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 Guest

Abi 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 Guest

Gary 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.