Podcast
CaSE: Conversations about Software Engineering
Hosted by CaSE Podcast Team · EN
Conversations about Software Engineering (CaSE) is a podcast for software engineers about technology, software engineering, software architecture, reliability engineering, and data engineering. The three of us regularly come together to discuss recent events or articles, exchange on our learnings, and reflect on our professional and personal experiences. Additionally our guest episodes feature engaging conversations with interesting people from the world of software engineering.
10episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Technology Governance with Sarah Wells
3w ago00:45:48Tap to summarizeSarah Wells spent years as Technical Director at the Financial Times, wrangling thousands of microservices and the technology decisions that come with them. In this conversation she shares how the FT kept things from spiralling out of control without turning into a bureaucracy. We talk AI tools and shadow IT, why "best tool for the job" can quietly become your worst nightmare, and how a simple two-page document can save you from months of regret. Chapter Marks -00:00:00 Introduction & The AI Tool Flood -00:04:37 Shadow IT & AI Governance in Day-to-Day Development -00:07:54 Technology Strategy – Build vs. Buy & Wardley Mapping -00:11:53 Trying New Technologies – Structured, Not Chaotic -00:16:04 "Best Tool for the Job" – A Dangerous Mantra -00:21:57 The Tech Governance Group (TGG) -00:30:33 The Technology Radar & The System Catalog -00:36:33 Technology Migration & Managing Legacy -00:43:04 The CTO's Role in Technology Decisions Links Enabling Microservice Success
Transcribe →Agent Harness, State of Play, Risk and AI Company Culture
Mar 1701:25:13Tap to summarizeInsights from the ThoughtWorks Utah Retreat Birgitta, Heinrich and Sven look back at the latest developments in AI-assisted development, tools and practices which emerged in 2025 and work for teams. Furthermore they discuss a few topics like "where does the rigor go in AI assistance" from the future of software development retreat in Utah Chapter Marks -00:00:00 Intro & Welcome -00:03:35 The State of AI-Assisted Coding in 2026: Agents, Subagents, … -00:09:00 Context Engineering: The Real Lever -00:19:00 Swarms and Agent Teams -00:28:04 Platform Teams & Organizational Enablement -00:34:15 Harness Engineering, Rigor & Quality -00:49:49 Risk Thinking, Small Batches & Feedback Loops -00:59:58 Cognitive Load & The “AI Vampire” -01:10:34 AI for Migration & Modernization -01:17:13 Culture Wars: Enthusiasts vs. Skeptics Links Exploring GenAI by Birgitta and colleagues Chad Fowler, Relocating Rigor Future of Software Engineering Retreat in Utah Harness Engineering Vibe Coding Risk Radar
Transcribe →Guiding, not ruling: Architecture Governance Approaches
Feb 201:11:44Tap to summarizeOverview on Paved Road, Advice Process, Architecture Principles and Technology Radar Chapter Marks -000:00:00 Introduction: Governance and Autonomy -000:01:56 Golden Path / Paved Road Explained -000:30:49 Architecture Advice Process -000:46:53 Architecture Principles & Macro Architecture -000:57:18 Technology Radar -001:05:27 AI and the Future of Governance Links Zalando Tech Radar ThoughtWorks Technology Radar Facilitating Software Architecture Service Template/Paved Road Cultivating Architecture - Martin Fowler & Birgitta Böckeler | Craft 2019 CaSE Principles with B. Boeckeler CaSE C. Richardson on Service Templates CaSE A. Harmel-Law on the architecture advice process
Transcribe →Andrew Harmel-Law on Better Architecture Decision Making for Everyone
