Agentic Product Development Lifecycle (APDLC)
This is Agentic Product Development Lifecycle (APDLC), a brand new site by Brian Johnson that's just getting started... No subscriptions.
I've been building 100% AI immersed since April 2025, and building agentically since October 2025. The experience has convinced me we're at an inflection point, shifting from SDLC to what I'm calling Agentic Product Development Lifecycle (APDLC). Instead of managing large teams of people, I'm now managing, ironically, a "business" of polecats. It's wild!
What I'm exploring here while I'm building for this new future:
→ How does the human role change when agents handle implementation?
→ What are the criteria for decisions requiring human judgment? (Human In The Loop)
→ How do we achieve prompt adherence in agentic frameworks to reliably escalate when human judgement is required? Guardrails, Safeguards
→ What principles and practices do we apply when code is generated agentically?
→ How do we maintain quality in the code while stepping out of being the bottleneck?
→ What happens when/if the AI bubble pops?
→ What are the consequences of software becoming essentially free to create?
→ What does it mean for startups if they can iterate or pivot overnight?
→ Does Jevons Paradox hold and demand increases?
→ How do we create learning cycles, Recursive Self Improvement (RSI) that goes faster than frontier model release cycles?
→ ... and more fun questions. I have a much bigger list!
I don't have all the answers. I do have first-hand observations and years of experience building software and teams in hand-on and leadership roles over 30 years. I've decided recently that I need to share my experiences. I believe they're fairly unique. I've been doing a lot of experimentation. I'm confident many critics will emerge to dismiss the output. What matters is the outcome, the learning, the data point. A story builds... toward great conviction.
I'm inviting practitioners to figure it out together. I'm launching https://apdlc.ai as a place to host that conversation, as a gathering place for practitioners defining the next era of software and product development (not the kind I bet you're thinking of).
I see this as the next step, the evolution of SDLC and agile practices, an emerging suite of updates to long-standing principles, and practices.
I'll explain why I strongly believe "AI-SDLC", "AI-Native SDLC", fall short of the breadth of transformation underway. Stay Tuned!
No selling, no n8n workflows, no download these prompts, no "like and subscribe", ... no BS, oh and no haters either. Healthy debate on earnestly held opinions. Bring data points, anecdotes, never hyperbole.
Hope to see you here in the coming weeks and months!
Brian
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianmjohnson/
https://github.com/brianmjohnson