Developer Houses

What the developer sees as a dependency chain, the client sees as silence.

Software work is deeply layered. The people funding it, waiting on it, and planning around it need to see it too - but not at the same resolution. The status report tries to bridge the gap but compresses more than it communicates.

Your sprint board is a foreign language to everyone outside the team. So someone spends Friday translating it into a status report.

Between teams, between technical and non-technical, between your internal reality and what the client can parse - every boundary costs a translation pass, and every pass strips signal. The developer's context dies in the status report. The client's priorities die in the backlog.

Status reports as lossy translation
Cross-team context gaps
Technical depth invisible to stakeholders
When the same work reads differently to everyone, nobody has to translate.

Cross-role legibility

The PM sees features. The developer sees tickets. The client sees milestones. Same truth, different resolution.

Technical context preserved

Discussions, specs, and dependencies live on the work itself - not in a Slack thread that expires in thirty days.

No more Friday reports

Progress is visible to stakeholders at the level they need. Nobody writes an update about what the board already shows.

Sprint-shaped columns

Backlog, in progress, review, deployed. Automations move tasks as state changes.

Technical discussion in context

Bug reports, architecture decisions, and feature debates - on the task, findable later.
L
Lars

Auth endpoints are live on staging

4:12 PM
C
Client

Tested - looks good. Ship it.

5:03 PM

Specs and docs attached

Technical specs, API docs, wireframes - on the task that needs them, not in a shared drive.
api-spec.yaml
Auth layer
test-report.pdf
DB migration
wireframes.fig
Dashboard API

Flexible augments

Deadlines, dependencies, cost tracking - compose your task shape per project.

API authentication layer

High priority
Deadline
in 3 days
Tags
designurgent

Dependencies that resolve themselves instead of blocking everything.

Link tasks that depend on each other. When the blocker completes, the dependent task unblocks automatically. The critical path stays visible to everyone - the developer sees the technical chain, the PM sees the timeline impact.

Visual blocked/unblocked state
Cascading unblock on completion
3/5
Database schema +2
API endpoints
Auth middleware
Dashboard frontend
Client integration

Priority is a signal that reaches every level.

Criticality affects behavior deeply - visual urgency, feed placement, and automatic surfacing. Your team sees the technical blocker. Your client sees something being fast-tracked. Same signal, read in context.

Four levels from low to critical
Critical items surface everywhere
Server migration
critical
Auth refactor
high
Dashboard polish
medium
README update
low

Your AI assistant, already connected.

Balladic speaks MCP. Your AI coding assistant can query tasks, update status, and create work items - all from the terminal. One more boundary crossed without switching tools.

Natural language task orchestration
Works with any MCP-compatible client
$ show me active tasks with deadlines this week
Found 3 tasks:
1. Auth refactor - due Friday
2. Dashboard API - due Thursday
3. Logo review - due Wednesday
$ start work on auth refactor
I'll mark this as active and put together a plan.
$

Find anything, instantly.

Full-text search across tasks, comments, and projects. When someone asks "where did we discuss the auth approach?" - the answer is three keystrokes, not a Slack archaeology expedition.

Search tasks, comments, and projects
Scoped to your access level
TasksCommentsProjects
task
Auth refactor Developer Houses - Sprint 12
comment
Lars mentioned auth endpoints on API authentication layer
project
Authentication overhaul 4 tasks, 2 active
task
Auth middleware tests Developer Houses - Sprint 13
From feature request to deployment, readable at every level.
1

Feature scoped

The business need arrives. It becomes tasks with technical shape - dependencies, estimates, acceptance criteria. The client sees a milestone. The developer sees a plan.

2

Teams build

Frontend, backend, and QA coordinate through shared dependencies. Technical discussion lives on the task - specs and decisions are findable, not buried in chat history.

3

Progress is legible

The client doesn't read the sprint board. They see feature-level progress - what's active, what shipped, what's coming. Same underlying data, different reading.

4

Delivery closes the loop

The feature deploys. The client sees it happen. The technical context - every decision, every spec, every conversation - is still there for the team that maintains it.

Same work, readable by everyone, from the terminal to the boardroom.

Your team keeps their technical depth. Your stakeholders keep their clarity. Nobody translates.

Balladic v0.4.44