Articles.

The rule that decides commission usually lives in three places at once, with different values

Thousands of IF/THEN/ELSE rules: code, engine or spreadsheet

Rules that change weekly belong in versioned data with an owner. Rare rules stay as ifs. When a rules engine pays off, and what the finance spreadsheet really costs.

Aug 31

8min read

Victhor Araújo

Before the first member goes up, the structure already has stamped drawings and a signature behind it

Why can't IT deliver big projects on time like construction?

Construction slips too. Three contract devices explain the gap: a paid design phase, signed change orders with measurement, and one named engineer of record.

Aug 28

8min read

Victhor Araújo

The most expensive rule in the company usually lives in two places: this whiteboard and one person's head

Technical debt you cannot see: measuring cognitive debt

The most expensive technical debt is the rule only one person can explain. A 40 minute test to find that concentration, and what to do once it shows up.

Aug 26

7min read

Victhor Araújo

Old code is usually the only living documentation of the rules your revenue depends on

Legacy modernization: upgrade PHP 5.6 to PHP 8 or full rewrite?

Upgrading PHP 5.6 to PHP 8 usually costs less than a rewrite. Three measurements (compatibility, dead dependencies, revenue flows without tests) tell you if your case is the

Aug 24

8min read

Victhor Araújo

No contractor prices a foundation before the soil test. In software, the drill is opening the piece nobody has looked at.

How to respond when you are asked for an estimate

Answer with a range, the part nobody has measured yet, and the date you tighten the number. Why the deadline question fails and what to measure first.

Aug 21

7min read

Victhor Araújo

PR volume went up and the review queue is where the AI gain disappears.

AI software development: teams ship more code and deliver less. What to measure

PR volume is up and the product hasn't moved. Four measurements that expose where AI turns into debt: review queue, 30-day rework, mutation score and real customer use.

Aug 19

7min read

Victhor Araújo

One line in the rate table can hold three completely different deliveries

Brazil software development hourly rates 2026: ranges by model

Freelance, dev shop and embedded squad rates out of Brazil in 2026, plus what disappears from the delivery when a vendor agrees to match a lower price.

Aug 17

7min read

Victhor Araújo

Inheriting an undocumented system starts with understanding what already runs in production

Legacy system modernization: the first two weeks with 200K lines of spaghetti code

The first two weeks on an undocumented legacy codebase: boot it from scratch, instrument production, map the five revenue paths. And why the day-4 rewrite call backfires.

Aug 14

7min read

Victhor Araújo

A laptop, financial reports, and cash on a desk: the numbers a deal gets weighed by.

The code that passes the pitch and fails due diligence

I talked to founders who went through technical diligence and watched the term sheet shrink — not over the product, but over the paperwork, the code's ownership, and everything nobody had read with a buyer's eyes. Why the time to fix it is long before the round.

Aug 12

5min read

Raquel Reis

The lock is solid. That counts for nothing when the key was left in the door and anyone can turn it.

I changed one number in the URL and saw another customer's orders

A client asked me for a second opinion on the app another shop had shipped. Twenty minutes in, changing one number in the address bar, I was reading another company's order on his platform. Login worked; authorization didn't. On the cheapest hole to prevent and the most expensive to find late.

Aug 10

5min read

Victhor Araújo

A screen full of passing test files never tells you, on its own, whether any of them actually checks a result.

High test coverage is where production bugs hide best

A founder sent me a 92% coverage badge the same night his checkout was down. Coverage counts lines that ran, not results anyone checked, and it is the easiest number for a vendor to inflate. What a senior squad reads before it trusts the green.

Aug 7

5min read

Raquel Reis

A crowd with hands in the air at a concert: the demand spike your product meets the day it works.

It was fast in the demo. Then the data grew.

At launch the app flew; six months later every screen crawls. It is almost never a server problem, it is code that talks to the database the wrong way. What a senior squad checks before you throw money at bigger infrastructure.

Aug 5

6min read

Victhor Araújo