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The Death of Sequential Development5m 26s
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The Death of Sequential Development

Operate without phases: discover and build in parallel, shorten decision cycles, and validate ideas live as teams prototype while they learn.

Sep 29, 2025 5m 26s

Oji Udezu

Expert Insights

Oji Udezue contests the continued application of Agile methodology in the world of AI-assisted software development. His experience across major tech companies has revealed to him the accelerating pace of development that AI enables. A pace far beyond Agile's formative intention and current capability.

Oji shares compelling insights into the need for a new development methodology to accommodate the scale-up process AI affords. He explores:

  • How AI has irrevocably shifted development from a "slow-slow-slow" model to a "slow-fast-superfast" paradigm, making traditional Agile methods obsolete.
  • Why AI requires a new approach and language for product building, one where the planning and building phases occur simultaneously, with client interactions producing working software almost instantaneously.
  • The emerging need for greater ambition and creativity in product development.
  • The shift of focus in product value from feasibility to refinement, sophistication, and human-centric design.
  • The challenge of inventing a fresh approach that can be effectively evangelized across the next generation of developers.
REL specifically told me that sometimes they will take a call from a client and they start coding during the call, and in four hours they have a prototype ready. How does Agile fit into that? Like it's real time... We need a new language, a new agile, to represent the future... We need a new one that everyone looks, 'cause if people aren't that creative, people look at agile like, yeah, we're doing agile because they can't invent their own agile. This has gone 10 x faster, and so you cannot do agile the way that it was done because it invented for a different speed.
— Oji Udezu, Co-Author, ProductMind

THE NEW DEFAULT angle

Here's a roadmap for software development teams grappling with the transition to AI-assisted workflows:

  • Rethink Agile: Scrutinize Agile's suitability in your AI-accelerated software development environment. It was designed for slower, sequential development cycles and may not serve the rapid ideation-execution process of the AI era.
  • Balance velocity with refinement: Use the speed-up offered by AI not just to pump out products faster, but to invest time in refining and polishing the user experience and overall product sophistication.
  • Explore a new language for AI-integrated development: Internally and across the software development industry, there is a need for a fresh methodology that encapsulates the intersection of human and AI-led processes.
  • Shift the focus from feasibility to creativity: In an AI-integrated world, "can it be built?" is replaced by "how should we build it, or should we build it at all?" Harness this shift to push boundaries in product innovation.
  • Mobilize for the 'super-scale' process: Prepare your team for parallelised 'super-scale' processes mirroring AI's ability to execute instructions simultaneously, not sequentially.
  • Make human decision-making the anchor in amidst AI-acceleration: Even as AI hastens development, keep human decision-making at the center. Keep refining decision-making capabilities to match AI's speed.
  • Get ambitious with your projects: Utilize the efficiency of AI to tackle larger, more complex projects. Deviate from the familiar and test the waters of the unprecedented.