https://reveneau.com/insights Field notes on building production software with AI-written code. en-us https://reveneau.com/insights/procurement-for-ai-built-software https://reveneau.com/insights/procurement-for-ai-built-software Sat, 05 Sep 2026 07:00:00 -0700 Standard software contracts were written for an era when a person typed every line. Six clauses need rewriting when a machine writes most of them, and one of them is about who owns the output. https://reveneau.com/insights/why-your-staging-environment-is-lying-to-you https://reveneau.com/insights/why-your-staging-environment-is-lying-to-you Fri, 04 Sep 2026 07:00:00 -0700 Staging passed. Production broke. That is not bad luck, it is a predictable consequence of the five ways staging differs from the place your users actually are. https://reveneau.com/insights/the-questions-to-ask-before-approving-an-ai-build https://reveneau.com/insights/the-questions-to-ask-before-approving-an-ai-build Thu, 03 Sep 2026 07:00:00 -0700 You are being asked to sign off on a build where most of the code will be generated. You do not need to read the code. You need nine questions and the confidence to keep asking until you get a specific answer. https://reveneau.com/insights/what-an-ai-native-team-actually-looks-like https://reveneau.com/insights/what-an-ai-native-team-actually-looks-like Wed, 02 Sep 2026 07:00:00 -0700 An AI-native team is not a normal team with a licence for a coding assistant. The roles shift, the review queue moves, and the job that grows is the one nobody has a title for yet. https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-write-an-acceptance-test-a-machine-can-run https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-write-an-acceptance-test-a-machine-can-run Tue, 01 Sep 2026 07:00:00 -0700 Most acceptance criteria are written for a human reader who will fill in the gaps. A machine fills in nothing. Here is how to write the sentence so an automated check can enforce it. https://reveneau.com/insights/the-real-cost-of-shipping-unverified-code https://reveneau.com/insights/the-real-cost-of-shipping-unverified-code Thu, 27 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 The invoice for unverified code does not arrive as a bug report. It arrives as a codebase nobody will touch, a review queue that never clears, and a team that has stopped trusting its own pipeline. https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-prepare-for-technical-due-diligence https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-prepare-for-technical-due-diligence Wed, 26 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 Technical due diligence is where a deal can quietly fall apart. Here is what investors' technical reviewers actually look at, how to get ahead of it, and the red flags that scare them. https://reveneau.com/insights/what-to-look-for-in-a-cto-hire https://reveneau.com/insights/what-to-look-for-in-a-cto-hire Tue, 25 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 Your best engineer is not automatically your best CTO. Here is what a technical leader actually needs, and how to decide between a fractional and a full-time hire. https://reveneau.com/insights/never-let-the-model-grade-its-own-work https://reveneau.com/insights/never-let-the-model-grade-its-own-work Tue, 25 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 When the same run writes the code and the tests, a green build proves the code agrees with itself. That is not verification, and it is the most common way an AI-built codebase becomes confidently wrong. https://reveneau.com/insights/mobile-web-or-native-how-to-decide https://reveneau.com/insights/mobile-web-or-native-how-to-decide Mon, 24 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 Mobile web, native, or cross-platform is a real decision with real trade-offs. But "we need an app" is often the wrong place to start. Here is how to decide honestly. https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-onboard-engineers-fast https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-onboard-engineers-fast Sun, 23 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 Slow onboarding is a hidden tax you pay on every hire. Here is how to get a new engineer shipping real work in their first week instead of their first month. https://reveneau.com/insights/why-scope-creep-happens-and-how-to-stop-it https://reveneau.com/insights/why-scope-creep-happens-and-how-to-stop-it Sat, 22 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 Scope creep is rarely about laziness or bad discipline. It is about unclear goals and a fear of saying no. Here is how to keep scope honest without killing good ideas. https://reveneau.com/insights/how-many-tests-does-ai-generated-code-need https://reveneau.com/insights/how-many-tests-does-ai-generated-code-need Sat, 22 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 The honest answer is not a number, and coverage percentages are the wrong unit. Here is the unit we use instead, and why a suite of fifteen checks can be worth more than two thousand. https://reveneau.com/insights/how-autonomous-are-ai-coding-agents-really https://reveneau.com/insights/how-autonomous-are-ai-coding-agents-really Sat, 22 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 Engineers at the frontier labs now say a model writes one hundred