Chapter 17: Many agents

Dark factory

A software factory where no person writes or reads the code, so the lights can stay off. All the trust has to come from evidence such as hidden scenarios and real runs. Few teams claim to do this, and we found no outside audit of any.

It is the far end of the range, and it is useful to think about even if you never go there, because it forces the question: if you stopped reading this code tomorrow, what would tell you it broke? For most teams, the honest answer is the customers.

Say it to your agent

“Suppose nobody reads the code in this repo from tomorrow. List each way it could break in production without any of our checks noticing, most likely first. Don't fix them yet.”

The workshop

Name a word, or describe what you mean in everyday language.