Podcast appearances and mentions of neal ford

You might think you know software engineering, but what are the really fundamental elements? What are the concepts, ideas and practices that are completely essential? What makes software engineering what it is? Thoughtworker Nate Schutta and Dan Vega are attempting to address those questions in their upcoming book with O'Reilly, The Fundamentals of Software Engineering. Covering topics ranging from reading code through to the importance of learning to learn, it promises to offer a fresh insight into the skills and knowledge needed to be a successful software engineer. In this episode of the Thoughtworks Technology Podcast, Nate and Dan join hosts Neal Ford and Ken Mugrage to discuss the book and to dive into what really are the fundamental elements of software engineering. Listen for a fresh perspective on the discipline and a deep dive that shows it's about far more than just writing code. Learn more about The Fundamentals of Software Engineering: https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/fundamentals-of-software/9781098143220/

Thoughtworks Technology Radar Vol.32 was published at the start of April 2025. Featuring 105 blips, it offered a timely snapshot of what's interesting and important in the industry. Through the process of putting it together, we also identify a collection of key themes that speak to the things that shaped our conversations. This time, there were four: supervised agents in coding assistants, evolving observability, the R in RAG and taming the data frontier. We think they point to some of the key challenges and issues that industry as a whole is currently grappling with. To dig deeper and explore what they tell us about software in 2025, regular host Neal Ford takes the guest seat alongside Birgitta Böckeler to talk to Lilly Ryan and Prem Chandrasekaran. They explain how the themes are identified and discuss their wider implications. Read the latest volume of the Thoughtworks Technology Radar: https://www.thoughtworks.com/radar            

The term 'vibe coding' — which first appeared in a post on X by Andrej Karpathy in early February 2025 — has set the software development world abuzz: everyone seems to have their own take on what it is, how it's done and whether it's a bold new chapter in the history of programming or an insult to anyone that's ever written a line of code. Clearly, then, we need to talk about vibe coding — and that's precisely what we do on this episode of the Technology Podcast. Featuring Thoughtworkers Birgitta Böckeler (AI for Software Delivery Lead) and Lilly Ryan (Cybersecurity Principal), who join hosts Neal Ford and Prem Chandrasekaran, we dive into the different understandings and applications of the concept, and discuss what happens when a meme collides with reality.

AI is inherently dynamic: that's true in terms of the field itself, and at a much lower level too — models are trained on new data and algorithms adapt and change to new circumstances and information. That's part of its power and what makes it so exciting, but from a business and organizational perspective, that can make governance and measurement exceptionally difficult. How can we know that our AI is optimized for the right thing? How can we be sure it's oriented towards what we want it to be? This is where the concept of fitness functions can help. Broadly speaking, fitness functions are ways of measuring the extent to which a given solution is fulfilling its goals — so, in the context of AI, they can help teams ensure that AI systems are serving their intended purpose. In this episode of the Technology Podcast, Rebecca Parsons and Neal Ford — authors (alongside Pat Kua and Pramod Sadalage) of Building Evolutionary Architectures, the book which brought fitness functions into the software architecture space — join host Ken Mugrage to explore how the fitness function concept can help us better manage the dynamism of AI and, in doing so, overcome the challenge of bringing such systems into production. Learn more about Building Evolutionary Architectures: https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/books/building-evolutionaryarchitectures-second-edition    

How can we better define and clarify architectures to ensure consistency and control? If, as Neal Ford and Mark Richards discussed on a recent episode of the Technology Podcast, software architecture intersects with many different facets of software development and delivery, what can we do to better manage architectures in a way that is adaptable and dynamic? Neal and Mark return to the guest seats to speak again to host Prem Chandrasekaran about fitness functions and architecture as code, and explain why rethinking our approach to software architecture can help ensure greater alignment with organizational needs and objectives.  

“Evolutionary architecture became a necessity, not because anybody wanted it to be, but because you didn't have a choice. You have to be able to change your systems to keep up with changing business and consumer expectations, let alone regulatory frameworks.” In this episode, I have an insightful conversation with Rebecca Parsons, coauthor of Building Evolutionary Architectures and ex-CTO of ThoughtWorks, on the topic of evolutionary architecture. Rebecca shares the definition and principles of evolutionary architecture, as well as some important practices that software engineering teams can adopt to support it. Rebecca also offers her perspective on the impact of AI in software development and evolutionary architecture. Key takeaways: - Evolutionary architecture supports guided, incremental change across multiple dimensions. - Fitness functions are a key tool for implementing evolutionary architecture. - Some of the important engineering practices for evolutionary architecture include continuous delivery, evolutionary database, contract testing, and choreography over orchestration. - AI coding assistants can help analyze and understand complex legacy systems, aiding in refactoring and modernization efforts. - Over-reliance on AI coding assistants may hinder the development of proper abstraction and critical thinking skills, especially in junior developers. Listen out for: (00:02:35) Career Turning Points (00:08:38) Why Adopt Evolutionary Architecture (00:11:06) Evolutionary vs Rewrite (00:13:41) Architecture Definition (00:16:45) Evolutionary Architecture Adoption (00:20:56) Evolutionary Architecture Definition (00:22:32) Fitness Function (00:26:07) Commonly Adopted Fitness Functions (00:29:33) Principles of Evolutionary Architecture (00:35:24) Conway's Law & Postel's Law (00:39:40) Practices of Evolutionary Architecture (00:45:41) The Impact of AI to Evolutionary Architecture (00:48:44) The AI Worries (00:52:32) 3 Tech Lead Wisdom _____ Rebecca Parsons' BioDr. Rebecca Parsons is currently independent, having been Thoughtworks CTO and CTO Emerita for over 15 years. She has more years of experience than she'd like to admit in technology and large-scale software development. She recently co-authored the book Building Evolutionary Architectures with Neal Ford and Pat Kua. Before ThoughtWorks she worked as an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Central Florida, after completing a Director's Post Doctoral Fellowship at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Her interests include parallel and distributed computation, programming languages, domain specific languages, evolutionary architecture, genetic algorithms, and computational science. Rebecca received a BS in Computer Science and Economics from Bradley University, and both an MS and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Rice University. Follow Rebecca: LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/dr-rebecca-parsons X – x.com/rebeccaparsons

