Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast

AI Assisted Coding: Swimming in AI - Managing Tech Debt in the Age of AI-Assisted Coding In this special episode, Lou Franco, veteran software engineer and author of "Swimming in Tech Debt," shares his practical approach to AI-assisted coding that produces the same amount of tech debt as traditional development—by reading every line of code. He explains the critical difference between vibecoding and AI-assisted coding, why commit-by-commit thinking matters, and how to reinvest productivity gains into code quality. Vibecoding vs. AI-Assisted Coding: Reading Code Matters "I read all the code that it outputs, so I need smaller steps of changes."   Lou draws a clear distinction between vibecoding and his approach to AI-assisted coding. Vibecoding, in his definition, means not reading the code at all—just prompting, checking outputs, and prompting again. His method is fundamentally different: he reads every line of generated code before committing it. This isn't just about catching bugs; it's about ma