Sergii Gorbachov, a Staff Engineer at Slack, shares insights on a groundbreaking project that migrated 20,000 tests in just 10 months. He discusses the blend of AI and traditional coding techniques, emphasizing that AI alone wasn't sufficient without human oversight. The conversation highlights the evolving role of developers as they collaborate with AI to tackle complex tasks and ensure code quality. Sergii also touches on the challenges of pull request dynamics, the impact of testing metrics, and how generative AI can be harnessed for specific engineering problems.
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question_answer ANECDOTE
Slack's 20,000 Test Migration
Sergei shared how Slack migrated 20,000 tests in 10 months using AI and traditional tech combined.
The project sped up significantly, avoiding what would've been 10-15,000 engineering hours manually.
insights INSIGHT
AI Complements, Not Replaces
AI alone was overhyped and insufficient for code conversion tasks.
Traditional coding tools remain critical; AI only complements but cannot replace them fully.
insights INSIGHT
Developers as AI Co-authors
Developer roles shift from authoring code to co-authoring with AI and primarily reviewing and validating AI-generated code.
AI handles straightforward coding, freeing developers for complex problem-solving and control.
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This is the Engineering Culture Podcast, from the people behind InfoQ.com and the QCon conferences.
In this podcast, Shane Hastie, Lead Editor for Culture & Methods spoke to Sergii Gorbachov, a staff engineer at Slack, about how they successfully used AI combined with traditional coding approaches to migrate 20,000 tests in 10 months, discovering that AI alone was insufficient and required human oversight and conventional tools to work effectively.
Read a transcript of this interview: https://bit.ly/3ZO1HFt
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