Left of the Loop: The Wrong End of the Problem

Simon Schrottner — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 08:14:26 +0000

The Wrong End of the Problem

Every company wants AI in their development process right now. That part is clear. What's less clear is where they're putting it.

Most teams I see have done the same thing. Handed developers access to an AI assistant and told them to move faster. Copilot in the IDE. Claude in the terminal. Pick your tool. The tickets stay the same. The process stays the same. The planning meetings stay the same. The only thing that changed is how the code gets typed.

The tool got added. The process didn't move.

And it breaks down fast. One power user with AI can produce more code than a team can review. Two or three power users in the same team and the review process is basically gone. Nobody can keep up. The code ships anyway.

There's a term worth knowing here: Spec-Driven Development. The idea is that a detailed specification becomes the source of truth, not the code. Agents implement from it. Requirements change, you update the spec. AI Unified Process is one example of this in practice. It's a sound technical approach.

But I think it stops short of the actual problem.

The spec has to come from somewhere. Someone has to write it. Someone has to agree on it. That part is still the old process, just with a new artifact at the end.

What I'd suggest looks a bit different. And it has a name most engineers already know: shift left.

Not in the testing sense. In the team sense. The collaboration moves earlier. The engineering work is now about defining what the system should do — precisely enough that an agent can run with it.

That happens in what I'd call a Spec Session. Mob planning instead of mob programming — the whole team, working on one spec. Or async — a pull request on the spec instead of on code. Review comments about intent and edge cases, not implementation. Engineers already know this workflow. The artifact is just different now.

Once the spec is agreed, the agent picks up the work. Not on anyone's laptop — it's sitting in your infrastructure, watching for ready tickets, the same way a CI runner watches for commits. It implements, an AI reviewer checks the output, flags what doesn't fit, cycles back. That loop runs until it's done. The human comes back in at the end to review the final output — not to write code in the middle.

Stacked diffs are probably the right format here. Smaller, sequential changesets the agent ships incrementally — easier to reason about, easier to review. Gergely Orosz wrote a good primer on why this workflow matters if you're not familiar.

Ambiguous acceptance criteria used to be something a developer resolved mid-sprint. In this model they surface in the Spec Session, where the whole team can catch them. That's the point.

I don't think most teams are avoiding this intentionally. It's just that changing the process is harder than adding a tool. Adding a tool has a procurement step and a license. Changing how a team thinks about its own work is a different kind of problem.

But fitting AI into an existing process gets you faster typing. The thinking stays the same depth as before.

I think the teams that treat the Spec Session as the primary engineering output — and let the loop handle the rest — will end up somewhere different.

One thing I haven't figured out yet is what to call it. Mob Planning. Mob Specing. Spec Session. Extreme Specing. All of them borrow from XP deliberately — the idea is the same, just one level up from code. If you have a better name, I'd genuinely like to know.

I don't know if anyone is actually running this way yet. But I want to try. Especially the part where the agent just picks up the work and runs.

Dancing the Limbo

Simon Schrottner — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 08:13:04 +0000

The current situation is odd, and I am not sure how to tackle it.
Getting laid off by Dynatrace was a first in my career.
Although I am enjoying this extended time off, it has a strange feeling to it.
Garden leave ends in June, and I am planning to extend my off time by two more months, just to enjoy a summer with my kids.

I am looking forward to this, but there is still this feeling of being lost.
Before, I had goals focusing around my project, bringing it forward, moving on, increasing visibility.
I am still trying to expose OpenFeature to the outside, still generating new talk ideas, pushing what OpenFeature in combination with OpenTelemetry can do.
But still there is a hole, and this hole is hard to fill.

I miss my daily check-ins with fellow engineers, discussing ideas, problems, improvements.
Figuring out a way to grow and to help others grow.
Actively engaging with a community on a regular basis, driving topics which benefit the overall community, but with a purpose, a goal, not just for the fact of doing it.
This goal is something I am currently missing.

I feel like I have achieved what I dreamed about back in the days.
Ten years ago I looked up to the people speaking at conferences, doing open source, sharing their insights, driving the community.
I feel like I reached that point.
The question is now: what is the topic, and how will it be sustainable for me in the long run.

The community has shown me that my way of engaging, collaborating, driving, and mentoring is something valuable.
The outreach and possibilities following my layoff announcement have been incredible.
A lot of great opportunities, but still the bigger question remains: is this my goal, or what is my goal.

I feel like the layoff is also something really positive.
I was in the comfort zone, and I was there for a long time.
A comfort zone where I chose when to exit, and to what discomfort.
Maybe too comfortable.
As Kent Beck would call it: the Forest, where you pick what you want to work on.
I see this layoff as a new way to grow.
The current void is nagging me.
Too scared to fully commit to being independent, unsure if I want full employment again.
What will my life be after September, after this year.

For now I am trying to summarize my thoughts here.
Writing feels like a nice way of reflection.
And I feel like we try not to talk about the uncomfortable things that much, although everyone is sometimes in this kind of limbo.
Maybe reading how others cope with it could help.

Anyways, this is my current state.
If you want to grab a coffee, virtual or in-person, let me know.

Let's see what the next months will bring.
There is a lot moving.
Till then, I am dancing the limbo.

DEV Community: Simon Schrottner

Left of the Loop: The Wrong End of the Problem

The Wrong End of the Problem

Dancing the Limbo