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    "result": {"data":{"markdownRemark":{"html":"<p>At Crossfill, I started running multiple AI coding agents at the same time.</p>\n<p>Not one chat.\r\nNot one tool.\r\nA real multi-agent workflow.</p>\n<p>I used multiple Codex, Claude, and Gemini accounts in parallel,\r\ngiving each agent a clear responsibility based on the task at hand.</p>\n<p>Then I mentored the team to work the same way.\r\nDesigners, PMs, engineers.\r\nDifferent backgrounds, same goal:\r\nShip faster without losing product thinking.</p>\n<p>That experience changed how I see software development.</p>\n<hr>\n<p>I believe we are moving through a clear evolution:</p>\n<p>WATERFALL -> AGILE -> AGENTIC.</p>\n<ul>\n<li>Waterfall optimized for being right upfront, because iteration was expensive.</li>\n<li>Agile optimized for human iteration speed, because iteration got cheaper.</li>\n<li>Agentic optimizes for something else entirely: when iteration is basically free.</li>\n</ul>\n<p>This is not just a tooling trend.\r\nIt is an operating model shift.</p>\n<hr>\n<p>A lot of people still treat agentic coding (or vibe coding) like a side quest.</p>\n<p>Non-technical people building random demos.\r\nFun, but not serious.</p>\n<p>That is part of the picture.\r\nBut it is not the full story.</p>\n<p>What we are seeing is a new software culture forming in real time.</p>\n<ul>\n<li>no PRDs, just paste a gist and start prototyping</li>\n<li>less manual code review, more automated review skills and eval loops</li>\n<li>less rollback thinking, more branch-and-explore thinking</li>\n<li>huge output, huge debt, huge surface area</li>\n<li>velocity goes up, entropy also goes up</li>\n<li>product quality depends more on curation and pruning</li>\n<li>non-coders can finally encode domain expertise into working software</li>\n<li>strong engineers can orchestrate agent swarms with custom harnesses</li>\n</ul>\n<p>It looks chaotic because it is chaotic.\r\nBut early paradigm shifts usually look like this.</p>\n<hr>\n<h3>The slop phase is real</h3>\n<p>Yes, there is code slop.\r\nApp slop.\r\nSlop slop slop.</p>\n<p>And honestly, this is expected.</p>\n<p>When creation gets much cheaper, output volume explodes first.\r\nSignal systems come later.</p>\n<p>The internet went through this.\r\nSoftware will too.</p>\n<ul>\n<li>more creation</li>\n<li>more noise</li>\n<li>better filtering needed</li>\n<li>better product-level garbage collection needed</li>\n</ul>\n<p>In this environment, maintenance becomes strategy.\r\nRefactoring becomes governance.\r\nPruning becomes product leadership.</p>\n<hr>\n<h3>Org design is next</h3>\n<p>This shift does not stop at developer workflow.\r\nIt reshapes teams.</p>\n<p>We will reorganize around:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>who can direct agents effectively</li>\n<li>who governs quality, security, and compliance</li>\n<li>who protects UX coherence</li>\n<li>who owns architecture over time</li>\n</ul>\n<p>The old boundaries between Engineering, Product, and Design will collide first.\r\nThen settle into a new model.</p>\n<hr>\n<h3>This is the same movie we saw with Agile</h3>\n<p>Agile had a similar arc:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>messy experimentation</li>\n<li>lightweight culture</li>\n<li>formalization (XP, Scrum, TDD)</li>\n<li>enterprise adoption and certification theater</li>\n<li>eventual normalization</li>\n</ul>\n<p>Agentic development will likely follow a similar path.\r\nRight now, we are still early.\r\nThat is why it feels unserious to some people.</p>\n<hr>\n<h3>The uncomfortable prediction</h3>\n<p>Just like people eventually talked trash about waterfall,\r\none day people may talk trash about agile too.</p>\n<p>Not because agile was useless.\r\nBecause agile was built for a different constraint:\r\nhuman-only iteration.</p>\n<p>Agentic changes that constraint.</p>\n<p>When iteration approaches zero cost,\r\neverything upstream and downstream has to be redesigned.</p>\n<p>Not just coding.\r\nProduct.\r\nTeams.\r\nCompanies.</p>\n<p>Maybe even what a company is.</p>","frontmatter":{"title":"WATERFALL -> AGILE -> AGENTIC","description":"What I learned running multi-agent coding workflows at Crossfill","date":"2026-04-28T00:00:00.000Z","slug":"/blog/waterfall-agile-agentic","tags":["AI","Engineering","Product","Culture"]}}},"pageContext":{}},
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