Synopsis
Artificial Intelligence is accelerating software delivery at a rate most enterprises are not structurally prepared to handle. Code is becoming cheap. Change is becoming constant. And the traditional controls that once slowed bad decisions are disappearing. The question facing today’s executive team is no longer “Should we use AI in software delivery?” It is: "How do we govern, scale, and trust software that builds itself?"
In Autonomous Software, veteran technology executive David Brooks introduces a new operating model for the enterprise: the Autonomous SDLC—a structured, governed, AI-augmented software lifecycle that delivers speed without sacrificing control. This is not a book about code copilots. It is a book about enterprise leadership in the age of machine-generated systems.
This book introduces the Autonomous Software Maturity Index (ASMI) a structured maturity framework across: Enterprise Processes, Strategy, Governance, and Risk, Intent and Requirements, Architecture and Design, Build, Test, Release, Operate, and People. Each domain includes maturity models, risk posture analysis, governance burden implications, and next-best actions to advance capability.
Why This Book Matters Now
AI can now generate: Code, Tests, Configurations, Infrastructure, UI layers, and Documentation. But without architectural guardrails, explicit intent modeling, compliance-aware testing, and metadata intelligence, AI becomes a debt multiplier, building the wrong things faster.