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# Coffee with Developers - Babette Wagner

Babette Wagner successfully migrated 7 million lines of legacy code with zero downtime. Discover her blueprint for cloud migration, securing executive sponsors, and building authentic team inclusivity.

- **Speakers:** [Babette Wagner](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/@babette-wagner)
- **Event:** Coffee With Developers
- **Published:** October 14, 2024
- **Duration:** 24:23
- **URL:** https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1223-coffee-with-developers-babette-wagner

## Summary

Babette Wagner shares her non-traditional journey into software engineering, highlighting a defining moment when she became the last senior developer on an application with 7 million lines of legacy code. By leveraging an open-innovation sprint, she proactively designed a modernization strategy that won leadership approval. This initiative launched a three-year project migrating the monolithic platform to a cloud-based microservices architecture, seamlessly transitioning 5 million user accounts without downtime—a milestone that cemented her architectural confidence.

Beyond technical execution, Wagner explores the vital distinction between mentorship and sponsorship for career acceleration. She challenges the humility and self-doubt that often hold women back in tech, advising professionals to actively build career visibility, objectively assess their worth, and explicitly communicate their ambitions. Because sponsorship is a two-way collaboration, she emphasizes the need to deliver strong performance that elevates an advocate's team while actively seeking leaders whose success aligns with your own.

Addressing corporate culture, Wagner warns against "pinkwashing" and advocates for genuine inclusion built on dedicated resources and measurable KPIs. Authentic diversity demands operational shifts, such as adopting cross-border team languages, accommodating global time zones during technical interviews, and offering robust relocation support. By embracing her own unique traits rather than assimilating to an established culture, Wagner demonstrates how sustaining an authentic, successful presence in a male-dominated industry naturally casts developers as powerful role models for emerging talent.

**Keywords:** legacy system modernization, monolith to microservices migration, cloud infrastructure transition, software engineering diversity, career sponsorship vs mentorship, women in tech advocacy, inclusive hiring processes, diversity and inclusion KPIs, workplace pinkwashing, international team recruitment, technical career visibility, queer workplace inclusion, agile innovation frameworks, imposter syndrome in tech, non-traditional engineering pathways

## Chapters

1. **Modernizing legacy applications through proactive leadership** (00:00) — How stepping up to redesign a massive legacy monolith into cloud-based microservices builds career confidence.
1. **Securing engineering career sponsorship for women** (05:06) — Actionable steps for women to overcome humble self-assessments and secure active career sponsors.
1. **Implementing measurable diversity and inclusion practices** (10:44) — Moving beyond pinkwashing by implementing international hiring processes, talent mentorship, and inclusion performance metrics.
1. **Becoming an accidental role model in software engineering** (16:44) — Why extending mentorship and sharing daily engineering experiences naturally establishes senior technical women as role models.
1. **Overcoming self-assessment gaps through peer feedback** (18:46) — Addressing the confidence disparity between genders by requesting structured performance evaluations from engineering colleagues.
1. **Maintaining authenticity in male-dominated technical environments** (20:42) — How embracing unconventional traits rather than assimilating leads to stronger team collaboration and individual success.
1. **Rewriting the historical narrative of women in technology** (22:43) — The ongoing necessity to highlight technical achievements pioneered by female engineers instead of solely focusing on male founders.

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- [Overcoming engineered biases to achieve equal technology representation](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/549-keynote-hidden-histories) (from "KEYNOTE: Hidden Histories")
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- [Diversity Equity And Inclusion in Programming For Persons With Disability](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/80-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-in-programming-for-persons-with-disability)
- [Wonder Women in Tech](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/702-wonder-women-in-tech)
- [WWC24 Talk - Brenda Romero - Stay: Surviving and Thriving in Tech](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/467-wwc24-talk-brenda-romero-stay-surviving-and-thriving-in-tech)

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