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Methodology

Skill-Driven Development vs Spec-Driven Development

Most teams using AI for development have settled on a workflow that looks roughly like this: write a detailed specification, feed it to the agent, review the output, iterate. It is disciplined. It is responsible. It works. And after six months of watching it in practice, I believe it has a structural limitation that becomes more expensive the longer you use it.

The limitation is not quality. Spec-driven development produces good output. The limitation is that every session starts from zero. The spec carries the knowledge. The agent carries nothing.

Autonomy at Scale

Over the years I've tried a lot of organisational models. Standups. Retrospectives. Timesheets. Sprint planning. The full suite.

At eXOReaction, we've converged on something different. It's not a framework with a name. It's more a set of positions — things we've decided, and held to, even when they make people uncomfortable.

Mastering Deadlines: The 80/50 Rule

In 2017 I wrote a short piece out of frustration — a street-smart survival guide for developers tired of missing deadlines despite giving themselves plenty of time. Eight years later the problem hasn't changed. If anything it's worse: we have more tools, more planning methods, more retrospectives, and we still end up in last-minute panic on projects we thought we had under control.

I revisited the original piece in November 2025 with a bit of help from AI — research, narration, the lot. Here's the framework, written out properly.