[svachalek]

I feel like this is where it's going -- it's not where we are, the tools are not reliable enough that it makes sense to step back quite this far, but it feels like where we are going to arrive really soon.

If you look at agile processes one of the biggest criticisms is that there's always a magic "customer" role that needs to prioritize existing work, do acceptance testing for completed tasks, and give requirements deep enough to create real specifications. This often required a lot of attention to detail and very fine grained judgment typically lacking in those that are eager to have a job title of "customer".

And now if you look at dark software factories, these pieces are also basically everything they're missing. The person/people responsible for this role were never seen as being engineers/programmers in those processes, but I think that's where most SWEs will end up, because as these tools mature to the point they manage the code all on their own that's what's going to be left to the SWE in the chair.

The SWE of course won't be the actual customer/stakeholder, they'll be the proxy, the one that has to navigate meetings in meatspace and make soothing noises to the actual customers. Will they be happy doing this? That's a big group of "they" so some will, sure. But I think a lot of people who got into this career consider this the worst part of it, and it's now going to be the whole job.