Bryan Ross

I thought it might be useful to breakdown some of the new language that surrounds AI. I've met many people who think they're falling behind, but behind all the buzzwords are much of the traditional SDLC principles. www.chieftherapyofficer.co.uk/p/youre-not-...

Everyone is building agents, harnesses, and loops. Development is faster than ever. Yet the big, integrated, cross-team work seems to be getting harder, not easier. www.chieftherapyofficer.co.uk/p/were-rebui...

We spent years convincing managers that developer flow was highly important, but now devs running multiple agents and worrying if they're achieving enough while they sleep. What went wrong? www.chieftherapyofficer.co.uk/p/what-ever-...

I still hear people talking about 10x developers ... but where's the 10x value? In this 15 min video for #platformcon26, I share what I've seen work and not work in early adopting orgs. And, embarrassingly , the data didn't lead where I thought it would! www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD3G...

The free lunch is over! I've put the top five inference cost mitigations I've seen work with customers into a short 15 minute video for #platformcon26. Go give it a watch! www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqcw...

With all the excitement of Fable being banned, I thought I'd share some of my own experiences of agentic red teaming. We're cooked. We need to change our approach to secure software delivery. open.substack.com/pub/bryanros...

Is anyone else entirely fed up with hearing "You're right to push back — I was wrong . . . " from their agent after an hour or so disappearing down a hallucinated rabbit hole? 🕳️🐇

Are you doing okay? It feels pretty exhausting to work in the IT industry right now, and I think I know why. www.chieftherapyofficer.co.uk/p/the-identi...

Do you wish teams could agree on a set of central tools and golden path? In this months article, I talk about how I've helped organisations Find common ground before common tools. www.chieftherapyofficer.co.uk/p/find-commo...

After three years of joking about it, the new brand is officially live! chieftherapyofficer.co.uk Join me each month to hear real stories from enterprise IT teams across industries that want to bridge the gap between technology and business value.

"4 hours of usage gone in 3 prompts" ... The AI free lunch is over, and platform teams are about to inherit the bill! The Chief Therapy Officer is back for 2026. newsletter.bryanross.me/p/the-ai-fre...

@sugaroverflow.com has done an awesome job on The Developer Show and I'm thrilled to see @kelseyhightower.com joining TODAY! I want to hear where the industry is heading and what @gitlab.com is doing to bring agentic AI to developers in a more thoughtful way. www.youtube.com/watch?v=cokX...

It was awesome to be part of the The Making of Flux documentary to talk about the impact of GitOps, the role CD plays in large organisations, and a glimpse of the future in how AI might change the landscape. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q69s...

Are you building a Golden Path or a Golden Cage? Platform mandates drive workarounds underground. One size doesn't fit all, but well-designed guardrails with composable platform features can fit everyone. Learn how to go from 17% to 86% adoption in 6 months. newsletter.bryanross.me/p/golden-pat...

I moved from customer to vendor a few years ago - here's what platform teams can learn from sales when promoting their services internally. newsletter.bryanross.me/p/five-sales...

This month, as Chief Therapy Officer, I take a look at the hidden cost of offering your platforms for free. I give real world examples of those that hit crisis point and others that saved millions by implementing simple showback mechanisms. newsletter.bryanross.me/p/the-hidden...

Two weeks. No laptop. No calls. No Slack. Just a sailing boat, the Finnish coastline, the Åland Islands, and Sweden’s archipelago. When we don't step away, we risk making smaller and smaller decisions inside the same narrow headspace. This is your sign to fully unplug for a couple of weeks! ⛵️

Wondering what really comes next in AI? In this article, we look at what past disruptive technologies can teach us about what’s coming next (beyond the hype!) newsletter.bryanross.me/p/ai-disrupt...

The hard problems in tech aren't technical. My job is about listening, interpreting and translating with curiosity and empathy. This is the monthly topic for the Platforms Community content club, so I'm sharing the story of when this lesson first sunk in. newsletter.bryanross.me/p/the-hard-p...

Well, looky here! The New Stack were kind enough to publish my article on the importance of product teams over technologies. I'd love to hear what you think! thenewstack.io/accelerating...

