Steering Engineering Podcast

Is REST alive and well? Or is it time to move on?Kin Lane (aka the “API Evangelist”) joins this episode of Gartner's Steering Engineering Podcast to explore these topics and answer the question: What does “good” actually mean when it comes to APIs?About the GuestKin Lane describes himself as an “API Evangelist,” with a long history of building and consulting on APIs and API strategy.

In this episode of the Steering Engineering Podcast, Brent Stewart and Danny Brian dive into the business case for developer experience with expert Abi Noda. They discuss how a high-quality developer experience leads to increased productivity, software quality, and business impact, despite the fact that many organizations underinvest in it. Using insights from Gartner's Developer Experience Assessment Survey, they explore why developer satisfaction remains low and what companies can do to improve. They also examine the role of AI-augmented software engineering tools and whether an “AI divide” is emerging. Tune in to hear whether developer experience is truly worth the investment — and what it takes to get it right.About the GuestAbi Noda is a programmer, researcher, and entrepreneur focused on helping organizations improve developer productivity. Abi is the CEO and Co-Founder of DX, a platform for measuring and improving developer experience. In addition to running DX, Abi runs the Engineering Enablement podcast and newsletter, covering the latest research and perspectives on developer productivity. Before DX, he held CTO roles at several companies and was the founder and CEO of Pull Panda, which was acquired by GitHub in 2019.

In this episode of the Steering Engineering Podcast, host Danny Brian and co-host Brent Stewart are joined by Gartner Distinguished VP Analyst, Gary Olliffe, to answer the question, “Are microservices dead?” Listen as Danny, Brent and Gary explore this topic by examining microservices architecture from a more technical perspective and by discussing its current and future outlook.About the GuestGary Olliffe is a distinguished VP analyst in the software engineering practice supporting Gartner for Technical Professionals (GTP). Gary's research covers a range of software architecture topics, including application architecture, platform engineering, applications of AI in software delivery, microservice and event-driven architectures.

Will AI replace UX professionals or simply evolve the user experience field? Steering Engineering Podcast hosts Brent Stewart and Danny Brian welcome guest Will Grant to explore how generative AI is reshaping UX design, including developments such as hyperpersonalization, adaptive interfaces, and AI agents redefining human computer interaction (HCI). As UX potentially becomes increasingly automated, democratized, and integrated with AI-driven design, software engineering leaders will have to navigate the new challenges and opportunities.Will Grant is a user experience (UX) professional based in the United Kingdom with more than 20 years of experience, including as both a practitioner and strategic director. Will has an extensive background in overseeing the design, accessibility, and usability of web and mobile products that have reached a global audience of more than a billion users. With a background equally footed in deep computer science and a love of simple, usable design, his career has spanned founding startups to consulting for small and midsize enterprises, right up to global brands.

What is an architect? What do they or should they do? What's the difference between a solution architect and an applications architect? Do we even need architects anymore?In this episode of the Steering Engineering Podcast, host, Danny Brian, and co-host, Brent Stewart, are joined by Gartner Distinguished VP Analyst, Anne Thomas, to explore these questions and determine how the role of architect should be defined in software engineering.Anne Thomas is a VP and distinguished analyst in the Software Engineering Strategies team in the Gartner for IT Leaders research group. Ms. Thomas covers application architecture and infrastructure. Her current major topics include application architecture, application platforms, cloud-native, microservices, APIs, modernization and open-source strategies. 

Join hosts Brent Stewart and Danny Brian on the Steering Engineering Podcast as they dive into the transformative role of AI in software development. Featuring Kyle Davis, an expert in low-code platforms and generative AI, this episode explores AI coding assistants, the rise of low-code, and the potential of AI agents to reshape who builds software and how. Discover how AI is democratizing development, shifting traditional boundaries, and raising critical questions about the evolving role of software engineers in a rapidly changing landscape.Kyle Davis is a VP Analyst at Gartner specializing in modernizing application development with expertise in low-code application platforms, generative AI, citizen development, and DevOps. He advises organizations and software vendors on evaluating, deploying, and governing low-code solutions built by professional, citizen, and fusion teams. With more than 15 years of experience delivering complex solutions across healthcare, financial services, and other industries, Kyle is a trusted advisor for organizations seeking to innovate and scale their application development strategies. 

DevOps platforms provide an integrated alternative to custom toolchains, offering organizations an optimized and cohesive set of capabilities. Gartner's latest Magic Quadrant on DevOps Platform offers insights on the past, present and potential future of these platforms.Keith Mann is a senior director in Gartner, covering software engineering strategy and practices. Keith came to Gartner after a long background in development and enterprise architecture, and is one of the authors of the Magic Quadrant for DevOps Platforms.

