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 672: Luca Palmieri on Rust In Production [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:46
Luca Palmieri, author of Zero to Production in Rust and Principal Engineering Consultant at MainMatter, speaks with SE Radio host Gavin Henry about Rust in production. They discuss what production Rust means, how to get…
SE Radio 671: Carson Gross on HTMX [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:15:39
In this episode, SE Radio host Sriram Panyam explores HTMX with its creator, Carson Gross, who is also creator of Hyperscript, the mind behind the Grug Brained Developer, a professor of software engineering at Montana St…
SE Radio 670: Matthias Endler on Prototype in Rust [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:01:01
Matthias Endler, Rust developer, open-source maintainer, and consultant through his company Corrode, speaks with SE Radio host Gavin Henry about prototyping in Rust. They discuss prototyping and why Rust is excellent for…
SE Radio 669: Will McGugan on Text-Based User Interfaces [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:26
Will McGugan, the CEO and founder of Textualize, speaks with host Gregory M. Kapfhammer about how to use packages such as Rich and Textual to build text-based user interfaces (TUIs) and command-line interfaces (CLIs) in…
SE Radio 667: Ashley Peacock on Cloudflare [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:04:31
Ashley Peacock, the author of Serverless Apps on Cloudflare, speaks with host Jeremy Jung about content delivery networks (CDNs). Along the way, they examine dependency injection with bindings, local development, serverl…
SE Radio 666: Eran Yahav on the Tabnine AI Coding Assistant [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:02:05
Eran Yahav, Professor of Computer Science at Technion, Israel, and CTO of Tabnine, speaks with host Gregory M. Kapfhammer about the Tabnine AI coding assistant. They discuss how the design and implementation allows softw…
SE Radio 663: Tyler Flint on Managing External APIs [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:27
Tyler Flint, CEO of qpoint.io, joins host Robert Blumen for a conversation about managing external vendor dependencies, including several best practices for adoption. They start with a look at internal versus external se…