Software architecture necessarily intersects with a diverse range of critical things, including implementation, infrastructure, data and engineering practices. All these elements require serious consideration and reflection if you're to architect effectively.  To discuss these various intersections, Thoughtworks' Neal Ford and his long-time collaborator Mark Richards join host Prem Chandrasekaran on the Thoughtworks Technology Podcast. They dive into why these intersections matter, what they mean for software architects and how individuals and teams can go about addressing them. 

Who should be involved in the process of making decisions about software architecture? That's a question that's been puzzling Thoughtworker Andrew Harmel-Law for some time — so much so that he decided to write a book about it. The result is Facilitating Software Architecture. Published by O'Reilly in December 2024, it's both an argument for and a guide to involving more people in the architecture decision process. To discuss the topic and the book, Andrew joined hosts Neal Ford and Prem Chandrasekaran on the Technology Podcast. They explore why including more roles in software architecture matters today, some of the common objections to and risks of such an approach, alongside techniques and practices that can make doing it in fast-paced and dynamic organizations easier. "It's quite magical when you see this blossoming of understanding of what it is that architects do... It's not less architecture, it's more. It's just happening in a broader sphere." — Andrew Harmel-Law You can find Andrew's book on the O'Reilly website: https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/facilitating-software-architecture/9781098151850/

In this episode of Book Overflow, Carter and Nathan discuss Tidy First? by Kent Beck. Join them as they discuss when you should prioritize tidying your code over feature improvements, what tidying means, and the Beck's thoughts on software and the time value of money! -- Books Mentioned in this Episode -- Note: As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. ---------------------------------------------------------- Tidy First?: A Personal Exercise in Empirical Software Design by Kent Beck https://amzn.to/40uOEtL (paid link) Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code (2nd Edition) by Martin Fowler https://amzn.to/3C9d5mq (paid link) Building Evolutionary Architectures: Automated Software Governance by Neal Ford, Rebecca Parsons, Patrick Kua, Pramod Sadalage https://amzn.to/4fmoIVC (paid link) A Philosophy of Software Design, 2nd Edition by John Ousterhout https://amzn.to/4ecmYgv (paid link) The Practice of Programming by Brian Kernighan, Rob Pike https://amzn.to/4fuMP4b (paid link) ---------------- 00:00 Intro 03:14 About the Book 05:41 Thoughts on the Book 11:17 Techniques and Approaches for Tidying (Part 1) 36:20 How to prioritize and manage tidying tasks (Part 2) 47:30 Optionality, Reversibility and The Philosophy of Tidying (Part 3) 01:05:38 Final Thoughts ---------------- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5kj6DLCEWR5nHShlSYJI5L Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/book-overflow/id1745257325 X: https://x.com/bookoverflowpod Carter on X: https://x.com/cartermorgan Nathan's Functionally Imperative: www.functionallyimperative.com ---------------- Book Overflow is a podcast for software engineers, by software engineers dedicated to improving our craft by reading the best technical books in the world. Join Carter Morgan and Nathan Toups as they read and discuss a new technical book each week! The full book schedule and links to every major podcast player can be found at https://www.bookoverflow.io

Volume 31 of the Technology Radar will be released on October 23, 2024. As always, it will feature 100+ technologies and techniques that we've been using with clients around the world. Alongside them will be a set of key themes that emerged during the process of putting it together. We think they offer another way into the Radar and give a unique insight on some of the most interesting issues impacting the software industry. In this episode of the Technology Podcast we discuss them: coding assistance antipatterns, Rust being anything but rusty, the rise of WebAssembly and what we describe as the "cambrian explosion of generative AI tools." To do so, Alexey Boas is joined by guests and podcast regulars Ken Mugrage and Neal Ford. Ken and Neal provide an insight into the conversations that happened during the process, and offer their perspective on the implications of these themes for the wider tech industry.  

The Thoughtworks Technology Radar is, first and foremost, a publication. It's a document that anyone in the tech industry can read twice a year to learn about our experiences and perspectives on technology. However, it's also more than that: it's built on top of a process of deliberation, discussion and curation. We think that's particularly important — it's something we encourage technology teams and organizations to do and which we support with our Build Your Own Radar tool.  On this episode of the Technology Podcast, Neal Ford and Ken Mugrage join Prem Chandrasekaran to discuss Build Your Own Radar. They outline why the Radar process is just as important as the artifact that gets created at the end, and explain how organizations can use it to facilitate conversations about how and what technology they use and want to use in the future.    Learn more about Build Your Own Radar: https://www.thoughtworks.com/radar/byor

In this special episode of Book Overflow, Carter Morgan and Nathan Toups are joined by Neal Ford as he reflects on his book Building Evolutionary Architectures. Join them as they discuss the inspiration for the book, the process of writing it with three other co-authors, and how Neal envisions the future of software architecture! ---------------- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5kj6DLCEWR5nHShlSYJI5L Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/book-overflow/id1745257325 X: https://x.com/bookoverflowpod Carter on X: https://x.com/cartermorgan

