When every hold waits for a person, an autonomous system stops without saying so
A person in the loop is a throughput dependency, not only a safeguard. When every hold on landing work waits for that person, an autonomous system stops landing anything and looks healthy while it does, so it has to report what landed and what is waiting on someone.
Work landed all afternoon while I drove it, and none landed overnight
One day my software factory landed requests all afternoon while I drove them by hand. Overnight none landed and more opened, because every hold on landing waited for a person. Status said nothing about it. Every run looked healthy, and I found the stall the next morning by reading a journal.
What my status line reports
| What status showed | What status shows now |
|---|---|
| What status showedRuns in progress and their phases | What status shows nowWhat landed in the last day |
| What status showedNothing about requests left open | What status shows nowHow many requests are open |
| What status showedHolds visible only in a journal | What status shows nowThe largest hold, by name |
| What status showedNo sign of spare capacity | What status shows nowIdle slots |
Status now reports the outcome, not only the activity
Status now prints what landed in the last day, how many requests are open, the largest hold by name and the idle slots. The tickets that clear a hold are dispatched ahead of new work, so the thing that stops landings is the first thing worked on. A system that reports its activity and not its outcome can stop for a whole night and look busy the entire time.
The fix is not done until a day passes with no command from me
The ticket that tracks this outcome stays open until a full day passes with no command from me. That has not happened yet, and the ticket says so. Closing it on the code that is meant to produce the outcome would report the fix as done before anyone saw it work.
You get a system that tells you what is waiting on a person
I work out with you which steps keep a person and which can run on their own, then make the system report what is waiting on that person. A stall then shows up in status, not in a journal the next morning.
The work starts with a workflow review of how your team uses AI today. You set what needs your sign-off, and there are no constant meetings. Bring the step you would least want an assistant to ship without you to the workflow review.