Serverless Craic from The Serverless Edge

Send us Fan Mail AI and software development - the Real Problem with AI-Driven Software Engineering.  AI is dramatically accelerating software delivery — but speed alone is not the answer. In this episode of Serverless CrAIc, we explore how AI is reshaping software engineering, platform engineering, architecture, and organisational design. As code generation becomes commoditised, the real differen...

Send us Fan Mail Why Team Topologies Matters More Than Ever in the AI Era.  Are AI agents changing how software teams should be structured? In this episode of Serverless CrAIc, David Anderson, Mark McCann, and Michael O’Reilly explore one of the biggest questions emerging in the AI era: 👉 Does Team Topologies still matter when AI agents can generate code, tests, and workflows at incredible speed?...

Send us Fan Mail Is AI-generated code creating more value — or more liability? In this episode of Serverless Craic, David Anderson, Mark McCann, and Michael O’Reilly explore why one of software engineering’s oldest principles is suddenly more relevant than ever in the age of AI: “Code is a liability. The system is the asset.” As agentic AI and code generation tools accelerate development, teams ar...

Send us Fan Mail Psychological Safety in the AI Era: AI is moving so fast it’s not just changing how we build software — it’s changing how teams think, learn, and work together. But there’s a problem no one is talking about enough: What happens to psychological safety when everything is changing at once? In this episode of Serverless CrAIc, Dave Anderson, Mark McCann, and Michael O’Reilly explore...

Send us Fan Mail AI is dramatically increasing the speed at which teams can build software. But if you can ship features in hours instead of months, a new problem emerges: How do you know you’re building the right thing? In this episode of Serverless CrAIc, Dave Anderson, Mark McCann, and Michael O’Reilly explore why clarity of purpose and a strong North Star are more important than ever in an AI-...

Send us Fan Mail 🎙 AI: Commodity or Differentiator? | The Value Flywheel in 2026 AI has taken a step change. Over the past few months, adoption has accelerated dramatically — but are organisations applying it with clarity, or just chasing hype? In this episode of The Serverless Edge, we unpack: AI as a commodity vs differentiator Why clarity of purpose matters more than ever The risks of “vibe cod...

Send us Fan Mail AI Myths in Software Engineering. AI is colliding with software engineering at full speed — and a lot of myths are emerging along the way. In this episode of Serverless Craic, Dave Anderson, Mark McCann, and Michael O’Reilly unpack how AI, GenAI, and agentic systems intersect with the ideas behind The Value Flywheel Effect. Rather than hype or fear, this is a grounded engineering...

Send us Fan Mail In the first Serverless Craic episode of 2026, Dave Anderson, Mark McCann, and Michael O’Reilly reflect on a five-year journey that began in early 2021 with the idea for The Value Flywheel Effect. This episode closes out the book series by looking back—warts and all—at what it really took to write, publish, promote, and apply the ideas in practice. The conversation spans writing f...

Send us Fan Mail How the BBC Built a Serverless-First Architecture: In this episode of Serverless Craic, Dave, Mark, and Michael explore one of the most compelling real-world examples of serverless at scale: the BBC’s serverless-first transformation. We break down how the BBC News engineering team delivers global, highly-spiky traffic, meets strict public-service constraints, reduces incidents, an...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Serverless Craic, Dave, Mark, and Michael dive into Chapter 19: Mapping the Emerging Value from The Value Flywheel Effect. This chapter explores how leaders can use Wardley Mapping to uncover long-term strategic opportunities, align product thinking, and identify “land grab” moments that unlock future business value. The conversation covers: How mindset, pur...

Send us Fan Mail Sustainability & Innovation in Modern Cloud: In this episode of Serverless Craic, Dave, Mark, and Michael dive into Chapter 18 of The Value Flywheel Effect — Sustainability and Space for Innovation. We explore why sustainable architectures, well-designed domains, situational awareness, and the innovate–leverage–commoditise cycle are essential for modern cloud leaders navigatin...

