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 Basal Cost of software and explore how it can help organizations and software development teams better manage product and system complexity.

Exploring the Basal Cost of software

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Bringing machine learning models into production is challenging. This is why, as demand for machine learning capabilities in products and services increases, new kinds of teams and new ways of working are emerging to bridge the gap between data science and software engineering. Effective Machine Learning Teams — written by Thoughtworkers David Tan, Ada Leung and Dave Colls — was created to help practitioners get to grips with these challenges and master everything needed to deliver exceptional machine learning-backed products. In this episode of the Technology Podcast, the authors join Scott Shaw and Ken Mugrage to discuss their book. They explain how it addresses current issues in the field, taking in everything from the technical challenges of testing and deployment to the cultural work of building teams that span different disciplines and areas of expertise.   Learn more about Effective Machine Learning Teams:  https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/books/effective-machine-learning-teams Read a Q&A; with the authors:  https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/machine-learning-and-ai/author-q-and-a-effective-machine-learning-teams  

Building at the intersection of machine learning and software engineering

Can AI improve the quality of our code? A recent white paper published by code analysis company  CodeScene — "Refactoring vs. Refuctoring: Advancing the state of AI-automated code improvements" — highlighted some significant challenges: in tests, AI solutions only delivered functionally correct refactorings 37% of the time. However, there are nevertheless opportunities. The white paper suggests it might be possible to dramatically boost the success rate of AI refactoring to 90%. In this episode of the Technology Podcast, Adam Tornhill, CTO and Founder of CodeScene, joins Thoughtworks' Rebecca Parsons (CTO Emerita), Birgitta Böckeler (Global Lead for AI-assisted software delivery) and Martin Fowler (Chief Scientist and author of the influential Refactoring book) to discuss all things AI and code. From refactoring and code quality to the benefits and limitations of coding assistants, this is an essential conversation for anyone that wants to understand how AI is going to shape the way we build software.   Read CodeScene's Refactoring vs. Refuctoring white paper, which explores AI's role in improving code:   https://codescene.com/hubfs/whitepapers/Refactoring-vs-Refuctoring-Advancing-the-state-of-AI-automated-code-improvements.pdf Read CodeScene's Code Red white paper to learn how code quality impacts time-to-market and product experience:  https://codescene.com/hubfs/web_docs/Business-impact-of-code-quality.pdf CodeScene's new automated refactoring tool is now in beta. Learn more:   https://codescene.com/campaigns/ai Listen to our podcast discussion about AI-assisted coding from November 2023:  https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/podcasts/technology-podcasts/ai-assisted-coding-experiences-perspectives

Refactoring with AI

If you've ever wondered how to measure your cloud carbon footprint, you can — thanks to a tool that's called, somewhat unsurprisingly, Cloud Carbon Footprint. Launched in March 2021 by Thoughtworks as an open-source project, it allows users to monitor and measure carbon emissions and energy use from cloud services. On this episode of the Technology Podcast, senior software engineers Cameron Casher and Arik Smith join Alexey Boas and Ken Mugrage to talk about Cloud Carbon Footprint in depth. They explain why CCF is different from the measurement tools offered by established cloud vendors, how it actually works and how you can get started with it yourself.  CCF on GitHub: https://github.com/cloud-carbon-footprint Learn more: https://www.cloudcarbonfootprint.org/    

How to measure your cloud carbon footprint

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

Technology through the Looking Glass: Preparing for 2024 and beyond

A few years ago, Thoughtworker and (prolific) author Neal Ford published Fundamentals of Software Architecture with Mark 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/

Exploring the Basal Cost of software

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