When Machines Prefer Waterfall (Abridged Edition)
The Agentic Delivery Lifecycle and the Future of AI-Assisted Software DevelopmentBy Mark A. Smith
Length3h 20m
About this audiobook
When Machines Prefer Waterfall introduces the Agentic Delivery Lifecycle—a complete methodology for the age of AI-assisted development. Based on academic research from Tsinghua University and MIT, real-world case studies, and the patterns now shipping in every major agentic platform, this book shows engineering leaders how to restructure teams, processes, and governance for a world where humans specify intent and machines execute implementation.
Audiobook details
GenreTechnology, Business and Economics
Length3 hrs 20 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateJul 21, 2023
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1When Machines Prefer Waterfall
60The Post-Mortem
2The Agentic Delivery Lifecycle and the Future of AI-Assisted Software Development
61The Taxonomy of Failures
3By Mark A. Smith, PMP, CSM, CSPO
62Recognizing the Dip Versus Actual Failure
4Abridged Audiobook Edition
63The Resilience Principle
5A Note to the Listener
64Chapter 9: The Convergence
Show all chaptersShow less
6Chapter 1: The Velocity Paradox
65The Four Convergence Capabilities
7The Promise of Infinite Velocity
66The AI-Native Perspective
8The Dip: When More Code Means Less Value
67The Portfolio Principle
9The $2.3 Million Sprint to Nowhere
68The Methodology Transcends the Tools
10The Output Trap
69Chapter 10: The Cognitive Architect
11Technical Debt at Machine Speed
70The Day Priya Stopped Writing Code
12The Psychology of Machine-Speed Creation
71The Bottleneck Revelation
13The Competitive Dimension
72From Specification to Cognition
14The Way Forward
73The Constitution Principles
15Chapter 2: The $500,000 Meeting
74A Day in the Life
16The Hidden Cost: Artificial Latency
75The Identity Shift
17Project Velocity: The Asynchronous Experiment
76The Role Defined
18The Psychological Trap: Why We Can't Stop Meeting
77The Economics of Cognitive Leverage
19Breaking the Meeting Addiction
78Chapter 11: Training Agents, Not People
20From Synchronization to Governance
79The Empty Calendar
21The Dangers of Under-Coordination
80The Breakthrough
22The Path Forward
81From Coordinator to Trainer
23Chapter 3: The ChatDev Paradox (Why Waterfall Won)
82The Frustration Budget
24The Chat Chain: Why Structure Enables Machine Collaboration
83Judgment Over Rules
25MetaGPT and the SOP Revolution
84Training Sessions: A New Ritual
26Why Separating Reviewers from Coders Reduces Hallucinations
85The New Metrics
27The Micro-Waterfall
86The Identity Shift
28Project Meridian: Micro-Waterfall at Nexus
87Chapter 12: Bounded Autonomy
29The Continuous Loop
88The Board Meeting After the Storm
30The Limits of Structure
89The Root Cause
31The Convergent Evolution
90The Autonomy Spectrum
32Structure as Liberation
91The Bounded Delegation Framework
33Chapter 4: The Constitution (Requirements as Code)
92The Confidence Calibration Problem
34The Death of the User Story
93The Trust Calibration Cycle
35The Shopify Reckoning
94Security and Compliance
36Spec-Driven Development
95James's Conversion
37The System Constitution
96Chapter 13: Knowledge Systems — Building Institutional Memory That Scales
38The Influence Topology
97The Knowledge Gap
39The Psychological Shift
98From Encyclopedia to Living Curriculum
40The Economics of Specification
99The Knowledge Architecture
41Chapter 5: The Blueprint (Design Before Code)
100Making Documentation Sustainable
42When Agents Skip Design
101Context Engineering as a Discipline
43Treefinement: Teaching Agents to Think in Alternatives
102Knowledge as Competitive Moat
44Context Engineering: The New Architect's Role
103Chapter 14: The Organization of the Future — Twelve Months Later
45The Design Paradox: Slowing Down to Speed Up
104The Numbers
46What Good Design Looks Like
105The Organizational Transformation
47Chapter 6: Swarm Patterns for Complex Software
106The Human Impact
48From Assembly Line to Swarm Intelligence
107The New Economics
49The Three Tiers of Swarm Execution
108The Customer Perspective and the Board's Decision
50Agentic AppSec: Security as Continuous Adversarial Testing
109Chapter 15: The Road Ahead — Eighteen Months Later
51Graduated Escalation: Preventing Swarm Deadlock
110The Numbers That Matter
52The Human Role Inverts
111Priya's Reflection
53Consistency as Infrastructure
112Marcus's Journey
54Chapter 7: The Context Window Is the New Bottleneck
113David's Transformation
55The Finite Window
114James's Reckoning
56Context Budgeting at Swarm Scale
115The Industry Validation
57Context Rot and the Long Session
116The Graduation
58The Bottleneck Shifts Again
117Closing: The Road Ahead
59Chapter 8: When the Waterfall Breaks
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