Jan 1301:21:08Tap to summarizeChapter Marks -00:00:02 Intro & Welcome -00:03:04 What is software architecture? -00:07:27 Architecture advice process -00:10:41 Learning & unlearning in architecture -00:14:36 Advice process in detail -00:24:00 Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) -00:35:25 Scaling architecture & organization -00:56:49 Architecture Advice Forums -01:06:26 AI & Architecture Work -01:11:58 Naming, Power & Psychological Safety -01:17:54 Writing, Editing & Book Creation -01:20:07 Conclusion & Farewell Show Notes Books Facilitating Software Architecture Architecture Metrics Team Topologies Unlearn Domain-Driven Design (Eric Evans, Blue Book) Principles of Product Development Flow Pattern-Oriented Software Architecture Volume 5 - On Patterns and Pattern Languages Articles / Blogposts / Talks / Papers: Architecture Decision Records (Michael Nygard) Who Needs an Architect? (Martin Fowler) Decentralizing the Practice of Architecture at Xapo Bank Fred George, Programmer Anarchy (Probabably) the earliest ADR paper Conway’s Law (Melvin Conway), Original Paper Conways’s Law explained by Martin Fowler
Transcribe →Data Marketplace, Data Products and Data Contracts
Sep 2201:19:37Tap to summarizeAPI Specification for Data Chapter Marks, AI-assisted -00:00:00 Introduction and Simon’s Background -00:02:00 From Software Engineering to Data Thinking -00:06:45 Discovering Data Mesh and Decentralization -00:12:30 What Are Data Contracts? -00:22:00 Anatomy of a Data Contract -00:36:00 Governance Meets Domain-Driven Design -00:42:00 Versioning and Lifecycle Management -00:45:00 Contract Validation and Consumer Expectations -00:57:00 What Is a Data Product? -01:04:00 Building a Marketplace – Data Contracts Manager -01:08:30 Looking Forward – Standards and Intelligent Discovery Show Notes Data Contracts Website Data Contracts CLI Contract CLI ThoughtWorks Tech Radar on Data Mesh Manager Data Contract Manager Data Contract Manager, CE -Breuninger Case Study
Transcribe →Data Architecture with Christoph Windheuser
Jul 2, 202501:49:08Tap to summarizeChapter Marks -00:00:00 Intro -00:05:45 Data Warehouse -00:16:45 Data Lake -00:21:23 Data Lake House -00:29:45 Data Quality -00:37:15 Data Catalog -00:39:35 Data Lineage -00:54:00 Data Mesh -01:06:00 Providing data for AI use cases -01:13:36 Choose the right data architecture -01:19:55 Streaming -01:24:26 Learning -01:26:30 Reversible decisions -01:29:20 Emerging trends to look at -01:31:30 Data governance -01:40:50 DuckDB -01:46:52 Closing words Show Notes Deciphering Big Data Architectures book, O’Reilly Data Mesh book, O’Reilly Apache Parquet Apache Airflow Databricks Data Contracts DuckDB
Transcribe →Mirko Novakovic on Waves of Innovation and Observability Product Management
Jun 5, 202501:46:27Tap to summarizeIn this episode of the CaSE Podcast, Mirko Novakovic, a seasoned entrepreneur and investor, shares his journey through the waves of technological innovation—from the early days of online banking to the rise of AI and open telemetry. We explore with him how the lessons learned in diverse industries, including the food business, can reshape our approach to software development and architecture, emphasizing the importance of curiosity, adaptability, and a solid grasp of the fundamentals. Chapter Marks -00:00:11 Introduction -00:01:35 Learning from Olive Oil farming and restaurant businesses -00:09:20 Waves of technological innovations? -00:16:19* Fundamentals vs. Trends in Software Engineering -00:21:08 Minimum knowledge of performance analysis today -00:26:49 Honouring the works of Brendan Gregg -00:30:17 Importance of features like profiling -00:39:45 You only change if you feel the pain -00:47:58 Overestimating the need for speed of change -00:51:25 Explaining benefits of Open Telemetry to customers -01:00:09 The Rift Framework and Data Usability -01:21:37 Product Management and User-Centric Design -01:38:11 Entrepreneurship -01:44:39 Conclusion and Final Thoughts Show Notes Dash0 Instana eBPF Brendon Gregg OpenTelemetry
Transcribe →Architecture Sensitivity Points; Interactions with AI Assistance
