Frank van den Brink

Interim CTO. I fix stuck engineering orgs: scale-ups or corporate tech teams. No frameworks, no slide decks. Just shipping.

[Frank van den Brink @fvdb]

https://t.co/T0EJDcYQDx

[Frank van den Brink @fvdb]

Minimum agent operating model:

clear role, one owner, defined scope, forbidden areas, approved tools, checks, escalation path, success metric, stop condition.

If you cannot write that page, the role is not ready.

[Frank van den Brink @fvdb]

After six weeks testing an AI agent on one workflow, what decision do you most often expect?

[Frank van den Brink @fvdb]

Longer version here: https://t.co/RdfdlpOKfN

[Frank van den Brink @fvdb]

https://t.co/T0EJDcYQDx

[Frank van den Brink @fvdb]

The best first AI agent pilot is usually a six-week test of one narrow role.

Not an "AI programme".

[Frank van den Brink @fvdb]

That is how you get ROI from agents.

One cleared constraint at a time.

[Frank van den Brink @fvdb]

If an agent needs half the company involved to make one safe change, the prompt is not the problem.

You have an ownership problem, a boundary problem, or an architecture problem.

Usually all three.

[Frank van den Brink @fvdb]

Do not start with an AI transformation programme.

Start with one owned role, one clear scope, one before-state measure, and a six-week decision point.

Expand on evidence. Not enthusiasm.

[Frank van den Brink @fvdb]

One dependency-upgrade pilot opened 38 PRs in six weeks.

31 merged after minor edits.

Median alert-to-merge time dropped from roughly 3 weeks to under 4 days. Review time stayed flat.

That is the standard. More useful work, same review cost.

[Frank van den Brink @fvdb]

One useful agent role I saw did not answer customers.

It routed support escalations with evidence.

214 escalations went through it. 76% were accepted without rerouting. Median time to first technical owner fell from 9 hours to 2.5.

That is what ROI looks like. Constraint relief, not theatre.

[Frank van den Brink @fvdb]

Which number would convince you an AI agent pilot is actually working?

[Frank van den Brink @fvdb]

If you are measuring agent ROI, start with operational metrics:

lead time, review time, acceptance rate, defect rate, neglected work cleared, full cost of ownership.

Anything else is too easy to game.

[Frank van den Brink @fvdb]

PRs opened, lines changed, tickets touched.

Those are activity metrics.

ROI means a real constraint moved without quietly dumping cost into review, rework, or incident risk.

[Frank van den Brink @fvdb]

Governance is how you earn autonomy.

Not the thing that slows it down.

[Frank van den Brink @fvdb]

Good governance for AI agents is not a monthly AI committee staring at slides.

It is operational hygiene.

[Frank van den Brink @fvdb]

The goal is simple.

Keep the work boring enough that autonomy can widen on evidence, not optimism.