It's widely accepted that, in most cases at least, software systems should be modular, consisting of separate, discrete services. But what about the size of those services? How big or small should they be? This is where the question of service granularity comes in: too small and your system will become needlessly complicated; too big and you lose all the benefits of modularity you were seeking in the first place. In this episode of the Thoughtworks Technology Podcast, host Ken Mugrage is joined by Neal Ford and Mark Richards — authors of multiple books on software architecture — to discuss service granularity. They explain why it matters and how software architects can go about getting it right, through the lens of granularity integrators and disintegrators.   Learn more about Neal and Mark's 2021 book Software Architecture: The Hard Parts (co-authored with Zhamak Dehghaniand Pramod Sadalage): https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/books/software-architecture-hard-parts Find out more about Neal and Mark's second edition of The Fundamentals of Software Architecture, set to be released in early 2025: https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/fundamentals-of-software/9781098175504/

In this episode of Book Overflow, Carter Morgan and Nathan Toups discuss "Building Evolutionary Architectures" by Neal Ford, Rebecca Parsons, Patrick Kua, and Pramod Sadalage. Join them as they discuss how to evolve your data schema, modern DevOps practices, and common architectural pitfalls and antipatterns.

In this episode of Book Overflow, Carter Morgan and Nathan toups discuss "Building Evolutionary Architecture" by Neal Ford, Rebecca Parsons, Patrick Kua, and Pramod Sadalage. Join them as they discuss how the approaches to designing software architecture have changed over the years, the purpose of fitness functions, and how trying to re-use code can backfire!

In this special episode of Book Overflow, Neal Ford joins the podcast to reflect on his book "Fundamentals of Software Architecture!" Join Carter and Nathan as they discuss the challenges of compromising with the business, what shifts AI is bringing to the software architecture world, and what sci-fi Neal's been reading lately!

This week Carter Morgan and Nathan Toups finished reading "Fundamentals of Software Architecture" by Mark Richards and Neal Ford. They provide an overview of their favorite architectures from the book as well as discuss the importance of soft skills in selling your technical vision!

This week Carter Morgan and Nathan Toups read the first half of "Fundamentals of Software Architecture" by Mark Richards and Neal Ford. They discuss what exactly software architecture is, how everything is a trade-off, and how we can keep our architectural skills sharp as software engineers. You don't want to miss this great discussion!

Volume 30 of the Thoughtworks Technology Radar was published in April 2024. Alongside 105 blips, the edition also featured four themes selected by the team of technologists that puts the Radar together. They were: open-ish source licenses, AI-assisted software development teams, emerging architecture patterns for LLMs and dragging pull requests closer to continuous integration. Each one cuts across the technologies and techniques included on the Radar and highlights a key issue or challenge for software developers — and other technologists — working today. In this episode of the Technology Podcast, Birgitta Böckeler and Erik Dörnenberg join Neal Ford and Ken Mugrage to discuss the themes for Technology Radar Vol.30. They explain what they mean, why they were picked and what their implications are for the wider industry.   Explore volume 30 of the Technology Radar: https://www.thoughtworks.com/radar

"Jak mamy pozyskać świetnych architektów, jeśli w swojej karierze będą mieli okazję ją tworzyć mniej niż pół tuzina razy?". Dokładnie takie pytania postawił Ted Neward, szukając sposobu na doskonalenie umiejętności tworzenia architektury. I trudno się tu nie zgodzić, patrząc jak często w zespołach duże projekty powstają od samego początku. Istnieje jednak prosty sposób na rozwiązanie tego problemu.Sesje Architectural Kata pozwala jednak zdobywać potrzebne doświadczenie znacznie szybciej. Tym bardziej, jeśli feedbacku na temat twojego designu udzielają Mark Richards i Jacqui Read, autorzy książek poświęconych architekturze oprogramowania. W tym roku, kolejną edycję O'Reilly Software Architecture Katas wygrywa po razy pierwszy zespół z Polski, w którego skład wchodzą Artur Kruszewski, Wojciech Kasa, Sebastian Dąbkowski i Piotr Filipowicz, mój dzisiejszy gość.Razem z Piotrem rozmawiamy dziś między innymi o:czym jest Architectural Kata i jak może wspomóc Cię w procesie projektowania architekturysześciu perspektywach, które można wziąć pod uwagę szukając właściwej dla projektu architekturycharakterystykach architektonicznych, ograniczeniach, macierzy styli Marka Richardsakomunikowaniu architektury różnym jej odbiorcom, nie tylko zespołowi developerskiemukonkretnych przykładach Fitness Function z architektury ewolucyjnejZapraszam!Materiały dodatkowe:Fundamentals of Software Architecture: An Engineering Approach, książka Marka Richardsa i Neala FordaSoftware Architecture: The Hard Parts: Modern Trade-Off Analyses for Distributed Architectures, kolejna pozycja, której współautorami są Mark Richards i Neal FordThe Architecture Kata Log, repozytorium Jacqui Read z listą zwycięzców poszczególnych edycji konkursu O'Reilly Software Architecture KatasStayHealthy.MonitorMe, repozytorium z wspominanym w rozmowie opisem architekturyArchitectural Katas, katalog różnych kat Teda NewardaZapraszam także do obserwowania profilu Piotra na LinkedIn.

O.T.R. present " FREE & EASY " on Dab+ Sunday the 14th - 8Pm- - April 2024- Playlist Patryck Albert Free-easy-episode-166- ... Intro... Troggs , Mal Thursday Quintet , Dangermen , Grassroots , Tony Marisco , Leadfoot Tea , Johnny Power , Powered by Love , Courettes , Dirty Filty Mud , Wip , Creation , Glorias , Neal Ford & the Fanatics , Killer Kin , MC5 , Pretty Face , Lipstick Vibrators , Sir Bald & Los Hairies , Misunderstood , Jessie Hector , Del Shannon , Jason Crest , Jack Rubis , Galuleo 7 , Spencer Davis Group , Lucas Trouble....

