Episode 56: GitHub’s Scott Densmore on the Copilot Revolution, Coding at the Speed of Thought

Episode 56: GitHub’s Scott Densmore on the Copilot Revolution, Coding at the Speed of Thought

Author: Dr. Mik Kersten: Author of Project to Product and Founder and CEO of Tasktop December 14, 2023 Duration: 51:51
Joining Mik in this episode of Mik + One is Scott Densmore, VP of Engineering at GitHub, to discuss the future of connected work and the impact of GitHub Copilot on developer productivity. GitHub Copilot is an AI-powered tool that provides code completion and suggestions to developers, allowing them to write code faster and more efficiently. Scott shares the history of GitHub Copilot and how it has evolved to become a game-changer in the world of software development. He also talks about developer flow and happiness and explains how Copilot enhances these aspects by reducing toil and increasing productivity.  Listen as Mik and Scott discuss the potential for customization and extensibility in Copilot, allowing developers to build their agents and their skills to further enhance their workflows.   Key discussions include:  GitHub Copilot is an AI-powered tool that provides code completion and suggestions to developers, increasing productivity and reducing toil.  Copilot has been in development for several years, with a focus on fine-tuning the models and prompts to provide accurate and helpful suggestions across multiple programming languages.  Studies have shown that developers using Copilot can complete tasks in significantly less time, leading to increased productivity and happiness.  Customization is a key feature of Copilot, allowing developers to build models on top of their own code and improve the accuracy of suggestions.  The introduction of chat functionality in Copilot allows developers to ask questions, get explanations of code, and even generate tests or refactorings.  GitHub is working on an extensibility platform for Copilot to enhance their workflows and bring in expertise from various tools and services.  Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don’t forget to leave your review.  Follow Mik on X:  @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne  Additional Resources:  Portfolio SAFe  Dean Leffingwell on the Mik + One Podcast: Part 1, Part 2  MarTech  Dave West - podcast episode  Scrum Studio  Greenfield project  Skunkworks  Bimodal IT  Agile Release Train  Mik + One Podcast Episode 20: Justin Watts  Join the Flow Framework Community   

Dr. Mik Kersten’s book, Project to Product, sparked a fundamental shift in how large organizations think about software delivery. That conversation continues and deepens in Mik + One: The Official Project to Product Podcast. Here, Kersten moves beyond the stage and the prepared keynote to host candid, unrehearsed dialogues with the people actually steering the world’s most significant technology-driven companies. Each episode is built around a simple, powerful premise: one guest, one conversation with nothing held back. You’ll hear from fellow authors, executives, and engineering leaders as they dissect the real-world application of flow frameworks and product-centric thinking. The discussions get into the granular challenges of shifting from project-oriented deadlines to sustainable product value streams, covering both the strategic wins and the difficult lessons learned. This isn't about abstract theory; it's a direct line to the tactics and philosophies used by industry pioneers. For anyone involved in technology business management-from team leads to the C-suite-this podcast serves as an essential masterclass. Listeners gain access to the nuanced, often unspoken details of scaling digital innovation, all through the lens of Kersten’s expertise and his guests' diverse experiences. The result is a consistently insightful resource for navigating the complex journey of modern digital transformation.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 63

Mik + One: The Official Project to Product Podcast by Dr. Mik Kersten
Podcast Episodes
Episode 11: Dominica DeGrandis on Increasing Developer Happiness [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:49
In this episode of Mik + One, the official Project to Product podcast, Mik is joined by Dominica DeGrandis, Principal Flow Advisor at Tasktop and Author of “Making Work Visible: Exposing Time Theft to Optimize Work & Flo…
Episode 10: Team Topologies on Relieving Mental Pressure on Teams [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 24:02
Recorded at the 2019 annual SEACON conference in London, Mik has two special guests, Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais, authors of Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow. This episode of Mi…
Episode 9: Jon Smart on Why Agile is No Longer the Answer [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 23:02
Recorded at the annual 2019 SEACON Conference in London, today Mik’s plus one is Jon Smart, Partner, Business Agility at Deloitte. In this episode of Mik + One, Mik and Jon discuss: The value and importance of focusing o…
Episode 7: Dave West on Avoiding the Industrial Mindset Trap [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 31:46
In the seventh episode of Mik + One, Mik’s guest is Dave West, CEO and Product Owner of Scrum.org. In this episode, Mik and Dave discuss: The digital age and how traditional enterprises can transform to become - software…
Episode 6: Sam Guckenheimer on Ignoring Tech Debt at Your Peril [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:14
Joining Mik for the sixth episode of Mik + One is Sam Guckenheimer, Product Owner for Azure DevOps at Microsoft, and a regular keynote speaker at industry-wide events, and the author of four fantastic books. In this epis…
Episode 5: Shelley Perry on How Leadership Can Handle Uncertainty [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 38:17
In this episode of Mik + One, Mik’s guest is Shelley Perry, Managing Partner & Founder of ScaleLogix, who has immense experience setting tech companies up for success. The goal of ‘Project to Product’ is to help organiza…
Episode 4: International Women‘s Day Special [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:05
In honor of International Women’s Day 2020, Mik is joined by three incredible women within the industry: Gail Murphy, Tasktop Co-Founder, and Professor of Computer Science and VP of Research and Innovation at the Univers…
Episode 2: Gene Kim on The Unicorn Project, The Five Ideals (Part 2) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:25
In this episode of Mik + One, Mik continues the conversation with Gene Kim, best-selling author of The Phoenix Project and The Unicorn Project, as well as co-author of The DevOps Handbook for the second part of their dis…