percent of their code. Read the quotes closely and the human is still in every one of them. Here is what the 2026 evidence supports, and what it does not. https://reveneau.com/insights/who-signs-off-on-ai-written-code https://reveneau.com/insights/who-signs-off-on-ai-written-code Fri, 21 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 A test can only enforce a rule somebody already thought of. When AI writes most of the code, the question that decides whether a codebase stays trustworthy is who is accountable for the rule that was missing. https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-estimate-a-software-project https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-estimate-a-software-project Fri, 21 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 A single-number estimate on new work is a promise nobody can keep. The honest version is a range that reflects real uncertainty, and the biggest driver of a bad estimate is risk nobody scoped. https://reveneau.com/insights/stop-paying-for-headcount https://reveneau.com/insights/stop-paying-for-headcount Thu, 20 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 An hourly quote is a price for people and months. When most of the implementation is generated, that is a price for an input that has largely gone, and it quietly pays your supplier to be slow. https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-do-a-security-review-before-launch https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-do-a-security-review-before-launch Thu, 20 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 You do not need perfect security to launch. You need to check the handful of basics that catch most real problems, and to know when the risk is big enough to bring in a specialist. https://reveneau.com/insights/ai-is-an-amplifier-not-a-fix https://reveneau.com/insights/ai-is-an-amplifier-not-a-fix Thu, 20 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 The 2025 DORA data says AI raises throughput and hurts stability at the same time. Which of those two you get is decided by what has to pass before a change ships, and by nothing else. https://reveneau.com/insights/adding-eval-tests-was-our-best-decision https://reveneau.com/insights/adding-eval-tests-was-our-best-decision Thu, 20 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 We generate every line of code we ship. The single change that made that safe was writing the check before the code, and it turned out to change how we review, how we spec, and how fast we can move. https://reveneau.com/insights/monolith-vs-microservices-for-early-stage https://reveneau.com/insights/monolith-vs-microservices-for-early-stage Wed, 19 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 For almost every early-stage startup, one well-built monolith is the right first choice. Microservices solve problems you do not have yet, and they add cost you cannot afford to pay early. https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-set-engineering-okrs https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-set-engineering-okrs Tue, 18 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 "Ship five features this quarter" is a to-do list, not a goal. Good engineering OKRs measure whether users and the business are better off, which is a much harder and more useful thing to write down. https://reveneau.com/insights/in-house-vs-outsourced-engineering https://reveneau.com/insights/in-house-vs-outsourced-engineering Sun, 16 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 The real question is not whether to build in-house or outsource. It is which parts belong to your own team forever, and which parts an outside team can do faster and better right now. https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-handle-a-failed-software-project https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-handle-a-failed-software-project Sat, 15 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 A failing software project is common, not rare. What separates a costly loss from a cheap lesson is how honestly you run the post-mortem and how clearly you decide to fix, restart, or stop. https://reveneau.com/insights/why-your-mvp-should-do-less https://reveneau.com/insights/why-your-mvp-should-do-less Fri, 14 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 Every feature you add before launch delays the day you learn whether the product works. The discipline of cutting is what gets you to the truth faster, so your first version should do one thing well. https://reveneau.com/insights/software-development-agency-vs-freelance-marketplace https://reveneau.com/insights/software-development-agency-vs-freelance-marketplace Fri, 14 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 A curated freelance marketplace sells you access to individual people. An agency sells you a team that is accountable for the outcome. They solve different problems, and picking on price alone gets the difference backwards. https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-run-a-product-discovery-sprint https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-run-a-product-discovery-sprint Thu, 13 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 Before you commit months to building, spend a week removing your biggest unknown cheaply. Define the