DevDays 2026: How developer teams are advancing project mode, UX and AI together

With participants from all our locations, it quickly became clear that DevDays is a format that not only connects people, but also brings topics to the point in a structured manner.

Workshops instead of lectures: collecting problems, developing solutions

The focus was on workshops. This is an important difference: not “consuming program items”, but working together on real issues.

The process was deliberately pragmatic:

This approach is also exciting for other teams: workshops work particularly well when change is imminent, because uncertainties become visible, different perspectives come together and results can be recorded directly.

From the Scrum/Sprint rhythm to project mode

A major focus of DevDays 2026 was the shift from the sprint rhythm (Scrum) to a project mode. Many companies are familiar with this: Scrum can be powerful – but not every environment benefits in the long term from a rigid sprint cycle. As soon as dependencies increase, priorities change more frequently or teams need to work more closely together across domains, a different model is often required.

What we hope to achieve with the project mode:

At the same time, it is clear that such changes raise questions – from responsibilities and planning to the definition of “done”. This is exactly what the workshops were ideal for: ambiguities and uncertainties could be collected, sorted and addressed specifically.

UX/UI: User Experience as Engineering-Topic

Another focus was UX/UI – not as a “side issue in design”, but as a key lever for product quality.

Why this is relevant (even outside your own organization):

The workshops focused on how UX/UI and development can work together more effectively: earlier mutual understanding, clearer decision-making bases and more focus on the actual user experience.

Artificial intelligence in everyday development: practical examples, standards, quality

AI was also an important topic at DevDays 2026, but not as “let’s get started now,” but rather as the next step on a path we have already embarked upon. This time, the focus was on a concrete example from everyday work that showed how AI is already being used and what benefits it can bring to engineering. This gave all teams a shared picture of what is already possible today and where it makes sense to expand further.

This was accompanied by the question of how we can use AI responsibly and with quality assurance so that productivity does not come at the expense of security, maintainability, or reliability.

Typical questions that many teams are concerned with:

The added value thus lay primarily in a common understanding: AI as a tool that can make us faster and better when standards, boundaries, and expectations are clear.

Transferable insights for practical application: What companies can learn from DevDays 2026 about project mode, UX/UI, and AI

Even though DevDays 2026 took place internally, the principles can be easily transferred:

Conclusion

DevDays 2026 was the starting point for a year in which we are not only building features, but also consciously working on the fundamentals: collaboration, product quality, user experience, and the meaningful use of AI. The cross-location participation and workshop format resulted in exactly what many organizations are looking for: joint alignment and concrete solutions at the same time.