At HP, modernization is not a luxury, but rather the key to many of their successes as an industry leader in technology. With a culture focused on innovation and invention, it’s not surprising that much of their work focused on developer experience includes experimentation with the latest technologies and frameworks to help them maximize productivity and transform the software progress lifecycle.
as part of their AI initiatives, HP has been working with integrating the Model Context Protocol into their vision for an agentic SDLC, including using the Stack Overflow Internal MCP Server. Per Evan Scheessele, HP distinguished Technologist, Stack Overflow’s MCP server has helped HP conceptualize bridges between knowledge silos among developers and their teams. It has also proven itself to be a fully functional, successful MCP server-one that serves as proof of concept for MCP as a framework, and an example against which to compare as they build their own MCP servers for proprietary business solutions.
Ultimately, HP’s experimentation with Stack Overflow’s MCP server is paving the way for transforming the developer role at HP into one that is “directive,” where employees are able to guide work driven by AI to increase their technical teams’ productivity, lower toil, and provide more time for collaboration.
Innovation at any company means opening up processes for change, allowing frameworks and mindsets to be shifted. At HP, much of their experimentation is led with an “eyes-open” strategy, aiming to stay keenly informed on the newest technologies and the strategies surrounding them. Though, this experimentation must balance the need for invention and modernization with the strict governance and accountability that makes HP one of the most trusted brands in the tech industry. Any introduction of new technologies, including AI, into the company requires meticulous work to ensure security and quality. With this in mind, Evan Scheessele’s Developer Experience and Applied-AI Services team leads several experimentation efforts at HP, modernizing the software development lifecycle that helps keep HP at the cutting edge.
HP’s rigorous testing and high-optics governance of any AI solution meant that their team would need to do their due diligence when integrating the Stack Overflow MCP server into potential workflows. “AI governance is a big deal in the enterprise,” Evan said, discussing his team’s experimentation with MCP servers. “We’re trying to be rigorous. We trust but verify. We’re building a whole verification process.”
Even with this critical eye towards security and governance, the seeds for HP’s use of Stack Overflow’s MCP had been planted far before the Model Context Protocol was first announced. HP, in partnership with Stack Overflow, had been discussing the possibility of a knowledge ingestion connector between Stack Overflow’s enterprise product and GitHub’s Copilot. This connector would allow crucial context from HP’s internal knowledge base to be accessible for their AI coding assistants. But then, “We started reading about MCP and the writing was on the wall,” evan Scheessele said.MCP became a buzzy topic at HP, showing that there was excitement amongst technical teams at the possibilities MCP could bring to their AI systems.It became clear to evan and his team that MCP servers had the potential to rise above other frameworks for agentic AI. “it’s a means to an end which is leaning into the next phase of AI software development-agentic SDLC, real workflows of agent-powered automation,” said Evan.
Like when the Developer Experience and Applied-AI team first began to think about integrating Stack Overflow’s enterprise knowledge solution into their AI workflows, they saw Stack Overflow’s MCP server as an opportunity to bring necessary organizational context to AI agents, breaking down the barriers to efficiency and collaboration caused by tribal knowledge. “In the enterprise you have a lot of enterprise global context…our security and privacy folks have these corporate level global contexts that are unique to how we do our code and our solutions,” Evan explained. “MCP is a leg
HP Validates Stack Overflow’s MCP Server as Key to Modernizing Software Development
HP is leveraging Stack Overflow’s Machine Context protocol (MCP) Server as a crucial component in its exploration of agentic AI and a modernized software development lifecycle. The company views Stack Overflow’s implementation as a successful “proof point” for the MCP framework, validating its potential to boost developer productivity and reduce tool fatigue.
The machine Context Protocol (MCP) aims to provide a standardized way for AI agents to access information from various software development tools. Stack Overflow launched its MCP Server in 2023 to allow developers to connect their AI agents to the wealth of knowledge contained within the Stack Overflow ecosystem. This approach allows AI agents to access relevant documentation, code snippets, and solutions without requiring developers to manually search and integrate information. https://stackoverflow.blog/2023/11/16/introducing-the-stack-overflow-machine-context-protocol-server/
HP’s interest in MCP stems from a desire to streamline access to information for its AI agents and alleviate the burden of “tool fatigue” experienced by developers.Instead of requiring developers to navigate numerous connectors and integrations,MCP offers a single point of access to a wide range of data sources.
“my team building [HP’s MCP] has learned an immense amount by understanding what the experience is like using [Stack Overflow’s MCP],” shared Evan Scheessele at HP. “So in one way for us it’s a precedent… ‘Oh, this is what it looks like when it feels right’ […] yours just seems to work perfectly.”
HP has actively used Stack overflow’s MCP Server during internal testing of its own MCP broker,finding its seamless integration and ease of use especially valuable. This testing has reinforced HP’s belief in the broader potential of MCP to unify disparate data sources and provide richer context for AI-powered development tools. Scheessele noted that Stack Overflow’s MCP is “validating our roadmap of bringing multiple MCPs together to bring as much useful context together.”
The adoption of technologies like MCP aligns with HP’s broader strategy of organizational transformation and modernization.The company believes that AI-powered development tools, enabled by frameworks like MCP, will fundamentally change the role of developers.
“It’s about developer experience,” Scheessele explained. “It’s a different experience when you’re using an AI assistant at a high level.” He envisions a future where developers can focus on strategic thinking and high-level tasks, delegating more routine work to AI agents. “There’s a whole transformation of what it means to be a developer. It’s exciting because you’re directing the work of, perhaps, a myriad of simultaneous parallel agents doing a lot of work,” Scheessele said. “So [developers’] actual productivity is off the charts.”
HP is proceeding with careful consideration for security and due diligence as it integrates these new technologies. However, early results are promising, with internal “enthusiasts” already demonstrating meaningful productivity gains. HP aims to extend these benefits to its entire software development association, ultimately becoming a “hyper-optimized software company” through the adoption of agentic AI and frameworks like MCP.
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