Background
My name is Kevin Smith and I’ve worked as an engineer and engineering leader for over 20 years. In all that time I’ve watched us solve almost every execution and delivery problem the same way: build more technology.
Faux Agile neé waterfall processes with automated JIRA reporting and velocity tracking, automated security & cost reviews, and now AI assistants. We keep adding layers of tooling to human collaboration problems, always expecting some kind of Aha! moment that never seems to appear.
Collabchek
Collabchek was my first project under the Poiesic Systems umbrella — a tool designed to help teams understand how they actually collaborate. I shelved it as the rise of agentic coding began reshaping team dynamics in ways that made many of Collabchek’s original assumptions worth rethinking. When AI agents become active participants in the development process, the nature of collaboration itself changes, and the questions worth asking change with it.
This Blog
I started this blog to think out loud while building Collabchek. It’s evolved into a place where I write about whatever I find interesting — software, teams, technology, and the messy space where they all meet.
If any of this resonates, let’s talk!
What You’ll Find Here
- Honest takes on what works (and what doesn’t) in software development
- Insights about team dynamics, tooling, and agentic coding
- Technical posts on things I find interesting