Send us Fan Mail How to Build a Problem Prevention Culture (AWS Well-Architected Explained) Stop firefighting — start preventing problems. In this episode of Serverless Craic, Dave Anderson, Mark McCann, and Michael O’Reilly explore how engineering teams can create a problem prevention culture using the AWS Well-Architected Framework. They unpack lessons from Chapter 17 of The Value Flywheel Effec...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Serverless Craic, Dave Anderson, Mark McCann, and Michael O’Reilly share key takeaways from two major events — AWS Community Summit Manchester 2025 and AWS Cloud Day Dublin 2025. From psychological safety in engineering teams to serverless adoption patterns, event-driven architecture, and the rise of AI agents with Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, the discussion highli...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode Dave Anderson, Mark McCann, and Michael O’Reilly revisit their time at Liberty Mutual, exploring how one of the world’s largest insurers transformed from legacy systems and SOA to cloud-native architectures and serverless-first strategies. Discover how Wardley Mapping, empowered engineering teams, and a strong cultural foundation enabled Liberty Mutual to modernise...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Serverless Craic, Dave Anderson, Mark McCann, and Michael O’Reilly explore Chapter 15 of The Value Flywheel Effect — Map Your Solution. They discuss how Wardley Mapping and tech stack mapping create situational awareness, reduce friction between teams, and guide better architectural decisions. If you’re a software engineer, architect, or tech leader aiming to ev...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Dave Anderson, Mark McCann, and Michael O’Reilly dive deep into The Value Flywheel Effect (Chapter 14) — discussing frictionless developer experience, sense checking, feedback culture, AI in software engineering, DevOps, platform engineering, and marginal gain. We explore how AI and LLMs are shaping engineering practices, the importance of psychological safety, co...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode Dave Anderson, Mark McCann, and Michael O’Reilly continue their deep dive tackling Chapter 14: The Frictionless Developer Experience. The crew explore whether the principles of engineering excellence, developer enablement, and team topologies still stand strong in a world increasingly powered by AI and agentic systems. From **managing cognitive load** to **code as...

Send us Fan Mail Serverless myths debunked for modern cloud teams: In this episode, we dive into the second part of Chapter 13 The Serverless First Edge from The Value Flywheel Effect book. We explore common serverless myths, how relevant they still are in 2025, and what’s changed since the early days of serverless adoption. From cold starts and testing challenges to cloud lock-in and the rise of...

Send us Fan Mail Serverless First: Focus, Not Functionality In this episode, Dave Anderson, Mark McCann and Michael O’Reilly dive into Chapter 13 of the Value Flywheel Effect—focusing on the concept of “Serverless First” and what it really means for engineering teams and product leaders today. 🔍 Topics include: Why code is a liability and how to identify what to build—and more importantly, what n...

Send us Fan Mail 🎙️ Serverless Craic: Chapter 12 – The Workgrid Case Study In this episode, Dave Anderson, Mark McCann, and Michael O’Reilly dive deep into Chapter 12 of The Value Flywheel Effect — the Workgrid case study. This episode explores the early days of Workgrid, a startup founded in 2017 with Gillian McCann. As one of the first companies to adopt a “serverless-first” philosophy, Workgrid...

Send us Fan Mail Mapping Your Org Capability | Chapter 11 Breakdown of The Value Flywheel Effect In this episode, Dave Anderson, Mark McCann, and Michael O’Reilly dive into Chapter 11 of The Value Flywheel Effect — "Map Your Organisational Capability". We unpack how to use mapping techniques, such as Wardley Mapping, to assess and visualise your organisation’s capabilities across areas l...

Send us Fan Mail 🎙️ Serverless Craic: Exploring Socio-Technical Systems for Change Welcome back to Serverless Craic! In this episode, the team dives into Chapter 10: Challenge – A Socio-Technical System for Change from the book, The Value Flywheel Effect. This thought-provoking conversation unpacks how organisations can effectively bridge the gap between people and technology to foster meaningful,...

Send us Fan Mail 🎙️ Environment for Success & Psychological Safety Welcome back to another episode of Serverless Craic! After a short hiatus (thanks, ServerlessDays Belfast!), Dave Anderson and Mark McCann return to dive deep into one of the most critical – and timely – topics in modern software delivery: creating the right Environment for Success. In this episode, we unpack Chapter 9 from The...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Serverless Craic, Map the Market and A Cloud Guru Case Study, we dive into Chapters 7 and 8 of the book The Value Flywheel Effect. The discussion focuses on "Mapping the Market" and a fascinating case study on clarity of purpose, featuring the story of A Cloud Guru. Discover how mapping the value chain helps companies identify their place in the market...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the latest episode of Serverless Craic! 🎙️ Today, we're diving back into our series on The Value Flywheel Effect, focusing on Chapter 6: "Obsess Over Time to Value."  Join us as we explore the significance of delivering value quickly and efficiently in tech organisations. We discuss the concept of "Time to Value" over "Time to Market,"...