The Big Rename: From Agile to Pragmatic

After five years and 101 episodes, we're doing something we never thought we'd do: renaming the podcast. The Agile Embedded Podcast is now the Pragmatic Embedded Podcast: having the title reflect where we've been heading for quite a while.
Jeff and Luca discuss why the word "agile" has become cringe-worthy, how the podcast has naturally evolved beyond its original scope, and what this means for future episodes. We talk about the reality of AI adoption in embedded development (spoiler: it's not as widespread as you might think), the importance of engineering fundamentals in an AI-assisted world, and why we're excited to explore topics without feeling constrained by our old name. This is still the same podcast you know, just with a name that finally fits what we actually do: exploring pragmatic approaches to building embedded systems.
Key Topics
• [00:00] The big reveal: Agile Embedded becomes Pragmatic Embedded
• [02:30] Why "agile" has become cringe and why the podcast has outgrown its original name
• [04:15] How past episodes like the QP framework discussion already pointed beyond agile
• [06:00] The reality check: AI adoption in embedded development isn't as widespread as the hype suggests
• [09:45] Jeff's perspective: Every developer is becoming a lead developer managing AI-generated code
• [12:30] What's next: More freedom to explore what's actually useful for embedded developers
Notable Quotes
"I have literally been cringing internally for a long time saying Agile, Agile, Agile. And I'm just really looking forward to broadening the focus and not feeling bad about it." — Jeff

"My customers never buy the curly brackets, do they? There's a lot of good old-fashioned engineering craft that we can talk about and that we'll continue to talk about." — Luca

"Writing curly braces is going the way of being dead. But software engineering fundamentals, essentially, I see the trend... every developer is going to be essentially what is now a lead developer." — Jeff

Resources Mentioned
• Embedded AI Podcast - Luca's other podcast with Ryan Torvik, focused on AI tools in embedded development
• Luca Ingianni's website (luca.engineer/?utm_source=agileembeddedpodcast…) - Training and consulting on AI and embedded systems
• BaseRef (getbaseref.com) - Jeff's requirements and test management tool for medical device startups
• Agile Embedded Podcast Slack (join.slack.com/t/agileembeddedslack/shared_inv…) - Community discussion channel where you can reach the hosts and connect with other listeners

Jeff runs BaseRef, a Requirements Management and Documentation tool for medical device startups, at getbaseref.com.
You can find Luca at luca.engineer/?utm_source=agile-embedded-podca….
Want to join the Pragmatic Embedded Slack? Click here (join.slack.com/t/agileembeddedslack/shared_inv…)
Are you looking for embedded-focused trainings? Head to agileembedded.academy/?utm_source=agile-embedd…
Ryan Torvik and Luca have started the Embedded AI podcast, check it out at embeddedaipodcast.com/?utm_source=agile-embedd…