In this episode of the Steering Engineering Podcast, we examine the fascinating and transformative potential of AI agents with our guest Haritha Khandabattu, one of Gartner's leading experts on the topic. We delve into the evolving role of AI agents in human-AI collaboration, their ability to work together in complex multiagent systems, and how advancements in reinforcement learning are enabling these agents to plan, adapt, and optimize their behaviors over time, paving the way for more autonomous and intelligent digital ecosystems.Haritha Khandabattu is a Gartner senior director analyst helping C-suite leaders globally. Haritha's current focus is on AI (including generative AI) and software engineering. She helps software engineering leaders build and execute their strategies in AI, software engineering, and leadership. She also guides organizations on the strategic, organizational and technology aspects of using AI as a driving force of their growth. Before Gartner, Haritha worked in several engineering (and executive) leadership positions in banking, retail and automotive industries.

As AI-powered tools increasingly automate tasks like code generation, bug detection, and optimization, software engineers fear their roles may shift away from hands-on development toward higher level oversight, reducing the need for deep programming expertise. However, this shift also presents opportunities for engineers to evolve their skill sets, focusing more on AI integration, data-driven decision-making, and managing complex systems, thus staying relevant in an AI-augmented future. Our guest on today's Steering Engineering Podcast, Cat Hicks, discusses key findings and insights from her research, including a set of thriving factors for software engineering leaders to promote and anti-thriving factors to avoid.

AI-augmented software engineering and practices are becoming common as more companies pilot them. However, the differentiating effects of AI is based on the skill sets of the engineers using them. In today's episode of the Steering Engineering Podcast, we talk to Dave Micko about how software engineering leaders are trying to make AI-augmented engineers move from ideation to value creation.Dave Micko is a Senior Director Analyst in Gartner's software engineering leadership research group. Dave helps software engineering leaders with practices, methods and patterns for effective software engineering.

In this special episode of Gartner's Steering Engineering Podcast series, we sit down with Howard Dodd to discuss some highlights from this year's Gartner Applications Summit keynote, featuring a novel approach to AI and to managing its impact on our organizations.Howard Dodd is a Senior Director, Analyst in Gartner's software engineering practice. He helps software and senior technology leaders create strategies to manage and reduce technical debt while modernizing their enterprise applications and systems. He specializes in integrating concepts from enterprise architecture, software development, application architectures and software economics into application. Recommended Reading has moved out of the Google Doc canvas. Please use the Add-On or the Item Detail page to edit your Recommended Reading.

In this episode of the Steering Engineering Podcast, we explore how emerging AI technologies, such as AI code assistants, are reshaping the landscape of software design and development. Our focus is on how engineers are transitioning from hands-on coding to roles that more closely resemble that of an engineering manager. We examine the implications of generative AI for software engineering education, on-the-job training, roles/responsibilities, and career development.Charity Majors is an operations and database engineer, “sometimes” engineering manager, author and CTO at Honeycomb. Charity was a production engineering manager at Facebook and spent several years working on Parse. She also spent several years at Linden Lab, working on the infrastructure and databases that power Second Life. Charity is the co-author of O'Reilly's Database Reliability Engineering and author of "Observability Engineering: Achieving Production Excellence.” She loves free speech, free software, and single malt scotch.

Software engineering leaders embrace challenges — by nature. We want to build everything! But when should we not? Budget constraints, sure. But what are the other factors, and how can software engineering leaders know when pushback? Gartner Distinguished VP Tina Nunno joins the conversations in this episode of the Steering Engineering Podcast on the what, when, and how of “saying no.” We anticipate a lively conversation about pushing back, power dynamics, and misconceptions about leadership in the software engineering world.Tina Nunno is a Distinguished VP and Gartner Fellow in Gartner's Executive Leadership Research Group. Tina is a recognized thought leader, publishing extensively on working with the board of directors, and executive leadership dynamics.

Most companies now offer remote work options to attract and retain talent, acknowledging its importance for work-life balance and productivity. However, while working remotely, some developers report lower satisfaction with certain developer experience attributes that appear to benefit from face-to-face interaction with peers. Does this mean your developers hate working from home? Not necessarily. In this episode of the Steering Engineering Podcast, we examine key findings from a recent survey of 500 developers about their satisfaction with 17 critical attributes of their developer experience.Raveena Gandhi is a Gartner Principal Quantitative Researcher for the Software Engineering Leaders Peer and Practitioner Research Team. Raveena advises or leads quantitative research initiatives, ensuring data collection, analysis, and clear communication of results that directly address client needs.Brian Minning is a Gartner Director on the Software Engineering Peer and Practitioner Research Team. Brian's research is focused on best practice strategies for software and digital product delivery, software engineering talent management, and software engineering organizational design and leadership.

Software engineering leaders must take a holistic stance on what generative AI can do for software development versus the current, market-leader driven view of short-term gains and benefits. In this second half of a two-part series of the Steering Engineering Podcast, co-hosts Danny Brian and Brent Stewart explore predictions with Frank O'Connor, a Senior Director, Analyst and author of Predicts 2024: Generative AI Is Reshaping Software Engineering.Frank O'Connor is a Senior Director Analyst in Gartner's software design and development team. He helps CxOs and software engineering leaders to tackle modern-day challenges and develop successful technology and people strategies.

