In general terms<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Individual components such as the foundation models used, tooling, guardrails, deterministic verification, self-correcting loops, MCPs, Skills, Hooks, all need to be good. Nonetheless, the evaluation requires looking at the outcomes and impacts they create together when used with the given codebase by the people doing the work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Characteristics and criteria<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The characteristics and criteria visible in a good workflow and its harness are listed below, organised in six groups. How some of these criteria come together with their tradeoffs, read this 3<\/a><\/sup>. \n\t A list of characteristics and criteria to judge the quality of an AI-augmented workflow, and compare different workflows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4165,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"[{\"content\":\"This is an old, but still emblematic. example of how different contexts call for different approaches: Coding with AI: 2 alternative philosophies<\/a>\",\"id\":\"fc13a37a-cde1-42a4-b298-d5dc96016251\"},{\"content\":\"Are Harnesses Worth the Cost?<\/a>\",\"id\":\"8142c9ff-d5f9-4876-95c0-25b2704637d8\"},{\"content\":\"Engineering the AI-Coding Workflow: Key Trade-offs<\/a>\",\"id\":\"f7df63be-0593-42de-af6d-c5fc57bb1b20\"}]"},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai-assisted-coding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.smharter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.smharter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.smharter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.smharter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.smharter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4150"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/www.smharter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4164,"href":"http:\/\/www.smharter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4150\/revisions\/4164"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.smharter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.smharter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.smharter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.smharter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
A workflow with its harness is good when it …<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nQuality<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
ROI<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
People<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
Workflow<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
Model<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
Workflow and Harness itself<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
– easy to understand, evolve, adapt to changing needs and circumstances
– easy to recreate with AI, whenever new models and tools become available<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
What other characteristics and criteria would you suggest?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nOther suggested reading<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smharter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/ai-develop.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\nShip Production-grade Software Faster with AI. No AI slop.<\/h3>\n
\n\tDrive Value Faster with AI. No AI bloat.<\/h3>\n\t
\n\tSee how we can help across the full AI adoption lifecycle.\n\t
\n\t
\n\t<\/p>\n\n\t