A 3-Part Series: Agents, Workflows, and Skills – Build the Right Thing In Part 1, we built a bug investigation agent. In Part 2, we built a content quality pipeline. Both worked. Both had AI doing something I hope you find genuinely useful. But if you read them back to back with a sufficiently critical eye – the kind of eye a good code reviewer develops after seeing the same mistake for the fifth time – you’d notice something I deliberately left in both systems: capability reuse. The bug agent could search code. The content pipeline had its own policy checker.…
Tag: <span>Best Practices</span>
A 3-Part Series: Agents, Workflows, and Skills – Build the Right Thing There’s a phrase I’ve used in engineering reviews for years, usually right before someone’s six-week project gets redirected: “Don’t hire a strategist when you need a soldier.” In Part 1, we discuss agents – an autonomous AI system that reasons its way through open-ended problem. If you read it, you know I’m a fan. They’re genuinely capable, and when you deploy one in the right context, it feels like a superpower. But here’s the thing nobody says out loud at AI conferences: most of what you actually need to build…
A 3-Part Series: Agents, Workflows, and Skills – Build the Right Thing Every few years, “intelligent automation” gets a fresh coat of paint – and a fresh wave of hype – while leaving behind a familiar trail of abandoned projects. Expert systems. Neural nets. Rule engines. Ontologies (remember those? Well… it’s coming back. That’ll be a separate blog). Even microservices got swept into the narrative at one point. And now: agents. Here’s the take: this wave is meaningfully different. But the failure mode hasn’t changed. Engineers still tend to grab the shiny new hammer before fully understanding the nail –…
Understanding context is essential in becoming an effective software engineer. It is not sufficient to possess deep technical skills. Understanding the context (business domain) you operate in provides the necessary background to build the right solution. It elevates the skill programmer to a value-added software engineer. It allows software engineers to ensure solution fit the situation, background, and purpose, thereby enhancing clarity and reducing the likelihood of misunderstandings. Misunderstanding will only lead to defects. By being mindful of the contexts, software engineer can navigate complex landscapes and build stronger, more meaningful solution. In the realm of building the right solution,…