Looking Glass isn't like most other technology trend reports. It doesn't just tell you what deserves your attention, it's designed to help you use it to focus on what really matters to you. Published once a year, Thoughtworks intends it to be a tool that helps readers make sense of the emerging technologies that are going to shape the industry in the months and years to come. In this episode of the Technology Podcast, lead Looking Glass contributors Rebecca Parsons and Ken Mugrage trade hosting duties for the guest seats, as they talk to Neal Ford about the most recent edition of the Looking Glass (published in January 2024). They explain what the Looking Glass is and outline some of the key 'lenses' that act as a framework readers can use to monitor and evaluate what's on the horizon.  Covering everything from AI to augmented reality, this conversation offers a new perspective on emerging technology to help prepare you for 2024. Explore Looking Glass 2024: https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/looking-glass

World Story Telling Day was originally created in Sweden to encourage people to tell stories and build better connections. This year's theme “Building Bridges” seems particularly poignant. In this snippet, Paul and Chris celebrate World Story Telling Day 2024 with a conversation about the history of the event, the role of story telling in bringing people together and a review of some of the episodes of The Common Creative with particular powerful story tellers. Neal Ford (episode 83), James Hegarty (episode 99),  Gavin Blake (episode 94), Brock Swinton (episode 96), Professor Uri Hassen (episode 56), Rachel Barnard (episode 72) and Miranda West (episode 104) are all discussed. Themes such as the importance of ensuring that stories have a message inside them, painting pictures in the mind, keeping a sense of humour and being brutal with editing are all brought to life. Jump in to join the World Story Telling Day vibe! LINKS Paul Fairweather - Co-host https://www.paulfairweather.com Chris Meredith - Co-host https://www.chrismeredith.com.au Two Common Creatives https://www.twocommoncreatives.com/podcastSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

FinOps is on the tip of many tongues in the software space right now, as we try to curb our cloud costs. Ajay Chankramath has given talks on FinOps at conferences like the DevOps Enterprise Summit (DOES) among others.He is the Head of Platform Engineering at ThoughtWorks North America, an innovator consulting group. His peers like Martin Fowler and Neal Ford have originated ideas like refactoring, microservices, and more.He shared practical advice for avoiding a harsh, restrictive cost control approach and instead taking a holistic financial view of your software operations. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit srepath.substack.com

A few years ago, Thoughtworker and (prolific) author Neal Ford published Fundamentals of Software Architecture with Michael Richards. They're now back with another book on software architecture — written with co-author Raju Gandhi — which offers readers a very different learning experience. Described as a combination of technical book and graphic novel, Head First Software Architecture dispenses with dense prose to present and explain software architecture concepts and ideas in some highly innovative and novel ways. In this episode of the Technology Podcast, the authors — alongside their editor, Sarah Grey — join Rebecca Parsons to discuss their new book. They explain the thinking behind the approach, how it diverges from Fundamentals of Software Architecture and detail some of the challenges of writing in a new format. Whether you're interested in getting started with software architecture or simply curious about technical communication and learning, listen to find out more. Learn more about Head First Software Architecture: https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/head-first-software/9781098134341/

Thanks to the pandemic, asynchronous working is, today, fairly common. However, it's often easily confused with simply working remotely — and while there are certainly neat synergies between the two, asynchronous working isn't just a description of your working arrangement: it's a set of intentional practices and artifacts that allow people to work together without having to physically be together. On this episode of ther Technology Podcast, Thoughtworkers Sumeet Gayathri Moghe — author of The Async-First Playbook — and Maya Ormaza join hosts Neal Ford and Ken Mugrage to offer their perspectives on asynchronous working. Taking in everything from the value of written communication, work that demands synchronicity and the importance of leadership to async working, listen to gain a fresh perspective on the way we work together in 2024. Learn more about Sumeet's Async-First Playbook: https://www.asyncagile.org/the-book Read Sumeet's guide to writing for async workers: https://www.asyncagile.org/blog/the-async-workers-guide-to-writing A guide to reading for asynchronous workers: https://www.asyncagile.org/blog/the-async-workers-guide-to-reading A guide to audio and visual content when working asynchronously: https://www.asyncagile.org/blog/the-async-workers-guide-to-reading  

“Everything in software architecture is a trade-off, and the why is more important than how." Today's clip is from Tech Lead Journal episode 120 with Neal Ford, a Director and software architect at ThoughtWorks. In this clip, we discussed the definition of software architecture and how it relates to software design. Neal then described the two important laws of software architecture related to trade-offs and the why. Neal then explained why software architecture is difficult and discussed the hard parts.   Listen out for: Definition of Software Architecture - [00:00:26] Software Architecture vs Design - [00:04:06] Laws of Software Architecture - [00:06:01] The Hard Parts of Software Architecture - [00:10:33] _____ Neal Ford's BioNeal Ford is Director, Software Architect, and Meme Wrangler at ThoughtWorks. He is also the designer and developer of applications, articles, video presentations, and author and/or editor of an increasingly large number of books spanning a variety of subjects and technologies, including the two most recent Fundamentals of Software Architecture and Building Evolutionary Architectures. His professional focus includes designing and building of large-scale enterprise applications. He is also an internationally acclaimed speaker, speaking at over 700 developer conferences worldwide, delivering more than 3000 presentations. Follow Neal: Website – nealford.com Twitter – @neal4d _____ Our Sponsors Are you looking for a new cool swag? Tech Lead Journal now offers you some swags that you can purchase online. These swags are printed on-demand based on your preference, and will be delivered safely to you all over the world where shipping is available. Check out all the cool swags available by visiting techleadjournal.dev/shop. And don't forget to brag yourself once you receive any of those swags. Like this episode? Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/120. Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

