> * Needs to adapt to both English and Spanish speakers.
> * Needs authentication
> * Need 99.9% reliability
This is exactly what the post is about. The restraunt owner doesn't have experience in software development, they don't know to ask for any of those things, they got the frontend which to them seems complete, and they don't know where to go from there.
> "Make an app for scheduling shifts for my staff"
- Shifts should be at least 4 hours
- Shifts shouldn't be more than 8 hours
- Except on festival days, where shifts can be 12 hours
- Someone who is scheduled for an evening shift shouldn't be scheduled for the morning shift the next day
- Some staff members don't work on religious holidays
- Some staff members can't work mornings / evenings / weekends
- Some days pay extra, so schedules should be reserved for preferred/long-term/permanent staff members
- Some shifts may end early if there isn't enough demand
The rules were impossible to encode because they didn't really exist. Building the schedule by hand allowed the manager to draw on their knowledge of everything from employee work ethic and personality to expected rushes (e.g. hockey nights) and reservations.
Further iteration and feedback when implicit/undocumented rules are violated will get you closer. It’s not like there’s an infinite source of rules, and many of these are just general knowledge that does exist online. You can eventually get there.
It's the responsibility of a Business Analyst to study a work process, and articulate the rules which govern the process.
With vibe-coding, the agent is usually playing the role of a Programmer. Are they also playing the role of a Business Analyst?
If we look at iterative development, that's usually the responsibility of a Product Owner.
With agentic development, we expect AI to perform the role of developer. In this example, is the bar manager able to perform the role of BA or PO? Is the agent able to accommodate and fill in the blanks that a BA or PO would normally fill?
There may also be human edge-cases, such as "Don't schedule Dave and Brian together, they don't get on".
Agentic AI doesn't have the nuance for all these factors. Many situations (such as a bar manager or restaurant manager with a small venue) may be better off with simply having a human plan the schedule on paper.
Restaurant software isn't exactly hard to find.
* Make an app for scheduling shifts for my staff. * Needs to handle multiple users with intelligent reconciling of edits * Needs to adapt to both English and Spanish speakers. * Needs authentication * Need 99.9% reliability
This gets most of the way there. Presumably the restaurant owner will need to iterate, but isn't that always the case? Iterating now doesn't require hiring external help.