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

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

Software Engineering Radio - the podcast for professional software developers
Podcast Episodes
SE Radio 679: Wesley Beary on API Design [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:51
Wesley Beary of Anchor speaks with host Sam Taggart about designing APIs with a particular emphasis on user experience. Wesley discusses what it means to be an "API connoisseur"— paying attention to what makes the APIs w…
SE Radio 678: Chris Love on Kubernetes Security [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:36
Chris Love, co-author of the book Core Kubernetes, joins host Robert Blumen for a conversation about kubernetes security. Chris identifies the node layer, secrets management, the network layer, contains, and pods as the…
SE Radio 676: Samuel Colvin on the Pydantic Ecosystem [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:02:06
Samuel Colvin, the CEO and founder of Pydantic, speaks with host Gregory M. Kapfhammer about the ecosystem of Pydantic's Python frameworks, including Pydantic, Pydantic AI, and Pydantic Logfire. Along with discussing the…
SE Radio 675: Brian Demers on Observability into the Toolchain [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:41
Brian Demers, Developer Advocate at Gradle, speaks with host Giovanni Asproni about the importance of having observability in the toolchain. Such information about build times, compiler warnings, test executions, and any…
SE Radio 674: Vilhelm von Ehrenheim on Autonomous Testing [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 49:49
Vilhelm von Ehrenheim, co-founder and chief AI officer of QA.tech, speaks with SE Radio's Brijesh Ammanath about autonomous testing. The discussion starts by covering the fundamentals, and how testing has evolved from ma…
SE Radio 673: Abhinav Kimothi on Retrieval-Augmented Generation [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:55
In this episode of Software Engineering Radio, Abhinav Kimothi sits down with host Priyanka Raghavan to explore retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), drawing insights from Abhinav's book, A Simple Guide to Retrieval-Augm…