Waterfall was rigid. Document-heavy. Top-down.
Agile came in to fix that with just enough structure to move fast.
But there’s one problem:
Agile was built for humans.
Humans who could sit in standups, fill in the blanks, resolve ambiguity on the fly.
That (mostly) works until AI agents join the team.
AI isn’t human.
It needs goals that are precise, and validation that is explicit.
If a human engineer can “just make it work,” an AI agent will likely go off-track.
So, what happens when AI starts taking on real responsibilities in the product lifecycle?
We’ll have to admit:
Our current processes are too human: Too much tribal knowledge. There are too many hallway decisions. Too much intuition.
We’ll need a new layer of structure.
Not a return to Waterfall, but something else:
→ Clearer goals
→ Explicit validation criteria
→ Real-time alignment checks
→ A system that works for both humans and machines
Is anyone else thinking about this? Would love to brainstorm!