With each edition of the Thoughtworks Technology Radar, we identify a number of key themes that we see as significant in the industry. In the most recent edition — volume 29, published in September — we picked out AI assisted software development, the challenges of measuring productivity, the rapid growth of LLMs and remote delivery workarounds beginning to mature in a post-pandemic world. For this, the final Technology Podcast episode of 2023, a few members of the team involved in putting the Technology Radar together — Neal Ford, Rebecca Parsons, Scott Shaw and Erik Doernenberg — got together to discuss these themes in more detail and offer their perspectives. As we leave the year behind, it's a great way to review some of the key issues and stories that shaped the way the world builds software.

Generative AI appears to be making an impact in a huge range of fields, but one that we're particularly interested in at Thoughtworks is its use in software development. In recent months, there's been a lot of talk in the industry around issues like whether AI might boost developer productivity and if it can be used for pair programming, but in this episode of the Technology Podcast we try to get beneath the hype to explore the reality of generative AI and software development — how is it actually being used today? What works? And what doesn't? To dive deeper into all this, Chief of AI Mike Mason and Global Lead for AI-Assisted Software Delivery Birgitta Böckeler join hosts Prem Chandrasekaran and Neal Ford, discussing everything from the current tooling to the way GenAI is shaping developer practices and workflows.

The evolution of SQL and the ease of access to ever larger sizes of computational power has made SQL and ETL a useful pairing for practitioners in the data space. But how do they work together exactly? And what challenges can it pose? Bharani Subramaniam and Madhu Podila discuss these issues and much more with hosts Neal Ford and Rebecca Parsons on the latest episode of the Thoughtworks Technology Podcast.    

Nathaniel Schutta (or Nate) is a software architect focused on cloud computing and building usable applications. A proponent of polyglot programming, Nate has written multiple books and appeared in various videos. Nate is a seasoned speaker, regularly presenting at conferences worldwide, No Fluff Just Stuff symposia, meetups, universities, and user groups. In addition to his day job, Nate is an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota where he teaches students to embrace (and evaluate) technical change. Driven to rid the world of bad presentations, Nate co-authored the book Presentation Patterns with Neal Ford and Matthew McCullough. Nate has published Thinking Architecturally and Responsible Microservices both available as free downloads from VMware.   Topics of Discussion: [5:12] How Nate decided he liked development and architecture, and who was Dr. Evil? [7:10] Nate worked at a software company for a brief period and spent a lot of his time building enterprise web apps. [10:13] Is it possible to think and talk about software the same, regardless of language? [14:17] Nate Defines circuit breaker. [15:56] The importance of having good observability and monitoring in place to see what is going on. [22:35] Nate gives some categories of architects and where he thinks it changes in responsibility and scope. [26:14] To quote Ralph Johnson, “Architecture is the important stuff, whatever that is.” While we may have different definitions of “IT,” Nate thinks that it has the decisions that are hard to change later, and the ones we hope we get right in the first place. The “IT” is also what matters to the application at hand. [36:14] Are we currently at another inflection point? [38:03] The current landscape and challenges of inventing things on the fly. [45:22] What can we expect from Nate's new book? [55:54] Engineers often overlook soft skills, and the Dale Carnegie books on leadership are a great place to start.   Mentioned in this Episodes: Clear Measure Way Architect Forum Software Engineer Forum Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us programming@palermo.net Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor) .NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer's Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo — Available on Amazon! Jeffrey Palermo's Twitter — Follow to stay informed about future events! Architect Tips — Video podcast! Azure DevOps Nate Schutta Twitter Nathaniel Schutta Website Thinking Architecturally Fundamentals of Software  Dale Carnegie    Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.

"Architekci muszę bez przerwy oceniać cechy architektury, aby upewnić się, że ciągle zapewniają one jakość i nie stają się antywzorcami..." Ten cytat z książki "Building Evolutionary Architectures: Support Constant Change" autorstwa Neala Forda, Rebeki Parsons i Patricka Kua dotyczy jednego z fundamentów architektury ewolucyjnej, czyli tzw. funkcji dopasowania - Fitness Functions.Funkcje te pozwalają konkretnie ocenić dopasowanie architektury oprogramowania względem postawionych wymagań i podejmować świadome decyzje odnośnie wprowadzania zmian. Czym są wspominane tu funkcje, jak można je definiować i weryfikować, a także czym jest architektura ewolucyjna, o tym rozmawiamy z moim dzisiejszym gościem, Sebastianem Buczyńskim.Zapraszam!Materiały dodatkowe:Building Evolutionary Architectures: Support Constant Change, Neal Ford, Rebecca Parsons, Patrick Kua, 2017Building Evolutionary Architectures, prezentacja Rebeki Parsons, Neala Forda i Jamesa Lewisa z konferencji GOTO 2023Evolutionary Software Architectures, prezentacja Neala Forda z Voxxed DaysEvolutionary Architecture from an Organizational Perspective, artykuł jednego z gości Better Software Design, Radka Maziarki na temat dopasowania architektury do przedsiębiorstwa

Thoughtworks recently established a new role — Chief AI Officer. Taking up the position is Mike Mason, a veteran of Thoughtworks with over 20 years at the company, in technology roles spanning developer to technology strategist and author (and occasional Technology Podcast host). Mike will help guide Thoughtworks AI strategy and ensure that we're equipped to support clients trying to leverage AI.  In this episode of the Technology Podcast, Mike talks with hosts Neal Ford and Prem Chandrasekaran about his new role and explains why it's important that the company has someone leading on AI. He also discusses the hype, opportunities and risks of generative AI that — high on everyone's agenda at the moment — and explores how it might change knowledge work in general and software engineering more specifically. Listen as Mike talks through some of his own experiments with ChatGPT and offers his perspective on its likely impact on jobs in the months and years to come.

