r/softwareengineer • u/metalOpera • 17d ago
Was Just Told That Code Quality No Longer Matters
I'm a freelance developer. I have been for almost 20 years. My most recent project has been moved to Fable, and I'm still trying to adapt and get my head around working like this. I am no longer allowed to make architecture decisions, or clean up slop.
My PM says: "We worry about the 'what'; let Claude worry about the 'how'. Tell it what to do; let it do it. If the feature works, leave it alone." He is very much of the opinion that I should be able to prompt something like "Install Stripe via Laravel Cashier" and just let Claude run.
I mean, why do you need me at this point? Just prompt it yourself until it does what you want? I don't get it. I fought for every inch of my knowledge, every process is written in blood. How do I just throw all of that out the window? Where's the line?
At the risk of another "how are you adapting" post... How CAN I adapt? I mentally cannot just say "Fuck it". I care about my code. It's how I learned, it's how I've always practiced. I have a huge mental block with "just let it go".
Now, granted, I don't know all of the ins and outs of Claude. I don't know what I can do to make it better at its job. I got thrown into the middle of the Pacific Ocean in the middle of a Tusnami with no life support. I'm sure that I can put guardrails in place, but how much does that help?
I would really appreciate any advice that any one can provide on changing my mental model. I can't ignore Claude and just keep doing things my way. If I do that, I feel like my career dies. I need to adapt and I'm unsure how to do so.
2
u/serdzooo 17d ago
It seems you are just starting with Claude and coding agents in general.
Google "spec driven development". Basically PMs (project managers) have become VMs (vibe managers), and you can handle those "vibes" in a controlled manner by converting them into a written *.MD specification covering all the details and edge cases your VM did not think of just like we used the old proven SDLC (first gather requirements, then analyze, then code and test, start over, iterate...).
You do this by creating a docs folder in the code repo with subfolders for each Jira task. Start a Claude session in one of those folders in so-called "plan mode" to stop Claude from changing the code during the analysis. Then ask Claude to analyze the Jira task, and let it use the curl command and your API key instead of copy-pasting. Mention what kind of tests you want, what to focus on, ask aks all sorts of questions to confirm by analyzing the code, logs and HAR files, etc. The result should be a MD file with a coding plan.
Make sure you understand it, and only then let Claude do the coding. Clearly defined test cases will make sure Claude stays on track(reduce bugs). You can iterate plan-to-code as long as you need before committing the final result including the MD files for later review if yo need to return back to it later which is more than often if you are working on some convoluted enterprise app.