--- title: Why are good developers so wary of agentic development? description: Experienced developers hesitate to fully adopt agentic coding because they know built code isn't the same as code working safely in production. In a week-long... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/why-are-good-developers-so-wary-of-agentic-development--znygdiaw1 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Why are good developers so wary of agentic development? | daily.dev og:description: Experienced developers hesitate to fully adopt agentic coding because they know built code isn't the same as code working safely in production. In a week-long... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/why-are-good-developers-so-wary-of-agentic-development--znygdiaw1 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/ZNYGdiaW1.png og:image:alt: Why are good developers so wary of agentic development? og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Why are good developers so wary of agentic development? **[Martin Fowler](https://daily.dev/sources/mafo)** · 11 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Experienced developers hesitate to fully adopt agentic coding because they know built code isn't the same as code working safely in production. In a week-long Thoughtworks experiment, senior engineers let agents write all the code for an airline application, reaching about 80% completion. The team spent roughly two-thirds of its time at the whiteboard designing boundaries and feedback loops, and one-third building the harness that guided agents. The build was still frequently red despite the app running. DORA's 2025 research is cited as finding AI adoption raises delivery throughput but lowers delivery stability. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### what did Thoughtworks learn from a week-long experiment where AI agents wrote all the code for an app Senior engineers spent about two-thirds of their time at a whiteboard designing domain boundaries and feedback loops, and one-third building the test harness that guided the agents, while agents produced code around the clock. The team reached roughly 80% completion on an airline application, but the build was frequently red even though the application ran, exposing gaps in continuous integration practices for agent-driven work. _Teams rethinking CI and review practices for agent-written code can track these emerging lessons on daily.dev._ ### does AI coding adoption improve software delivery performance according to the DORA 2025 report AI adoption is linked to higher delivery throughput but lower delivery stability, according to the DORA 2025 report cited in discussions of agentic development. This tradeoff mirrors exactly what continuous delivery and DevOps practices were originally designed to solve, suggesting those disciplines need a rethink for the agentic era. _Anyone weighing AI coding tools against delivery stability can follow this debate on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [The 80% Problem in Agentic Coding](https://daily.dev/posts/the-80-problem-in-agentic-coding-9nacygamm) · Elevate · 120 upvotes · 7 comments - [Why agents DO NOT write most of our code - a reality check](https://daily.dev/posts/why-agents-do-not-write-most-of-our-code---a-reality-check-h44n3mjhg) · DEV · 19 upvotes · 3 comments - [Pity the developers who resist agentic coding](https://daily.dev/posts/pity-the-developers-who-resist-agentic-coding-hro9to6ro) · InfoWorld · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [A grounded take on agentic coding for production environments](https://daily.dev/posts/a-grounded-take-on-agentic-coding-for-production-environments-eqmzfdloq) · Ivan Velichko · 35 upvotes · 1 comments --- Tags: [#ai-agents](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-agents), [#cicd](https://daily.dev/tags/cicd), [#ai-coding](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-coding) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/why-are-good-developers-so-wary-of-agentic-development--znygdiaw1) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Why are good developers so wary of agentic development?","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/why-are-good-developers-so-wary-of-agentic-development--znygdiaw1","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/why-are-good-developers-so-wary-of-agentic-development--znygdiaw1"},"datePublished":"2026-10-29T14:02:40.442Z","dateModified":"2026-10-29T14:15:55.264Z","description":"Experienced developers hesitate to fully adopt agentic coding because they know built code isn't the same as code working safely in production. In a week-long...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/1b8dbff288c13601ac6fb15aea40d8a3?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/1b8dbff288c13601ac6fb15aea40d8a3?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Martin Fowler","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Martin Fowler","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/mafo","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/mafo"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/why-are-good-developers-so-wary-of-agentic-development--znygdiaw1","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"ai-agents,cicd,ai-coding","timeRequired":"PT11M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Martin Fowler","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/mafo"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Why are good developers so wary of agentic development?"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/why-are-good-developers-so-wary-of-agentic-development--znygdiaw1#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"what did Thoughtworks learn from a week-long experiment where AI agents wrote all the code for an app","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Senior engineers spent about two-thirds of their time at a whiteboard designing domain boundaries and feedback loops, and one-third building the test harness that guided the agents, while agents produced code around the clock. The team reached roughly 80% completion on an airline application, but the build was frequently red even though the application ran, exposing gaps in continuous integration practices for agent-driven work. Teams rethinking CI and review practices for agent-written code can track these emerging lessons on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"does AI coding adoption improve software delivery performance according to the DORA 2025 report","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"AI adoption is linked to higher delivery throughput but lower delivery stability, according to the DORA 2025 report cited in discussions of agentic development. This tradeoff mirrors exactly what continuous delivery and DevOps practices were originally designed to solve, suggesting those disciplines need a rethink for the agentic era. Anyone weighing AI coding tools against delivery stability can follow this debate on daily.dev."}}]} ```