Work that compounds

A company that has automated tasks is different from one that has become durably more capable. What separates the two is what remains after the problem is solved.

Compound engineering is a closing rule: no task ends without leaving behind an updated test, documentation, or skill. It costs about 20% more per task and pays that back the third time the same problem does not come back.

You can tell it is working when the same kind of error stops reappearing. Everyone knows the opposite signal: the ticket closes when the symptom disappears, the system goes back to what it was, and the error resurfaces two months later in a different form.