Software engineering leaders will face ever-increasing changes in the next three years, from evolving career tracks to managing digital backlash. Steering Engineering podcast hosts Danny Brian and Brent Stewart debate four predictions with analyst Jim Scheibmeir.

Gartner defines low-code application platforms (LCAPs) as application platforms that are used to rapidly develop and run custom applications by abstracting and minimizing the use of programming languages. They are the foundation for a wide range of application types, application components and process automation. In this episode, we dive deep into Gartner's Magic Quadrant on low code with lead author, Oleksandr Matvitskyy to examine where the benefits, risks and innovations with this popular technology lie. Recommendations:Check out the full Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Low-Code Application PlatformsDownload the 2023 Technology Adoption Roadmap for Software Engineering (ebook)Join the conversation in the Gartner Peer Community

Our recommended five books are:Software Engineering at Google: Lessons Learned from Programming Over Time (Titus Winters, Tom Manshreck and Hyrum Wright)An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management (Will Larson)Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building (Claire Hughes Johnson)Build Better Products: A Modern Approach to Building Successful User-Centered Products (Laura Klein)Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow (Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais) Software Engineering at Google: Lessons Learned from Programming Over Time (2020, 575 pages, Titus Winters, Tom Manshreck and Hyrum Wright)A fascinating insight into software engineering practices and tools used at technology leader Google. I love their definition of software engineering as programming integrated over time. The 25 in-depth chapters are written by Google domain experts and offer a glimpse into how scaling and sustainability are handled and traded against other concerns.The is a big book full of useful information, but the density of multiple authors limited to a chapter apiecedoes make it challenging to read at times. Definitely recommended, but be prepared to devote a chunk of your time to study the book and get the most out of it.An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management (2019, 288 pages, Will Larson)A beautifully presented hardback book containing engineering leader Will Larson's guidance on engineering management. There is a lot of strong and hard-won advice on organizations, tools, approaches, culture and careers. The content is practical and provides an unusual depth on engineering management in modern software organizations.The figures are sometimes obtuse and the last 71-page appendix and endnotes are mostly superfluous. I also did not enjoy some of the referencing out either where no information is given other than a single word and Q-code link. Regardless, this is a great book.Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building (2023, 432 pages, Claire Hughes Johnson)Author Claire Hughes Johnson is a corporate officer and advisor at Stripe after spending seven years as COO while they rapidly scaled from 200 to over 7000 people. Before this, she spent 10 years at Google leading successful business teams. The book is beautifully presented, full of valuable guidance and provides practical advice of great leadership and pragmatic scaling. The examples are perfectly placed and insightful to demonstrate the advice around them.Build Better Products: A Modern Approach to Building Successful User-Centered Products (2016, 368 pages, Laura Klein)I am starting to love the Rosenfeld Media series — high-quality books, presented beautifully, edited expertly and eminently practical. Color is used intelligently throughout as you would expect from design-focused books.Lean startup expert and “What is Wrong with UX” podcaster Laura Klein writes a great book on how to build new products. This practical guide is organized around exercises with expert advice from experienced practitioners at the end of each chapter. Expect lots of strategy, design, analytics and empathy; heist teams are worth the price of admission on their own.Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow (2019, 240 pages, Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais)Pragmatic and informative guide to organization design from IT consultants Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais. Building on their work on Team Topologies with real experience, the authors cover teams as a means of delivery, team topologies that work for flow, and evolving team interactions for innovation and rapid delivery. The book is well written with a good level of depth, with valuable illustrations and strong use of color and design throughout. I recommend this book to anyone interested in creating effective teams and high-performance workplaces. Peter Hyde is surely one of Gartner's most prolific readers and writers. He is an enterprise agile coach with deep experience in helping global organizations transform product development to achieve higher performance, increased quality, faster delivery and an outstanding customer experience.

Gartner's Hype Cycle for Software Engineering gives you a view of how software engineering technologies and patterns will evolve over time, providing a sound source of insight to manage its deployment within the context of your specific business goals. In this podcast, we feature Gartner Chief of Research Mark O'Neill to help us navigate this hype cycle — its purpose, a bit of history, and top trends.Mark O'Neill is a VP Analyst and Chief of Research for Software Engineering. He guides Gartner's insights on software development, application architecture, and frameworks and tools for building software, spanning key initiatives in Gartner for IT Leaders as well as Gartner for Technical Professionals.Check out the full Hype Cycle for Software Engineering - https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/4590099?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=RM_GB_2023_ITSWEL_NPP_IA1_STEERSWENGPODNOV23&utm_term=diagnostic Download the 2023 Technology Adoption Roadmap for Software Engineering eBook – https://www.gartner.com/en/publications/2023-technology-adoption-roadmap-for-software-engineering?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=RM_GB_2023_ITSWEL_NPP_IA1_STEERSWENGPODNOV23&utm_term=ebook Join the conversation in the Gartner Peer Community - https://www.gartner.com/peer-community/home?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=RM_GB_2023_ITSWEL_NPP_IA1_STEERSWENGPODNOV23&utm_term=pc Share the podcast – Link to podcast episode on Gartner.com once published if public page available