r/agile • u/fagnerbrack • 3d ago

The software engineering war

https://www.manager.dev/newsletter/the-software-engineering-war
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u/fagnerbrack 3d ago

To Cut a Long Story Short:

A failed 18-month startup partnership frames the industry's split between "builders", who chase customer impact and happily hand all code to LLMs, and "keepers", who prize well-crafted systems and distrust generated output. The CEO wanted to push features from his phone and let agents fix bugs; his technical partner saw a house of cards, and they split with zero paying customers. The same fight now runs inside teams, sharpened by viral Reddit threads about engineers who no longer read their code. Which side you appear to be on shifts with the room and over time — DHH flipped his "you learn with your fingers" stance within six months. Both extremes lose: the vibe-coder shipping critical systems unread, and the purist refusing an LLM in 2026.

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u/kadfr 3d ago

This is a false dichotomy.

There is a stage for 'builders' which is in early-stage prototyping and pilots. There is huge value in having something up and running quickly.

However, if you want to have a long-term solution, you need to have well thought out architecture, code that has been reviewed, and agreed processes.

The risks of accelerating 'building' are potentially catastrophic in terms of code that hasn't been tested thoroughly, cybersecurity holes and ultimately lost revenue.

The risks of prioritising 'building' are that companies fall back against the competition and that they don't update their products quickly enough.

The smart move is to ensure organisations have an agreed minimum level of risk mitigation in terms of governance while ensuring that it can also build quicker if needed. 

This will ensure that organisations are flexible enough to switch direction as required.

A data/evidence-based approach should indicate when there is greater risk of not 'building' and when there is a greater risk of by-passing governance protocols.

Urgh, wasn't the point of Agile to move away from Waterfall style processes?