Dushyant Kunungo joins Timothy Keirnan for a discussion about enterprise UX.  * Duhsyant's professional background * The importance of user experience to employees working in an enterprise--both to their morale and their productivity. * Dushyant and Tim share eyebrow-raising anecdotes from enterprise user experience projects they have been on. Employees need effective, efficient, and enjoyable products/tools as much as external customers do. * Dushyant talks about his book, UX Decoded: Think and Implement User-Centered Research Methodologies, and Expert-Led UX Best Practices. You can reach Dushyant at his LinkedIn page. His book's publisher is at this link: https://bpbonline.com/products/ux-decoded?variant=41816075043016 Tim recommends everyone listen to this episode of Dushyant's excellent podcast, UX Banter, with Neal Ford discussing authenticity in branding: https://www.uxbanter.com/e/importance-of-authenticity-in-branding-neal-foard-s1-episode-7/  

This interview was recorded for the GOTO Book Club.gotopia.tech/bookclubRead the full transcription of the interview hereRebecca Parsons - CTO at Thoughtworks & Co-Author of "Building Evolutionary ArchitecturesNeal Ford - Software Consultant at Thoughtworks & Co-Author of "Building Evolutionary ArchitecturesJames Lewis - Principal Consultant & Technical Director at Thoughtworks RESOURCESthoughtworks.com/radarRebecca@rebeccaparsonsrebeccaparsons.comNeal@neal4dnealford.comJames@boicyDESCRIPTIONThe software development ecosystem is constantly changing, providing a constant stream of new tools, frameworks, techniques, and paradigms. Over the past few years, incremental developments in core engineering practices for software development have created the foundations for rethinking how architecture changes over time, along with ways to protect important architectural characteristics as it evolves. This practical guide ties those parts together with a new way to think about architecture and time.* Book description: © O'ReillyThe interview is based on the book "Building Evolutionary Architectures"RECOMMENDED BOOKSFord, Parsons, Kua & Sadalage  • Building Evolutionary Architectures 2nd EditionFord, Richards, Sadalage & Dehghani • Software Architecture: The Hard PartsMark Richards & Neal Ford • Fundamentals of Software ArchitectureFord, Parsons & Kua • Building Evolutionary ArchitecturesNeal Ford • Functional ThinkingMichael Feathers • Working Effectively with Legacy CodeChristian Clausen • Five Lines of CodeTwitterLinkedInFacebookLooking for a unique learning experience?Attend the next GOTO conference near you! Get your ticket: gotopia.techSUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL - new videos posted almost daily

Neal Ford & The Fanatics – Bitter BellsBootleg 77 - El Mono CósmicoThe Derby-Hatville – Turn Into EarthOrgan Fairchild - Chamelonious MonkWe The People - In The PastThe Grateful Dead - Dupree's Diamond Blues 1/25/69Hot Helmet - Relic RadiationNegative Space – Forbidden FruitThe Resoneurs - Black is BlackReuben Wilson - Ronnie's BonnieDr. Ex & The Break-Ups -Look Through Any WindowThe Grateful Dead - Don't Ease Me In (Instrumental)Captain Beefheart - The Floppy Boot StompSpace Kitchen - Lovin' 9-5Stevie Wonder - earth's creationQuicksilver Messenger Service - CalvaryBob Dylan - Changing Of The GuardsThe Grateful Dead - Help On The Way>Slipknot>Franklin's Tower 5/5/91Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera - FlamesDonald Byrd - miss kaneLucky Bishops - open gardensWishbone Ash - Queen Of TortureBig Brother & The Holding Company - Piece Of My HeartSupport the showSubscribe and Support this program with a monthly donation:https://www.buzzsprout.com/1427200/supporters/new

When cloud first hit the mainstream more than a decade ago, its attraction was rooted, in part, in its apparent elegance and simplicity. As it has become an established norm in the industry, such simplicity has given way to more fragmentation and complexity. The growth of "multi-cloud" and adjacent terms such as "hybrid cloud" and "poly cloud" mean that cloud is a field that needs to be sensitively navigated by technology leaders and their organizations. In this episode of the Technology Podcast, hosts Neal Ford and Prem Chandrasekaran discuss multi-cloud with Thoughtworks colleagues Rashmi Tambe and Sunit Parekh, who co-lead the Enterprise Modernization, Platforms and Cloud service line. In the episode they discuss terminology, the challenges of migrating to multiple cloud platforms, governance issues and some common antipatterns. They also offer advice for teams considering exploring the potential of multi-cloud.

We often describe our high-tech and digitally mediated world as "complex" but we rarely spend much time considering how that complexity can be cleverly deployed as a means of duping or manipulating us. However, trends like NFTs have brought this into clearer view. This is not to say it's a novel phenomenon — from dark patterns in UX design to pages and pages of end-user license agreements (EULAs), leveraging complexity for nefarious ends has long been an unsavory aspect of the technology industry. In this episode of the Technology Podcast, Mike Mason and Neal Ford are joined by Thoughtworks designer Kate Linton and Thoughtworks North America Head of Legal Jeremy Gordon to discuss what they describe as "the weaponization of complexity." Together, they grapple with the cynicism at the center of such activities and discuss some of the ways we can tackle it.