"I asked ChatGPT" well I asked my cat's anus looks like we both did our research

After pecking at this article on trains and planes over the past few weeks, I've finally published my thoughts on the different challenges you face when your platform becomes mature. newsletter.bryanross.me/p/beyond-lau...

Who's going to be joining at the AWS GenAI Security Symposium in a few weeks? 📍Kings Place, London 🗓️ 22nd May 2025 | 9:00 AM - 5:30 PM 👉 Register now! www.aws-partner-events.com/gen-ai-secur...

The most exciting thing about MCP is that we can start talking about ChatOps again! 😍

This. I’ve had enough “once in a generation” events thank you very much.

Is your company guilty of metrics misuse? Have DORA metrics been weaponised to compare the productivity of teams or individuals? Maybe you should send them my latest article about Metrics That Matter! 📈

My contribution to ✨CNCF Content Club✨ is now live! It's not too late to join in - just publish your own thoughts about Team Topologies in the Real World, leave me a comment, and I'll ask the other contributors to help boost on their social media.

This month on my Chief Therapy Officer newsletter, I lay out the basics of creating an AI strategy for your platform engineering initiative. I take a look behind the hype and dive into why I think there's more to AI than code generation. Let me know what you think!

"we in tech have a tendency to see every challenge through the lens of technology, searching for technical solutions to what are often fundamentally human problems. " -

"Our records show that you have a [..] lifetime access account. As part of integrating A Cloud Guru into the Pluralsight platform, we are terminating your lifetime course access license [..] on Feb 1" ... I wonder if Pluralsight offers a "lifetime access account" so I can view what I paid for? 😂

Busy today re-stocking our wood supplies so that we can continue to cozy up around a real fire over the festive period! I bring the wood, my boys keep the fire going, and my wife makes the best hot chocolate! 🪵🔥☕️

Tensions are high in the Ross household, as the boys prepare for the Constructors Cup (of hot chocolate)! Last year we saw some very imaginative uses of icing sugar to help the structure endure more thumps from my rolling pin! 🏠🔨🍬

Happy festive everyone! 🎄❄ However you choose to spend this festive period, I wish you and your loved ones the very best!

Excitement builds in the Ross household as we kick off the annual Brandy Butter competition! My eldest is optimistic that 2024 is his year to take the (chocolate) crown this year! 🎄🥃🧈👑

Is it just me that's permanently disappointed at exactly how well going for even a short walk can change your brain juices for the better?

Why is getting access to IT systems such a painful experience? In this months article I share the most common issues I see developers have when starting with a new platform, and what platform engineers can do about them.

Platform Engineers let me save you a fortune in expensive consultancy…. Go buy a developer a coffee and just listen.

Best bring the washing in my Irish and Welsh friends! The shipping forecast says it all . . . . "⁠South or southwest 7 to severe gale 9, veering north or northwest severe gale 9 to violent storm 11" .... for reference... anything over an '8' is Very Bad News.

Okay ... things just got interesting! AWS and GitLab have just announced an integrated AI offering to accelerate software innovation and developer productivity: GitLab Duo with Amazon Q 👀

The CNCF Platforms Working Group needs your input! After the Platform Engineering Maturity Model's success, we're now focusing on Platform-as-a-Product. Can you share your real-world experiences by completing our survey?

Classic. 🙃

There’s something special about delivering a talk in your home town. Many thanks to everyone who attended my keynote speech for Digit Expo in Edinburgh and asked such great questions! 🙌 Another packed room! I snapped this photo myself beforehand!

That moment when you realise you've missed the CfP deadline for Kubecon EU ...

My kids asked me at what age do you stop getting excited by snowfall … I told them I’d let them know as soon as it happens to me. ☃️

The Bluesky phenom is a good reminder that there is still *so much* kindness and good in the world and *so many* kind people out there. Yes, there are terrible things too, but don't forget to look for the good.

this comment is just so on point. it's fucking deep.

🥶

Sub-zero temperatures means it’s officially that time of year again! 🔥🥃

As I think about wrapping up the year, I want to share the top five ways I've seen platform engineering initiatives fail, based on 100's of customer discussions and my own decade of platform-building experience.