Episode 19 - Slices Transform Fixed-Cost Contracting

Episode Summary

Martin and Adam discuss how event modeling slices create predictable units of work that enable fixed-cost contracting and eliminate subjective story point estimation. They explore vibe modeling as a collaborative approach where executives and domain experts can directly contribute to system design. The slice-based approach transforms how teams plan, estimate, and deliver software.

Main Discussion Points

• Fixed-Cost Slices: How uniform slice complexity enables confident fixed-cost pricing for individual features
• Eliminating Story Points: Why subjective estimation becomes unnecessary when slices are consistently sized units of work
• Vibe Modeling for Executives: How event modeling makes system design accessible to non-technical stakeholders including C-suite executives
• Autonomous Work Units: Slices as completely independent features that can be developed without coordination
• Contractual Clarity: Using slices to create clear, unambiguous contracts between customers and development teams
• Learning Through Slices: How new team members can be productive immediately by implementing complete slices

Key Takeaways

Event modeling slices provide the predictability needed for fixed-cost contracting by creating uniformly complex units of work. Unlike traditional features that vary wildly in complexity, properly defined slices have similar effort requirements, eliminating subjective estimation debates. This enables development teams to confidently guarantee delivery costs per slice. The vibe modeling approach makes event modeling accessible to executives and domain experts who can directly shape system behavior without technical expertise. Slices become the fundamental unit for planning, contracting, and learning.

Memorable Quotes

1. “Vibe modeling. Yes. There it gets really really interesting. So it kind of goes into maybe even uh some of the practices that are out there already like mob programming and pair programming” - Martin Dilger
2. “Coding is nothing that that amazes me. You can just generate code. It’s it’s really generating code is not difficult. It’s no longer the it’s no longer the interesting part. It’s really like you said the understanding of the solution, right?” - Martin Dilger
3. “The life cycle of a slice is really within the context of what the slice is part of. So I rarely see, you know, one single uh slice being approved or disapproved” - Adam Dymitruk
4. “Slices are very copy paste. So even the UI ends up getting copy pasted” - Adam Dymitruk
5. “The work is done. My subjectivity has no place” - Adam Dymitruk

Key Learnings

1. Vibe coding without understanding is dangerous, but vibe modeling with event modeling provides valuable guard rails
2. Slices serve as effective units of work that eliminate subjective estimation problems inherent in story points
3. Fixed-cost pricing per slice removes bias and subjectivity from developer compensation
4. The life cycle of a slice includes development, integration, QA, and deployment phases with clear boundaries
5. Slices enable self-organizing teams where developers can barter and exchange work based on their strengths