SE Radio 721: Rob Moffat on Risk-First Software Development

SE Radio 721: Rob Moffat on Risk-First Software Development

Author: team@se-radio.net (SE-Radio Team) May 20, 2026 Duration: 52:31
Software Engineering Radio - the podcast for professional software developers
TechnologyEducation

In this episode, Rob Moffat, author of Risk-First Software Development and chief technical architect at the FinTech Open Source Software Foundation (FINOS), speaks with host Brijesh Ammanath about how all of software development is actually risk management. Rob introduces the concept of 'risk-first software development,' which sits in the context of existing methodologies like scrum and kanban. Showcasing multiple real-world project patterns to illustrate how things can go wrong when risk is ignored, he makes the case for why risk should be the primary lens behind every development decision, from architecture to prioritization. Through various examples, he shows how every developer action can be viewed as a risk trade-off and why making that explicit can lead to better outcomes. The conversation takes a deep dive into the risk-first framework and how teams can apply it in their existing processes.


For developers who build the world's most critical systems, Software Engineering Radio offers deep, substantive conversations that move beyond the hype cycle. This isn't about quick tips or news flashes; it's a dedicated audio library for career engineers seeking to solidify their foundational knowledge and explore advanced concepts. Each episode is crafted as an enduring resource, featuring either a comprehensive tutorial breaking down a specific technology or methodology, or a detailed interview with a leading practitioner shaping the field. You'll hear focused discussions on everything from low-level systems architecture and programming language design to team dynamics and project management, all through the lens of professional software creation. The content is exclusively produced for this podcast, ensuring thoughtful, in-depth analysis you won't find simply repackaged from conference talks. If your work demands a rigorous understanding of the craft, this is the podcast for you.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 100

Official website RSS
spotifydeezer
Software Engineering Radio - the podcast for professional software developers
Podcast Episodes
SE Radio 692: Sourabh Satish on Prompt Injection [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:04:36
Sourabh Satish, CTO and co-founder of Pangea, speaks with SE Radio's Brijesh Ammanath about prompt injection. Sourabh begins with the basic concepts underlying prompt injection and the key risks it introduces. From there…
SE Radio 691: Kacper Łukawski on Qdrant Vector Database [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 59:51
Kacper Łukawski, a Senior Developer Advocate at Qdrant, speaks with host Gregory M. Kapfhammer about the Qdrant vector database and similarity search engine. After introducing vector databases and the foundational concep…
SE Radio 690: Florian Gilcher on Rust for Safety-Critical Systems [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:03:44
Florian Gilcher, co-founder of Ferrous Systems and the Rust Foundation, speaks with host Giovanni Asproni about the application of Rust in mission- and safety-critical systems. The discussion starts with a brief overview…
SE Radio 689: Amey Desai on the Model Context Protocol [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 58:36
Amey Desai, the Chief Technology Officer at Nexla, speaks with host Sriram Panyam about the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and its role in enabling agentic AI systems. The conversation begins with the fundamental challenge…
SE Radio 688: Daniel Stenberg on Removing Rust from Curl [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:14
Daniel Stenberg, Swedish Internet protocol expert and founder and lead developer of the Curl project, speaks with SE Radio host Gavin Henry about removing Rust from Curl. They discuss why Hyper was removed from curl, why…
SE Radio 687: Elizabeth Figura on Proton and Wine [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:17
Elizabeth Figura, a Wine Developer at CodeWeavers, speaks with SE Radio host Jeremy Jung about the Wine compatibility layer and the Proton distribution. They discuss a wide range of details including system calls, what p…
SE Radio 686: François Daoust on W3C [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:02:36
François Daoust, W3C staff member and co-chair of the Web Developer Experience Community Group, discusses the origins of the W3C, the browser standardization process, and how it relates to other organizations like TC39,…
SE Radio 685: Will Wilson on Deterministic Simulation Testing [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:01:14
In this episode, Will Wilson, CEO and co-founder of Antithesis, explores Deterministic Simulation Testing (DST) with host Sriram Panyam. Wilson was part of the pioneering team at FoundationDB that developed this revoluti…

«12345678...10»