from Civo!
It's always fun to catch up with Kunal from Civo!

We'll offer another big thank you to the organisers, sponsors, and attendees!


Please reach out if we can help youĀ and your team with your platform challenges. Whether you are just getting started, dealing with platform decay, or struggling to scale your solution, we can help.

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