The way we approach software development in a business context needs rethinking. Building was the bottleneck for so long that our habits — how we plan, measure, and decide what to do next — quietly turned the software itself into the goal. Instead the goal is the outcome the organisation wants to achieve through change. The software is how we get there.
That makes reviews more important, not less. Iterating toward a business outcome means checking course regularly and often: is this still the right change, is there evidence it works, is it moving us closer to the goal. Regular, frequent reviews are how iteration stays honest.
This site's name was inspired by that observation. Code reviews, while still necessary, are only part of a bigger picture — in truth they always were. But in the spirit of the theory of constraints, we focused on the code because it was so often the limiting factor. AI has started to change the parameters of that equation, and other factors are, relatively speaking, catching up. Consciously expanding the concept and approach of the code review to those other areas is the natural next step. And that review must now take in the AI layer itself, the trigger for so much of this rethinking.
AI will relieve us of much of the mechanical work of building. We will still work on and with code, and design and architecture matter as much as ever. But the mechanical parts, the syntax details and the boilerplate, are increasingly done well by machines. That frees our attention for what truly delivers value.
This site sells nothing. There is no product to buy, no methodology to license, no newsletter (although that may change), and no tracking of any kind. It is not neutral — it argues a position — but it exists to deepen our understanding of the subject and to work on it together. If you think that some part should be changed, write to info@changereview.org.
The site is currently in an early stage and will be expanded and updated on a regular basis. If you want to contribute, I look forward to hearing from you.
My name is Christoph Jahn. I bring more than 25 years of software engineering incl. architecture, infrastructure, and operations in enterprise environments. Much of it was done on integration with webMethods and focus areas like Domain-Driven Design (DDD), performance, high availability, and configuration management. That technical experience is accompanied by business education: a German Diploma in business administration (equivalent to an M.A.) and an apprenticeship at Deutsche Bank.