Not My Job/No Need to Know

In this episode, host Michael Dowden sits down with Alistair Cockburn, co-author of The Agile Manifesto, to discuss modern software design and its evolution alongside Large Language Models (LLMs). Cockburn explains that applying the "genius" of human bureaucracies, specifically the concepts of "not my job" and "no need to know," is the most effective way to define software responsibilities and manage the rapid, often messy, code generation of AI agents. By framing software components as specialized entities in a bureaucracy, developers can establish a clear gradient to judge design quality and detect design drift as systems evolve.