How to Deal with Software Complexity • Gail Murphy & Charles Humble

GOTO - The Brightest Minds in Tech

This interview was recorded for GOTO Unscripted.
https://gotopia.tech

Read the full transcription of this interview here

Dr. Gail Murphy - Vice-President Research & Innovation & Professor of Computer Science at The University of British Columbia
Charles Humble - Freelance Techie, Podcaster, Editor, Author & Consultant
RESOURCES
Gail
https://x.com/gail_murphy
https://social.sigsoft.org/@gail_murphy
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gailcmurphy
https://blogs.ubc.ca/gailcmurphy

Charles
https://bsky.app/profile/charleshumble.bsky.social
https://linkedin.com/in/charleshumble
https://mastodon.social/@charleshumble
https://conissaunce.com
DESCRIPTION
Charles Humble interviews Dr. Gail Murphy about the challenges in software engineering today. They discuss how productivity isn’t just about lines of code but is more about focus and minimizing task-switching.
Gail also talks about the difficulty of managing the rapid evolution of system architectures, stressing the need for regular restructuring and refactoring to avoid issues like increased coupling and decreased performance. The conversation moves to open-source development, where Gail highlights how using open-source components can create complex, brittle dependencies, and the need for better communication within these ecosystems.
They wrap up by discussing the evolving role of technical leadership in navigating these challenges. [...]
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فصول

1. Intro (00:00:00)

2. Defining developer productivity (00:02:18)

3. Software architecture’s role in developer productivity (00:08:04)

4. Complexity challenges in modern systems (00:15:04)

5. Open source ecosystem (00:19:50)

6. Research opportunities in open source (00:26:18)

7. Reflections on technical leadership (00:31:14)

8. Outro (00:34:10)