Comment by ChrisMarshallNY

Communication overhead is the #1 schedule killer, in my experience.

Whenever we have to talk/write about our work, it slows things down. Code reviews, design reviews, status updates, etc. all impact progress.

In many cases, they are vital, and can’t be eliminated, but they can be streamlined. People get really hung up on tools and development dogma, but I've found that there’s no substitute for having experienced, trained, invested, technically-competent people involved. The more they already know, the less we have to communicate.

That’s a big reason that I have for preferring small meetings. I think limiting participants to direct technical members, is really important. I also don’t like regularly-scheduled meetings (like standups). Every meeting should be ad hoc, in my opinion.

Of course, I spent a majority of my career, at a Japanese company, where meetings are a currency, so fewer meetings is sort of my Shangri-La.

I’m currently working on a rewrite of an app that I originally worked on, for nearly four years. It’s been out for two years, and has been fairly successful. During that time, we have done a lot of incremental improvements. It’s time for a 2.0 rewrite.

I’ve been working on it for a couple of months, with LLM assistance, and the speed has been astounding. I’m probably halfway through it, already. But I have also been working primarily alone, on the backend and model. The design and requirements are stable and well-established. I know pretty much exactly what needs to be done. Much of my time is spent testing LLM output, and prompting rework. I’m the “review slowdown,” but the results would be disastrous, if I didn’t do it.

It’s a very modular design, with loosely-coupled, well-tested and documented components, allowing me to concentrate on the “sharp end.” I’ve worked this way for decades, and it’s a proven technique.

Once I start working on the GUI, I guarantee that the brakes will start smoking. All because of the need for non-technical stakeholder team involvement. They have to be involved, and their involvement will make a huge difference (like a Graphic UX Designer), but it will still slow things down. I have developed ways to streamline the process, though, like using TestFlight, way earlier than most teams.