question, prototype the risky part, test it with real users, then decide. https://reveneau.com/insights/staff-augmentation-vs-managed-team https://reveneau.com/insights/staff-augmentation-vs-managed-team Wed, 12 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 Adding individual engineers to your team and hiring a team that owns an outcome look similar on an invoice. They are not the same thing, and picking the wrong one hides a large management cost you did not budget for. https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-price-a-saas-product https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-price-a-saas-product Tue, 11 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 Most founders price their software from their own costs, then set the number too low and never touch it again. Price on the value the customer gets, start higher than feels comfortable, and treat pricing as a lever you keep pulling. https://reveneau.com/insights/what-founders-get-wrong-about-ai-agents https://reveneau.com/insights/what-founders-get-wrong-about-ai-agents Mon, 10 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 A slick agent demo and a reliable agent are two very different things. Most of the work, and most of the risk, lives in the last mile nobody shows in the demo. https://reveneau.com/insights/rag-vs-fine-tuning-for-product-teams https://reveneau.com/insights/rag-vs-fine-tuning-for-product-teams Sun, 09 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 RAG and fine-tuning sound like a deep ML choice, but the decision is simpler than it looks. Here is what each is good for, and why retrieval is almost always the right first move. https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-evaluate-an-ai-feature-idea https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-evaluate-an-ai-feature-idea Sat, 08 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 Most AI feature ideas demo well and die in the last mile. Here are the four questions we ask to tell the ones worth building from the ones that just look good on stage. https://reveneau.com/insights/ai-copilots-for-engineering-teams https://reveneau.com/insights/ai-copilots-for-engineering-teams Fri, 07 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 AI coding assistants speed up real work, but not the work that matters most. Here is what they help with, what they do not, and how to adopt them without lowering the bar. https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-choose-a-tech-stack-for-a-startup https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-choose-a-tech-stack-for-a-startup Thu, 06 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 Most startups pick their stack for the wrong reasons. Boring and proven beats new and exciting almost every time. Here is how to choose for speed and hiring, not for a resume. https://reveneau.com/insights/what-is-technical-debt-and-when-to-pay-it https://reveneau.com/insights/what-is-technical-debt-and-when-to-pay-it Wed, 05 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 Technical debt is not messy code. It is a deliberate trade of quality for speed. Here is how to tell smart debt from reckless debt, and when to pay each one back. https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-manage-an-external-development-team https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-manage-an-external-development-team Tue, 04 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 Managing an outside team goes wrong when you count hours instead of outcomes. Here is how to steer a team that ships, instead of babysitting one that stalls. https://reveneau.com/insights/offshore-vs-nearshore-vs-onshore-development https://reveneau.com/insights/offshore-vs-nearshore-vs-onshore-development Mon, 03 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 People pick a development team by hourly rate and location, then wonder why the cheap option cost the most. What actually drives the outcome is seniority, communication, time-zone overlap, and ownership. https://reveneau.com/insights/what-a-good-technical-spec-looks-like https://reveneau.com/insights/what-a-good-technical-spec-looks-like Sun, 02 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 The old advice was to keep specs short and stop where writing the code is faster. That advice assumed a person was reading it. When a model writes the code, the cost of an unanswered question moves, and so does the right length of a spec. https://reveneau.com/insights/signs-your-software-project-is-in-trouble https://reveneau.com/insights/signs-your-software-project-is-in-trouble Sat, 01 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0700 A software project rarely fails in one dramatic moment. It slips quietly, and the early signs are easy to explain away. Here are the ones to watch and what to do about each before it is too late. https://reveneau.com/insights/when-to-rewrite-vs-refactor-legacy-code https://reveneau.com/insights/when-to-rewrite-vs-refactor-legacy-code Thu, 30 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0700 The full rewrite feels clean and honest, and it is almost always the wrong instinct. Here is when a rewrite is genuinely justified and how to replace old code piece by piece instead. https://reveneau.com/insights/rag-enterprise-search-development