Agile Software Engineering

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Agile Software Engineering Deep Dive , Alessandro Guida continues the two-part journey into compiler theory. Part 1 focused on BNF, syntax, and grammar. Part 2 moves into compiler thinking itself: LEX, YACC, compilers, interpreters, syntax trees, the Dragon Book, and the evolution from classic compiler pipelines to modern development ecosystems. For many sof...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Agile Software Engineering Deep Dive , Alessandro Guida begins a two-part journey into compiler theory with a look at Backus-Naur Form, or BNF. For many software engineers who studied computer science in earlier decades, BNF belonged to the world of compilers, formal languages, syntax, parsing, YACC, and the famous Dragon Book. Today, many developers may nev...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Agile Software Engineering Deep Dive , Alessandro Guida takes a historical and slightly playful look at Lisp - one of the strange little languages that helped shape the early world of artificial intelligence. Long before AI became associated with Python, neural networks, GPUs, and large language models, artificial intelligence was also about symbolic reasoni...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Agile Software Engineering Deep Dive , we take a field trip into software engineering memory lane. Modern software teams have better tools than ever: CI/CD pipelines, cloud platforms, automated testing, observability, feature flags, and now AI assistants. But better tools do not remove the need for engineering discipline. This episode revisits a set of older...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Agile Software Engineering Deep Dive , we take a more reflective look at artificial intelligence. When we discuss AI, we often compare it to human intelligence, as if humanity were the only valid model for thinking. But is that the right comparison? This episode explores how AI brings old philosophical questions back into modern software engineering. We look at...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Agile Software Engineering Deep Dive , Alessandro Guida continues the SAFe Light series with a discussion about estimation. Estimation is often treated as a promise, even though it is by definition an approximation made under uncertainty. This episode explores why false precision creates mistrust, why story points and velocity can hide uncertainty, and why b...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Agile Software Engineering Deep Dive , Alessandro Guida continues the discussion on SAFe Light and explores why lightweight Agile scaling needs evolutionary architecture. SAFe Light is based on preserving team autonomy while making the essential coordination points visible. But that only works if the architecture supports independent change. Without clear bo...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Agile Software Engineering Deep Dive , Alessandro Guida explores one of the most important questions in the next phase of artificial intelligence: what happens when AI starts learning from itself? For years, generative AI has been trained largely on human-created material from the internet. But the internet is changing. More and more text, images, code, summ...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Agile Software Engineering Deep Dive , Alessandro Guida challenges one of the most common simplifications about generative AI: that it is “just a statistical machine guessing the next most likely word.” There is a small technical truth in that statement, but it misses the most important part of what happens inside a modern AI model. Before any token is gener...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Agile Software Engineering Deep Dive, Alessandro Guida explores the role of ethics in modern software engineering. As software increasingly shapes critical systems and human behavior, and as AI introduces systems whose behavior cannot always be fully predicted, the question is no longer only what we can build, but whether we should build it. The episode refl...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Agile Software Engineering Deep Dive , Alessandro Guida explores the gap between engineering quality and customer-perceived quality. While engineers often define quality in terms of architecture, testing, and process, customers evaluate it through experience: whether the software works, whether it is easy to use, whether it is reliable, and whether it perfor...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Agile Software Engineering Deep Dive, Alessandro Guida explores how organizations can scale Agile without introducing unnecessary coordination overhead. The episode examines the fundamental tension between autonomy and alignment, the limits of both pure Agile and full SAFe, and introduces SAFe Light as a pragmatic, engineering-driven alternative. It highligh...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Agile Software Engineering Deep Dive , Alessandro Guida explores the shift from hindsight-based project management to AI-supported predictive approaches. The episode examines what predictive analytics actually adds beyond traditional reporting, where it can provide real value, and where it can create a false sense of certainty if misunderstood. It also highl...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Agile Software Engineering Deep Dive, Alessandro Guida explores a fundamental question: Are we actually getting better at delivering software? Despite widespread adoption of Agile practices, many projects still miss deadlines, exceed budgets, or deliver reduced scope. The visible failure of the past has not disappeared — it has evolved into a more subtle and...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the Agile Software Engineering Deep Dive , Alessandro Guida explores what happens when AI enters the Agile software lifecycle. AI is rapidly being adopted across discovery, design, development, testing, and operations. But while it can accelerate execution, it also introduces new risks - from shallow understanding to over-reliance on generated solutions. This ep...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Agile Software Engineering Deep Dive, Alessandro Guida explores how modern hiring has evolved - and why that evolution may not be entirely positive. What used to be a deliberate process of evaluating a small number of candidates has gradually become a high-volume pipeline, driven by platforms, metrics, and automation. Applicant Tracking Systems and AI tools...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Agile Software Engineering Deep Dive, Alessandro Guida explores the role of curiosity and inspiration in engineering growth. Software engineering is often treated as a purely technical discipline — focused on frameworks, programming languages, architectures, and tools. Yet many of the ideas that shape engineering innovation originate far outside the software...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Agile Software Engineering Deep Dive , Alessandro Guida explores why professional software engineering requires professional career structures. Career ladders are often perceived as rigid or bureaucratic. In reality, they provide clarity about expectations, scope of impact, and sustained behavior at each stage of an engineering career. Without that clarity,...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Agile Software Engineering Deep Dive , Alessandro Guida explores the growing excitement around Agentic AI - and tries to separate engineering reality from marketing language. Across podcasts, conference talks, and LinkedIn posts, AI agents are increasingly presented as systems that can plan, reason, and autonomously execute complex workflows. The promise is...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Agile Software Engineering Deep Dive , Alessandro Guida reflects on a question many of us quietly experience as users: What happened to quality? In the race to release faster, ship AI features, and stay ahead of competitors, software increasingly “almost works.” Small usability irritations, fragile integrations, and premature releases are becoming normalized...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Agile Software Engineering Deep Dive , Alessandro Guida reflects on one of the most fundamental - and increasingly overlooked - pillars of professional software engineering: mastering algorithms. Modern software development makes it possible to assemble complex systems quickly through frameworks, libraries, integrations, and AI-assisted tooling. While this r...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Agile Software Engineering Deep Dive , Alessandro Guida reflects on the transition from engineer to engineering manager - and the mistakes he had to learn the hard way. When engineers step into management roles, they often bring with them the very strengths that made them successful: problem-solving speed, technical clarity, and the ability to see solutions...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Agile Software Engineering Deep Dive , Alessandro Guida explores why security is not a feature that can be added late in the process, but an engineering quality that emerges from how software systems are designed, built, and maintained. While security is widely acknowledged as important, it is often treated as a separate activity — handled through checklists...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Agile Engineering Deep Dive , Alessandro Guida explores why recurring 1 to 1s are one of the most important - and most misunderstood - practices in engineering leadership. While most managers agree that 1 to 1s matter, they often drift into polite status meetings focused on tasks, tickets, and delivery details. This may feel efficient, but it frequently leav...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Agile Engineering Deep Dive , Alessandro Guida revisits the SOLID principles and explores why they still matter in modern software engineering. In a world of microservices, cloud platforms, and AI-assisted development, SOLID is sometimes seen as outdated or overly focused on code-level concerns. Yet the underlying challenges of software engineering have not...