Mads is a Principal Product Manager on the Visual Studio team at Microsoft, where he champions developer productivity, performance, and extensibility. With a deep passion for streamlining the development experience, Mads has created dozens of widely used Visual Studio extensions — including Web Essentials, File Nesting, and Markdown Editor v2 — and maintains the Extensibility Essentials toolkit to empower other developers to build better tools. Mads brings over a decade of experience in web development on the Microsoft platform. He is also the founder of SchemaStore.org and a home automation enthusiast. Known for his engaging presentations and hands-on insights, Mads is a frequent speaker at developer conferences worldwide. He lives in the Pacific Northwest and his mission is simple: to make Visual Studio the most delightful development environment on the planet.

Topics of Discussion:

[2:38] More about Mads’ career journey at Microsoft.

[5:14] The new and improved Visual Studio.

[7:44] Backwards compatibility is a key feature — .NET solutions will still work across different Visual Studio versions.

[8:55] How Microsoft’s strategy differentiates between Visual Studio and VS Code.

[10:42] Visual Studio is the premier development environment for .NET and C# on Windows, offering the most comprehensive and optimized experience. While VS Code can handle .NET development, it’s not as feature-rich or performant as the full Visual Studio.

[12:58] Visual Studio has moved to a monthly release cadence to be more competitive with VS Code’s frequent updates.

[13:48] Deep AI integration in Visual Studio allows for context-aware assistance, including a new profiler agent that can help optimize code performance.

[23:53] Compilation performance is improved in Visual Studio 2026.

[26:35] The new profiler agent can be invoked through Copilot chat, running benchmarks and suggesting performance improvements scientifically.

[30:30] Developers can create custom MCP servers to integrate private systems and databases with AI tools using a project template.

[35:39] The AI coding agent in Visual Studio can work autonomously or with developer supervision, creating pull requests or working alongside the developer.

[39:11] Visual Studio’s Copilot can be used as a companion to bounce ideas off, helping with architectural decisions and new feature explorations.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Clear Measure Way

Architect Forum

Software Engineer Forum

Mads Kristensen on LinkedIn

@mkristensen on X

Mads Kristensen

JSON Schema Store

Visual Studio

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Brad Frazer is a Boise-based attorney and partner at Hawley Troxell, Idaho’s largest law firm, where he leads the Intellectual Property & Internet practice group with a specific focus in IP Strategy, AI, Data Security, and IT. A graduate of BYU, UC Hastings, and the University of Utah, Brad has decades of experience in cybersecurity, internet law, and IP, including roles as Deputy General Counsel at major tech firms. He’s also a published novelist and a recognized expert in emerging technologies like blockchain, NFTs, and Web3.

Richard Hundhausen helps software organizations and teams deliver better products by understanding and leveraging Azure DevOps and Scrum. He is a Professional Scrum Trainer and author of Professional Scrum with Azure DevOps (MS Press). As a software developer and consultant with over 30 years of experience, he understands that software is built and delivered by people and not by processes or tools.

Topics of Discussion:

[2:24] Richard and Brad share their enthusiasm for AI, and they discuss the legal implications of using AI-generated code.

[4:00] Brad explains that ownership of AI-generated code is academic until legal issues arise, such as lawsuits or investment rounds.

[5:29] Richard explains the process of using AI tools to create code, emphasizing the iterative nature of the process.

[8:02] The nuances of copyright law, including the need for human authorship to establish ownership.

[10:57] How one gets a registered copyright.

[14:19] The different things that AI-driven development can mean.

[19:44] Risk avoidance practices as a coder.

[23:46] Brad advises software developers to be aware of the legal environment and the potential risks of using AI tools.

[24:59] What is an AI output, and what is just the computer being helpful?

[32:35] Brad shares a real-world example of a $20 million deal where the seller did not own the code, highlighting the potential risks.

[38:38] Brad mentions the Anthropic case, where the company was sued for training its LLM on copyrighted material.

[41:22] Richard and Brad discuss the importance of raising awareness and providing resources to help developers understand the legal implications of using AI tools.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Clear Measure Way

Architect Forum

Software Engineer Forum

Brad Frazer LinkedIn

Richard Hundhausen LinkedIn

Thaler vs. Perlmutter

Bartz v. Anthropic

Who Owns the Code?

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Tony Cardella is a seasoned software engineer based in Houston, Texas. With a robust background in enterprise development, Tony brings deep expertise in the .NET Framework (C#), Python, and cloud platforms including Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services. His technical repertoire spans both relational databases — such as SQL Server, MySQL, and PostgreSQL — and NoSQL solutions like Azure Cosmos DB.

Tony is a strong advocate for developer productivity tools, frequently leveraging JetBrains products including ReSharper, DataGrip, PyCharm, and Rider, as well as Visual Studio. Outside the world of code, Tony is equally passionate about strength training, whether he’s lifting weights himself or coaching others in the discipline.

Topics of Discussion:

[1:34] Tony shares his career journey, starting with a consulting company that reached out to him while he was job hunting.

[3:17] NCrunch is an automated testing tool that runs unit tests continuously, focusing on impacted tests.

[5:08] Challenges and benefits of NCrunch, and why would we need to use it?

[7:44] Tony shares his approach to unit testing, focusing on covering 80% of the code with minimal effort and addressing the remaining 20% as needed.

[8:51] The importance of not over-investing in unit tests that may not provide significant value.

[11:47] Tony explains how Ncrunch provides code coverage metrics and visual indicators of covered and uncovered code.

[12:59] The tool’s ability to show exactly where unit tests are failing, without needing to dive into stack traces.

[13:51] Distributed processing and integration tests.

[27:44] The challenges of running integration tests with external dependencies, such as databases.

[29:18] Exploratory testing and code quality.

[32:34] Tony emphasizes the value of unit tests in codifying tribal knowledge and ensuring code quality.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Clear Measure Way

Architect Forum

Software Engineer Forum

Tony Cardella

Lightning Talks!

The Code Gorilla

Survey: Fixing Bugs Stealing Time from Development

NCrunch

Want to Learn More?

Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.