https://reveneau.com/insights/rag-enterprise-search-development Tue, 28 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0700 A model that can search your company's own documents sounds simple until you build one. Here is the real engineering work behind RAG, and how to tell if it is actually working. https://reveneau.com/insights/llm-integration-for-existing-products https://reveneau.com/insights/llm-integration-for-existing-products Tue, 28 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0700 Most teams do not need a ground-up AI rebuild. They need one strong feature, added in a way that cannot take the rest of the product down with it. https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-write-a-software-development-rfp https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-write-a-software-development-rfp Tue, 28 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0700 Most software RFPs ask for a fixed price on a problem nobody has scoped yet, so the bids come back either padded or dishonest. Here is how to write one that gets real answers. https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-choose-an-ai-development-company https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-choose-an-ai-development-company Tue, 28 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0700 Almost anyone can wire up an API call and show you a working demo. The company worth hiring is the one that can tell you, in plain terms, what happens when the model is wrong. https://reveneau.com/insights/ai-evaluation-and-guardrails-for-production https://reveneau.com/insights/ai-evaluation-and-guardrails-for-production Tue, 28 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0700 "It seems to work" is not a production standard. Here is how we turn that feeling into a number, and how we stop the system from doing damage on the days the number is bad. https://reveneau.com/insights/ai-agent-development-company https://reveneau.com/insights/ai-agent-development-company Tue, 28 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0700 Anyone can wire a model to a few tools and call it an agent. Here is what actually separates an AI agent development company from a team that will hand you a demo and disappear. https://reveneau.com/insights/agentic-ai-framework-design https://reveneau.com/insights/agentic-ai-framework-design Tue, 28 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0700 An agent is not a chatbot with extra steps. It is a system that plans, calls tools, and acts across multiple turns, and every one of those turns is a place it can go wrong. https://reveneau.com/insights/technical-due-diligence-for-vc-portfolio-companies https://reveneau.com/insights/technical-due-diligence-for-vc-portfolio-companies Mon, 27 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0700 Before you commit capital, you need a clear read on the code, the team, and the risk behind it. Here is what a real technical due diligence review covers. https://reveneau.com/insights/software-development-partner-vs-vendor https://reveneau.com/insights/software-development-partner-vs-vendor Mon, 27 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0700 A vendor builds what you ask for. A partner tells you when what you asked for is wrong. The difference shows up months after the contract is signed. https://reveneau.com/insights/software-consulting-firm-vs-development-agency https://reveneau.com/insights/software-consulting-firm-vs-development-agency Mon, 27 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0700 A consulting firm sells you a recommendation. A development agency sells you working software. Confusing the two costs you a quarter you did not plan to lose. https://reveneau.com/insights/red-flags-when-hiring-a-software-development-agency https://reveneau.com/insights/red-flags-when-hiring-a-software-development-agency Mon, 27 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0700 The wrong agency costs you months, not just money. Here are the warning signs worth checking before you sign a contract, not after. https://reveneau.com/insights/fractional-cto-vs-software-development-agency https://reveneau.com/insights/fractional-cto-vs-software-development-agency Mon, 27 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0700 One owns your technical decisions. The other builds what you already decided. Most founders need to know which problem they actually have before they hire either. https://reveneau.com/insights/execution-speed-is-the-moat https://reveneau.com/insights/execution-speed-is-the-moat Mon, 27 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0700 Being first used to be a defensible lead. When any capable team can build the same thing in a week, the advantage moves to how fast you ship, learn, and ship again. https://reveneau.com/insights/ai-prototype-in-weeks https://reveneau.com/insights/ai-prototype-in-weeks Mon, 27 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0700 Most AI ideas die in the planning stage. Here is how to get something real in front of users fast enough to know if the idea is worth the full build. https://reveneau.com/insights/build-vs-buy-custom-software https://reveneau.com/insights/build-vs-buy-custom-software Sun, 26 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0700 We build custom software