We are all becoming factory engineers
"We are all becoming factory engineers."
That line is from Zach Lloyd's talk on software factories, which I highly recommend.
Building the thing that builds the product
In a software factory, agents do each step, from spec to code to review to ship. Each step has a clear job and a clear handover to the next.
As a programmer, you are no longer building the product. You are building the thing that builds the product: the steps, the checks between them, and the rules the agents follow.
Which basically means you'll code a lot less, but you'll ship more.
A calmer way of working
A factory isn't just about more output, though. It's a different way of working with agents, and a much calmer one.
Today most of us chat with them all day: prompt, wait, read the diff, prompt again. You are the one keeping every piece of work moving, one message at a time.
In a factory you hand over the task and step in only when there's a decision to make.
How I work now
That's pretty much how I work now, with Skelcrew, the tool I'm building. A task goes in, agents write the spec, build it, review it and check it, and it comes out as a pull request. I described that pipeline in more detail in a project board for coding agents.
My part is the decisions: approving the spec, answering questions when an agent gets stuck, and merging the result.