Developer productivity

Nov 18, 2025

Beyond the Hype: Real Talk on AI-Assisted Development • Jessica Kerr & Diana Montalion

Jessica Kerr and Diana Montalion explore a pragmatic approach to AI-assisted coding, framing AI not as a replacement for developers, but as a powerful tool for automating tedious work like typing, scaffolding, and error handling. They argue that AI's strength lies in executing well-defined, laborious tasks, which frees up developers to focus on the nuanced, high-level work of systems thinking, architectural design, and discerning the right response to complex problems—skills where AI currently falls short.

Oct 21, 2025

Platform Engineering: From Theory to Practice • Liz Fong-Jones & Lesley Cordero

Liz Fong-Jones and Lesley Cordero explore the evolution of platform engineering from its DevOps and SRE roots, discussing the challenges of building effective developer platforms, the importance of psychological safety, the complexities of open source sustainability, and the delicate balance between centralized platform teams and developer autonomy.

Oct 19, 2025

How to measure AI developer productivity in 2025 | Nicole Forsgren

Nicole Forsgren, creator of the DORA and SPACE frameworks, explains why traditional productivity metrics are failing in the age of AI. She details how AI impacts developer flow state, shifts the focus from writing to reviewing code, and provides a new framework for measuring and improving Developer Experience (DevEx) by aligning engineering efforts with strategic business goals.

Oct 10, 2025

Simplicity • Pragmatic Dave Thomas & Sarah Taraporewalla

Dave Thomas, co-author of 'The Pragmatic Programmer,' discusses his new book 'Simplicity,' arguing that modern Agile has failed. He introduces his Orient-Step-Learn framework as a path for individual developers to regain agency, build intuition through deliberate practice, and master the art of creating minimal, elegant solutions by cutting away complexity.

Sep 30, 2025

Block CTO Dhanji Prasanna: Building the AI-First Enterprise with Goose, their Open Source Agent

Dhanji Prasanna, CTO of Block, discusses the company's AI transformation, centered on their open-source agent, Goose. He details how Goose leverages the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to automate complex workflows, saving engineers 8-10 hours weekly. Prasanna also explains Block's strategic shift to a functional organizational structure to accelerate AI adoption and shares his vision for the future, where swarms of smaller AI models will outperform today's monolithic LLMs.

Sep 26, 2025

Early Days of Agile Development & Is Design Dead? • Martin Fowler & James Lewis

In an interview with James Lewis, Martin Fowler recounts his journey into the Agile movement, starting from the object-oriented community to the pivotal Chrysler C3 project where Extreme Programming (XP) was born. He discusses the shift from upfront to evolutionary design, the creation of the Agile Manifesto, and offers modern perspectives on developer productivity, the role of GenAI in software analysis, and the enduring importance of XP's technical practices.