for a living, and we still tell most people to buy the tool. Here is how to know when building is worth it and when it is a slow mistake. https://reveneau.com/insights/knowing-what-to-build https://reveneau.com/insights/knowing-what-to-build Fri, 24 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0700 AI made writing software cheap. That moved the hard part upstream, to deciding what deserves to be built and having the discipline to cut the rest. https://reveneau.com/insights/can-you-trust-an-ai-agent https://reveneau.com/insights/can-you-trust-an-ai-agent Thu, 23 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0700 An agent that answers a question and an agent that takes an action are not the same risk. Here is how we decide where an agent is ready to act, and where it is not. https://reveneau.com/insights/ai-demo-vs-the-last-mile https://reveneau.com/insights/ai-demo-vs-the-last-mile Tue, 21 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0700 A convincing AI demo takes an afternoon. Turning it into something people trust in production is where most of the work, and most of the failures, live. https://reveneau.com/insights/what-good-code-review-looks-like https://reveneau.com/insights/what-good-code-review-looks-like Sun, 19 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0700 With human code, the author is the first line of defence and review is the second. With generated code, review is the only line. That one change rewrites most of what a reviewer should be doing. https://reveneau.com/insights/small-senior-team-outbuilds-a-big-one https://reveneau.com/insights/small-senior-team-outbuilds-a-big-one Sat, 18 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0700 Adding people used to be how you went faster. With modern tools, a small team of senior engineers often ships more, and cleaner, than a large mixed one. https://reveneau.com/insights/measure-engineers-by-outcomes-not-output https://reveneau.com/insights/measure-engineers-by-outcomes-not-output Sun, 12 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0700 Lines of code, tickets closed, and hours logged all measure motion, not progress. Here is how we think about engineering output without the vanity metrics. https://reveneau.com/insights/custom-software-development-cost https://reveneau.com/insights/custom-software-development-cost Sun, 12 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0700 Software used to be priced by how much of it there was. That was never a great proxy and it is now a bad one. The cost of a build has moved onto two things: how clearly you can say what you want, and how hard it is to prove you got it. https://reveneau.com/insights/move-fast-without-breaking-the-product https://reveneau.com/insights/move-fast-without-breaking-the-product Thu, 09 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0700 Speed and quality are usually framed as a trade-off. In practice, the teams that move fastest for long are the ones that made quality cheap to keep. https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-choose-the-right-external-development-team https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-choose-the-right-external-development-team Sat, 20 Jun 2026 07:00:00 -0700 Hiring an outside team is a high-stakes decision. The wrong partner costs you time and momentum you cannot get back. https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-launch-a-product-with-minimal-resources https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-launch-a-product-with-minimal-resources Tue, 09 Jun 2026 07:00:00 -0700 A tight budget forces good decisions. It makes you focus on the value that actually matters and cut everything that does not. https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-build-mobile-apps-in-a-dynamic-environment https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-build-mobile-apps-in-a-dynamic-environment Fri, 29 May 2026 07:00:00 -0700 Mobile engineering has its own set of moving parts: feature flags, release cycles, and performance budgets that shift as your app grows. https://reveneau.com/insights/five-ways-to-hire-the-right-product-manager https://reveneau.com/insights/five-ways-to-hire-the-right-product-manager Mon, 18 May 2026 07:00:00 -0700 The right product manager changes the trajectory of a team. The wrong one quietly slows everything down. https://reveneau.com/insights/migrating-an-app-from-aws-to-gcp https://reveneau.com/insights/migrating-an-app-from-aws-to-gcp Thu, 07 May 2026 07:00:00 -0700 A cloud migration is rarely just a lift and shift. The decision touches cost, reliability, and the day-to-day experience of your engineers. https://reveneau.com/insights/why-choose-a-startup-over-a-corporate-job https://reveneau.com/insights/why-choose-a-startup-over-a-corporate-job Sun, 26 Apr 2026 07:00:00 -0700 Startups and large companies offer very different kinds of growth. One gives you range and ownership early; the other gives you structure and scale. https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-unlock-the-extraordinary-productivity-of-remote-work https://reveneau.com/insights/how-to-unlock-the-extraordinary-productivity-of-remote-work Tue, 24 Mar 2026 07:00:00 -0700 Remote work can be a productivity advantage, but only with the right habits and management approach behind it.