Interim CTO. I fix stuck engineering orgs: scale-ups or corporate tech teams. No frameworks, no slide decks. Just shipping.
Netherlands
Joined September 2008
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Minimum agent operating model:
clear role, one owner, defined scope, forbidden areas, approved tools, checks, escalation path, success metric, stop condition.
If you cannot write that page, the role is not ready.
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The best first AI agent pilot is usually a six-week test of one narrow role.
Not an "AI programme".
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If an agent needs half the company involved to make one safe change, the prompt is not the problem.
You have an ownership problem, a boundary problem, or an architecture problem.
Usually all three.
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Do not start with an AI transformation programme.
Start with one owned role, one clear scope, one before-state measure, and a six-week decision point.
Expand on evidence. Not enthusiasm.
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One dependency-upgrade pilot opened 38 PRs in six weeks.
31 merged after minor edits.
Median alert-to-merge time dropped from roughly 3 weeks to under 4 days. Review time stayed flat.
That is the standard. More useful work, same review cost.
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One useful agent role I saw did not answer customers.
It routed support escalations with evidence.
214 escalations went through it. 76% were accepted without rerouting. Median time to first technical owner fell from 9 hours to 2.5.
That is what ROI looks like. Constraint relief, not theatre.
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If you are measuring agent ROI, start with operational metrics:
lead time, review time, acceptance rate, defect rate, neglected work cleared, full cost of ownership.
Anything else is too easy to game.
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PRs opened, lines changed, tickets touched.
Those are activity metrics.
ROI means a real constraint moved without quietly dumping cost into review, rework, or incident risk.
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