The Thoughtworks Technology Radar is a snapshot of technologies and practices that the company believes the industry should be interested in, based on the actual experiences of Thoughtworkers working with clients. With its first edition launched in January 2010, it is now a fixture of the Thoughtworks calendar, released twice a year in the spring and fall. Although it has been around for more than a decade, we're well aware that people have lots of questions about it. One comes up more than others: how do you actually put it together? Giving a good, short answer is difficult — for those involved, it's a long process involving various stages of writing, debate and deliberation.  However, with the next edition of the Radar — volume 28 — just weeks away, we wanted to give the world an insight into how we put Technology Radar together. In this episode of the Technology Podcast, Marisa Hoenig, Perla Villareal and Camilla Crispim join host Neal Ford to discuss the work that goes into producing it and what the experience is like.

This interview was recorded for the GOTO Book Club.gotopia.tech/bookclubRead the full transcription of the interview hereNeal Ford - Software Consultant at Thoughtworks & Co-Author of "Software Architecture: The Hard Parts"Mark Richards - Hands-On Software Architect, Independent Consultant & Co-Author of "Software Architecture: The Hard Parts"DESCRIPTIONThere are no easy decisions in software architecture. Instead, there are many hard parts--difficult problems or issues with no best practices--that force you to choose among various compromises. With this book, you'll learn how to think critically about the trade-offs involved with distributed architectures.Architecture veterans and practicing consultants Neal Ford, Mark Richards, Pramod Sadalage, and Zhamak Dehghani discuss strategies for choosing an appropriate architecture. By interweaving a story about a fictional group of technology professionals--the Sysops Squad--they examine everything from how to determine service granularity, manage workflows and orchestration, manage and decouple contracts, and manage distributed transactions to how to optimize operational characteristics, such as scalability, elasticity, and performance.By focusing on commonly asked questions, this book provides techniques to help you discover and weigh the trade-offs as you confront the issues you face as an architect.• Analyze trade-offs and effectively document your decisions• Make better decisions regarding service granularity• Understand the complexities of breaking apart monolithic applications• Manage and decouple contracts between services• Handle data in a highly distributed architecture• Learn patterns to manage workflow and transactions when breaking apart applications* Book description: © O'ReillyThe interview is based on Neal's & Mark's co-authored book "Software Architecture: The Hard Parts"RECOMMENDED BOOKSFord, Richards, Sadalage & Dehghani • Software Architecture: The Hard PartsMark Richards & Neal Ford • Fundamentals of Software ArchitectureFord, Parsons, Kua & Sadalage  • Building Evolutionary Architectures 2nd EditionFord, Parsons & Kua • Building Evolutionary ArchitecturesNeal Ford • Functional ThinkingMichael Nygard • Release It! 2nd EditionGene Kim & John Willis • Beyond The Phoenix ProjectTwitterLinkedInFacebookLooking for a unique learning experience?Attend the next GOTO conference near you! Get your ticket: gotopia.techSUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL - new videos posted almost daily

Thoughtworks CTO Rebecca Parsons has had a long and varied career in technology. Even before joining Thoughtworks in 1999, she completed a PhD, worked as a postdoc researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory and taught at the University of Central Florida. Becoming CTO in 2007, she has seen Thoughtworks — and the wider tech industry — evolve through a period in which the business mainstream has become increasingly comfortable with cutting-edge innovation. In this episode of the Technology Podcast, Neal Ford and Birgitta Böckeler talk to Rebecca about her career, starting from Caterpillar warehouses in Peoria, Illinois, to being awarded the Technical Leadership Abie Award by AnitaB.org. It's the latest episode in our ongoing mini-series of Thoughtworker Journeys, offering an insight into the diverse and sometimes surprising experiences of technologists at Thoughtworks. Learn more about AnitaB.org: https://anitab.org/ Read the new edition of Rebecca's book, Building Evolutionary Architectures: https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/books/building-evolutionaryarchitectures-second-edition    

“Everything in software architecture is a trade-off, and the why is more important than how." Neal Ford is a Director and software architect at ThoughtWorks. In this episode, we discussed all things about software architecture covering his three most recent books: “Fundamentals of Software Architecture”, “Software Architecture: The Hard Parts”, and “Building Evolutionary Architectures”. We first discussed the definition of software architecture and how it relates to software design. Neal then described the two important laws of software architecture related to trade-offs and the why. Neal then explained why software architecture is difficult and discussed the hard parts, such as finding the least-worst combination trade-offs, understanding the importance of data, and managing coupling. Towards the end, Neal shared about the evolutionary architecture concept and some of its principles to support making incremental change across multiple software architectural dimensions. Listen out for: Career Journey - [00:04:25] Definition of Software Architecture - [00:10:48] Software Architecture vs Design - [00:14:29] Laws of Software Architecture - [00:16:24] The Hard Parts of Software Architecture - [00:20:55] Least-Worst Combination of Trade-offs - [00:26:42] Importance of Data - [00:29:51] Coupling and The 3 Co's - [00:35:54] Evolutionary Architecture - [00:40:11] Incremental Change - [00:45:26] Principles of Evolutionary Architecture - [00:49:32] 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:52:01] _____ Neal Ford's Bio Neal Ford is Director, Software Architect, and Meme Wrangler at ThoughtWorks. He is also the designer and developer of applications, articles, video presentations, and author and/or editor of an increasingly large number of books spanning a variety of subjects and technologies, including the two most recent Fundamentals of Software Architecture and Building Evolutionary Architectures. His professional focus includes designing and building of large-scale enterprise applications. He is also an internationally acclaimed speaker, speaking at over 700 developer conferences worldwide, delivering more than 3000 presentations. Follow Neal: Website – nealford.com Twitter – @neal4d _____ Our Sponsors Skills Matter is the global community and events platform for software professionals. You get on-demand access to their latest content, thought leadership insights as well as the exciting schedule of tech events running across all time zones. Head on over to skillsmatter.com to become part of the tech community that matters most to you - it's free to join and easy to keep up with the latest tech trends. Are you looking for a new cool swag? Tech Lead Journal now offers you some swags that you can purchase online. These swags are printed on-demand based on your preference, and will be delivered safely to you all over the world where shipping is available. Check out all the cool swags available by visiting techleadjournal.dev/shop. And don't forget to brag yourself once you receive any of those swags. Like this episode? Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Pledge your support by becoming a patron. For episode show notes, visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/120.

