Serverless Craic Ep71 AI, DevOps & Serverless: Building Frictionless Developer Experience

Serverless Craic from The Serverless Edge

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In this episode, Dave Anderson, Mark McCann, and Michael O’Reilly dive deep into The Value Flywheel Effect (Chapter 14) — discussing frictionless developer experience, sense checking, feedback culture, AI in software engineering, DevOps, platform engineering, and marginal gain.
We explore how AI and LLMs are shaping engineering practices, the importance of psychological safety, continuous improvement, and why code is always a liability. If you’re interested in serverless, DevOps, or building resilient modern software teams, this conversation is packed with insights.
Chapters
00:00 – Introduction & Belfast heatwave 🌞
00:18 – Revisiting *The Value Flywheel Effect* (Chapter 14)
01:11 – Sense checking & psychological safety in teams
02:37 – Leadership, listening, and feedback loops
04:12 – RFCs, well-architected reviews & threat modelling
05:14 – Trusting AI feedback vs human feedback
07:59 – Documenting engineering standards for AI
09:33 – Human in the loop & cadence of reviews
11:42 – Traceability, accountability & marginal gains
13:56 – Scaling teams & expanding the “full stack”
14:29 – Infrastructure as code, DevOps origins & AI parallels
17:13 – Deployment pipelines & frictionless production
18:01 – Platform engineering & hardened building blocks
19:40 – Code as liability & avoiding bloat
20:20 – Well-architected standards & AI context
21:32 – Shifting security left & automated governance
22:33 – Isolation, zero trust & resilience
23:18 – Platforms as standards & consolidation
25:23 – Less code, better docs, and evolving patterns
27:06 – Avoiding command & control in engineering culture
28:22 – Empowerment, enabling environments & AI’s role
28:50 – Developer experience & future of AI in software

Serverless Craic from The Serverless Edge
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