Not this
SDLC with AI tools added
Adding Copilot to your workflow isn't ADLC. Bolting an AI test tool onto QA isn't ADLC. These are productivity improvements inside an unchanged operating model. Valuable. Not transformative.
// The Manifesto
ADLC is not SDLC with AI tools added.
It is a different operating model — redesigned for a world where the primary execution unit is an agent, not a human.
Not this
Removing humans from delivery
The opposite is true. ADLC requires more deliberate human involvement — at higher-order decisions, at governance points, at the boundaries where agent output meets business intent. Human judgment doesn't disappear. It relocates.
Not this
A methodology or framework
ADLC doesn't prescribe standups, ceremonies, or ticket formats. It prescribes a different structure for how work flows when agents are the primary execution unit. The unit of analysis is the delivery system, not the sprint.
Where this lands
The old PM wrote requirements.
The new PM writes bets.
— Lodestar / MMXXVI