I recently reread the book Peopleware, and one of the chapters reminded me of a discussion that is repeated a lot lately: AI.
In this chapter, the authors talk about seven sirens (or false hopes) that attract the attention of managers, like the sirens in the Odyssey. All of them apply to how companies are using AI today, hoping to improve productivity as if there were no tomorrow.
Although I would like to review every single one of them, I will focus on the following one:
“You have automated everything else; isn’t it about time to automate your software development team?”
From my point of view, thinking that a software team is only responsible for writing code is a mistake. As the book points out, a development team is about communication; either between people, or communicating needs to the machine. No matter how much people insist, this work is not easily replaceable.
Don’t get me wrong, AI is very useful and, like any other tool, it helps with work. But we must not forget that the goal is to deliver a product or service, and without people to direct it, the tool itself is not very useful.