Themes in Technology Radar Vol.35

Given the remarkable pace of change in software engineering throughout 2026, the latest edition of the Thoughtworks Technology Radar — vol. 35, due to be published November 4 — is an opportunity to take stock of the current state of the industry and to look ahead at how things might develop in 2027.

The themes in particular tell an interesting story about current challenges and areas of focus. They are: harness engineering at scale; putting more agents to work; beyond frontier models; and the economics of running AI at scale. Clearly, we're at a point where we're grappling with what it means to work with larger and more complex agent systems and the real material implications, whether that's in terms of money or how developers actually spend their time.

On this episode of the Technology Podcast, host Lilly Ryan is joined by Thoughtworks Chief Architect Chris Ford and Security Specialist Effy Elden (both of whom helped put volume 35 together) to discuss the themes in the new edition and unpack what they mean. They discuss everything from harnesses to local coding models and explore what Technology Radar Vol.35 might be able to teach us about software and what it means to be a developer today.

Explore Thoughtworks Technology Radar (vol.35 published Nov. 4, 2026): https://www.thoughtworks.com/radar

Learn more about Chris Ford's Agentic Engineering at Scale: https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/books/agentic-engineering-scale