Apr 8, 202501:29:53Tap to summarizeIn this episode of the CaSE Podcast, Sven Johann, Alex Heusingfeld, and Heinrich Hartmann dive into the concept of sensitivity points in software architecture, using the recent Volkswagen data leak as a striking example. They explore how seemingly minor architectural decisions and code changes can carry massive implications when balancing trade-offs like data privacy versus functionality. The trio also discusses the growing impact of AI-assisted development, reflecting on practical experiences with tools like ChatGPT, Cursor, and GitHub Copilot. Birgitta Böckerler, AI Assistance beyond coding Cursor IDE Loveable Massive data breach at VW Sensitivity and Trade-Off Points in Software Architecture, chapter 7.2. Peter Naur, Programming as Theory Building Chapter Marks: 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:57 VW data breach example 00:05:45 What is a sensitivity point (SP)? 00:13:10 SP: How serious are we with security requirements 00:17:05 SP: Different stakeholder needs 00:20:33 SP: The problem of getting stakeholders together 00:25:46 SP: Applying this concept to data lineage? 00:32:30 SP: Protecting critical lines of code 00:36:38 SP: Engineering critical code protection 00:41:57 AI assistance: it helps, if your are an expert 00:45:32 AI: Being successful with a clear mental model and iterations 00:54:33 AI: Larger code bases 01:01:10 AI: Devil’s advocate and inspiration on design 01:09:30 AI: Talking to the LLM for coding and writing 01:15:35 AI: Non technical people creating code 01:27:50 AI: Wrapping up
Transcribe →Ole Lensmar - From Swagger to TestCube: Evolving Testing Practices in the Kubernetes Era
Mar 17, 202501:34:35Tap to summarizeHow do you ensure the reliability of your cloud-native applications in an ever-evolving landscape? In this episode of CaSE, we dive deep into the intricate world of cloud-native testing with Ole Lensmar, the mind behind SoapUI, serial entrepreneur and Founder of TestKube. Join us as we explore the challenges of testing in Kubernetes environments, the balance between automation and manual testing, and the evolving role of AI in shaping our testing strategies. TestKube – Test execution at scale for CI/CD KubeShop -- An Accelerator for Open Source Startups Swagger – API design, documentation, and testing SoapUI – Testing tool for SOAP and REST APIs Postman – API development and testing platform JUnit – Unit testing framework for Java k6 – Load testing for developers Chapter Marks: 00:00:00 The Intersection of Software Engineering and Butchery 00:09:03 Introduction to Cloud-Native Testing 00:09:03 The Role of AI in Testing 00:15:44 API Testing Tools: SoapUI and Swagger 00:28:47 Cloud-Native Testing Strategies 00:45:37 Continuous Testing and Monitoring 00:54:43 The Future of Testing Tools and Practices 01:26:17 Building and Sustaining Open-Source Communities
Transcribe →Theo Schlossnagle on Meat, Machines, and Mastery in Software Engineering
Feb 25, 202501:50:42Tap to summarizeTheo Schlossnagle is a world-class software engineer, serial entrepreneur and owner of a butcher shop. In the podcast he unpacks the mindset, practices, and strategies that have shaped his approach to software development. From the power of curiosity to the challenges of debugging distributed systems, we explore what it takes to build resilient, maintainable software in an ever-evolving landscape. Along the way, we dive into automation of butchery equipment, the pitfalls of legacy systems, and the delicate balance between abstraction and simplicity. Whether you're scaling architectures, optimizing code, or integrating outdated APIs, this conversation is packed with insights to sharpen your engineering craft. Tune in to explore what makes great software—and great engineers—stand out. Theo Schlossnagle on Bluesky Butchers Club of Maple Lawn DTrace OpenZiti Chapter Marks: 00:00:00 The Intersection of Software Engineering and Butchery 00:07:42 Automation and Consistency in Butchery Operations 00:26:36 The Role of Curiosity in Software Development 00:47:40 Debugging and Troubleshooting Techniques 01:16:13 The Challenges of Distributed Systems 01:39:27 Future Directions in Software and IoT
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