Interview Twenty-five years after seventeen software developers gathered at a Utah ski resort to create the Agile Manifesto, artificial intelligence is once again changing the way code is written.
One of the original signatories, Jon Kern, believes the latest shift – so-called “vibe coding,” in which developers generate software with the help of chatbots – represents both a natural evolution of agile principles and a possible repeat of past missteps.
In a conversation with The registryKern describes himself as “in love” with vibe coding. His instrument of choice is Replit, and he claims the technology has “certainly taken the world by storm.”
“The things I’ve been able to do with this ‘vibe coding’ are striking.” Not everyone agrees.
Jon Kern
The Agile Manifesto has played an important role in the professional lives of software developers for a quarter of a century.
There were some controversies along the way, and Kern is quick to acknowledge how the manifesto’s ideals have been undermined over the years. In 2024 he told us that sometimes it was “as if the manifesto never existed and we are in heavy trials again.”
For some people, the advent of vibe coding is a logical evolution and extension of agile principles. It’s no surprise that Kern, an accomplished engineer himself, is a strong proponent. However, he also recognizes the limitations of the technology. “This is something that will exaggerate your abilities, or possibly, if you’re not very good at it, it could exaggerate that,” he says.
Replit is a great example of the risks of uncontrolled AI. Last year, a user claimed that the AI encryption service wiped a production database despite instructions not to make changes without permission.
“So there are risks involved,” says Kern, “but every time I see them I think, ‘Oh, that’s a really good code review, you’re absolutely right.’”
That’s great, as long as the user understands what they’re looking at. There is a danger that the pipeline of engineers from junior to senior will be choked as companies cut costs. Who needs engineers when everything can be done using prompts? It is easy to draw comparisons with the Agile Manifesto and interpretations of it that are useful and less resource-intensive, but deviate from the original vision.
The risk, Kern says, is that companies look at the new technology and ask, “Why bother hiring?”
“You still have to ‘bring the back forward’, so to speak,” he tells us. “You need to grow more engineers.”
However, there is a real possibility that companies may still fall into the trap of thinking that AI tools can replace engineers. Kern gives an example of an insurance company that decided it no longer needed coders. It soon became apparent that the output of the resulting system was not as expected.
Kern compares the art of writing prompts to the skills needed to write a behavior-based developmental test. “There’s a better way to write it than not,” he says, “and that produces different results in terms of code quality and architecture.”
“That’s why I’m thinking about it, because it will exaggerate what you have.”
Despite the Replit example, Kern is also honest about the expectation that things will go wrong if the vibe coding concept is blindly accepted.
“There will probably be some spectacular articles written about astonishing failures that, if they look deeper, were something innocent put in by a non-human AI tool,” he says.
“That’s why I say you need to know agility, and the Agile Manifesto, more than ever while you wait for the vibe coding. Brush up on a few things! Learn a little more about what the ability to create high-quality software quickly and responsibly entails, and not get carried away with the speed at which you can generate code and features.”
Which brings us back to the 25th anniversary of the Agile Manifesto. “It’s amazing that that simple amount of words has meant so much to the world, but I think it will continue because the first bullet – individuals and interactions – is really the key,” Kern says.
“I like tools, but I don’t like the fact that people who come together to get something done will come up with a process, and they will even invent tools. I think it will stand the test of time.” ®