It's often said that technology moves quickly, but the decisions we make about it can have long-term consequences. That's why identifying these trends — and understanding what they mean — matters. At Thoughtworks we do that with our Looking Glass report. Our most recent edition was published at the end of 2022; it provides a useful framework for thinking through the major shifts that look set to happen across the industry in 2023.  In this episode of the Technology Podcast, regular hosts Mike Mason and Ken Mugrage take the guest seats to talk to Neal Ford about the six key trends in the latest Looking Glass. They explain why they were chosen before diving deeper into a selection of some of the most hotly debated trends that feature in the report, such as metaverse and Web3. Explore the latest Looking Glass: https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/looking-glass Read Mike Mason's metaverse article (co-written with Barton Friedland) https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/articles/metaverse-practical-review

Low-code and no-code development platforms have been heralded in recent years as a solution to engineering talent gaps and as a trend that will properly democratize technology, allowing even non-coders to build applications from scratch. However, despite the marketing rhetoric, such platforms pose considerable challenges: how do they fit alongside existing development projects? To what extent do they enable or restrict our ability to build the kinds of software we want and need?  In this episode of the Technology Podcast, Neal Ford and Mike Mason are joined by Scott Shaw and Xu Hao to discuss the state of play in the world of low-code and no-code. They explore the different types of platforms that have emerged in the space and ask what organizations need to consider before they invest time, energy and money in integrating them.

Building Evolutionary Architectures was published in 2017. In it, Thoughtworks CTO Rebecca Parsons, Neal Ford and Pat Kua defined and developed the concept of “evolutionary architecture” and demonstrated how it can help organizations manage change effectively in fast-moving business contexts and an ever-shifting technology landscape. The book has now been updated, with its second edition due to be published in December 2022. In this episode of the Technology Podcast, Rebecca and Neal talk to Birgitta Böckeler and Scott Shaw about the new edition and discuss how seeing various applications of evolutionary architecture over the last five years has led them to identify new issues and challenges. In particular, they talk about how the new edition takes up the question of automating architectural governance using fitness functions, and what this means for the way we build and maintain complex software systems.

The “Basal Cost” of software is an idea from Eduardo Ferro Aldama. The term is borrowed from biology, where the Basal Metabolic Rate refers to the number of calories a human body burns just to maintain normal functioning. Applied to software development, the concept is intended to help us pay much more attention to the long term costs — like additional complexity and maintenance — of building a new feature. In this episode of the Technology Podcast, James Lewis and Georgina Giannoukou join hosts Neal Ford and Birgitta Böckeler to discuss the idea of the basal cost of software and how it can help organizations and software development teams better manage product and system complexity.

This interview was recorded for the GOTO Book Club.gotopia.tech/bookclubZhamak Dehghani - Author of "Data Mesh" & Director of Emerging Technologies at ThoughtworksSamia Rahman - Director of Data & AI at SeagenDESCRIPTIONHow can modern organizations handle their data in a way that delivers value at scale? Zhamak Dehghani, author of “Data Mesh: Delivering Data-Driven Value at Scale,” covers the key principles of data mesh and how it can help organizations move beyond the data lake to provide meaningful insights. She's joined by Samia Rahman, director of data and AI at Seagen, as they also explore the concept of the earliest explorable data.The interview is based on Zhamak's book "Data Mesh".Read the full transcription of the interview hereRECOMMENDED BOOKSZhamak Dehghani • Data MeshZhamak Dehghani, Neal Ford, Mark Richards & Pramod Sadalage • Software ArchitectureSam Newman • Monolith to MicroservicesSam Newman • Building MicroservicesSandeep Uttamchandani • The Self-Service Data RoadmapPiethein Strengholt • Data Management at ScaleMartin Kleppmann • Designing Data-Intensive ApplicationsTwitterLinkedInFacebookLooking for a unique learning experience?Attend the next GOTO conference near you! Get your ticket at gotopia.techSUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL - new videos posted almost daily.Discovery MattersA collection of stories and insights on matters of discovery that advance life...Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify Health, Wellness & Performance Catalyst w/ Dr. Brad CooperLooking for a catalyst to optimize your health, wellness & performance? You've found it!!Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

  Episode 236 Neal is Director, Software Architect, and Meme Wrangler at ThoughtWorks, a global IT consultancy with a focus on end-to-end software development and delivery. His professional focus includes designing and building of large-scale enterprise applications.   Links https://nealford.com/ https://twitter.com/neal4d   Resources Fundamentals of Software Architecture https://www.thoughtworks.com/radar https://www.developertoarchitect.com/ https://evolutionaryarchitecture.com/ https://github.com/BenMorris/NetArchTest https://www.thoughtworks.com/en-us/insights/podcasts https://www.enterpriseintegrationpatterns.com/ramblings/18_starbucks.html   "Tempting Time" by Animals As Leaders used with permissions - All Rights Reserved × Subscribe now! Never miss a post, subscribe to The 6 Figure Developer Podcast! Are you interested in being a guest on The 6 Figure Developer Podcast? Click here to check availability!