dooopSoftware · Organization · 5 min
How to Review Team Roles After Adopting Agents
Review decisions, evidence, and authority after introducing agents. Compare the previous and current workflow to distribute real responsibilities.
Published on September 6, 2026
CENTRAL THESIS
Execution can change without it being clear who remains responsible for the choice.
Roles must align with decisions, evidence, and the capacity to accept or halt work.
After introducing agents to the team, review who decides, who verifies, and who is accountable for the outcome of each task. The execution of a step may change without the responsibility disappearing. The goal is not to create new positions to match tool names but to make visible the decisions that have otherwise been distributed. Start with the actual workflow and compare what happened before with what happens now.
Map Decisions, Not Just Activities
A list of activities shows who writes, tests, or documents. To review roles, add the decisions that allow progress: defining the problem, accepting an assumption, choosing an alternative, authorizing a change, and verifying its completion.
An agent may produce an implementation proposal while another person remains responsible for the technical choice. It can perform checks without having authority to approve the behavior. Describe these differences to avoid confusing participation in the task with responsibility for its outcome.
The DORA 2025 presentation describes AI as an amplifier of organizational strengths and weaknesses. The proposed application is to examine the decision system after adoption, rather than assuming the previous organizational chart still explains the work.
Compare Before and After in a Concrete Task
Choose a recurring task and record who made each choice, who provided context, and who confirmed the result. Then describe the current workflow. Look for decisions that lack an owner or that have come to be accepted out of convenience.
A simple matrix can use four fields per decision:
- Decision that needs to be made.
- Person or role with authority to decide.
- Evidence required for acceptance.
- Situation that requires consultation or escalation.
The agent’s name may appear as support for execution but should not take the place of an organizational authority it does not have. The matrix must correspond to the team’s actual controls and agreements.
Avoid Concentrating Responsibility Without Reserving Capacity
One person may become responsible for reviewing outputs from multiple agents while maintaining all previous activities. Before concluding this arrangement works, examine the queue, interruptions, and the type of judgment required.
If the role has changed, also adjust working conditions. It may be necessary to reduce simultaneous tasks, train other reviewers, or anticipate decisions about context. It is not enough to add an obligation to someone’s name in a table.
Define what the person can refuse or stop. Responsibility without authority to limit a change may produce only a formal agreement. The team needs to know how to act when the required evidence is not available.
Fictional Example: Reviewing a Change Prepared by an Agent
Imagine a team where an agent prepares interface changes based on product requests. Previously, the developer discussed behavior doubts during implementation. Now, the first proposal arrives ready, and the reviewer finds product choices that were not confirmed.
The role review can establish that behavior doubts be resolved before execution. The developer remains responsible for checking the proposal, and product is accountable for decisions that change usage. The reviewer receives a change with clearer intent and evidence.
This design is an organizational hypothesis. The team should observe if doubts arrive earlier, if returns change, and if behavior continues to be verified. The example does not assume improvement just because responsibility was documented.
Record Boundaries and Exceptions in an Accessible Way
The agreement needs to be accessible where the task happens. The DORA on documentation highlights clarity, ease of location, and reliability. For roles, this means using decision language and keeping the record compatible with current practice.
Describe relevant exceptions. A low-criticality task may follow a different path than a change affecting a shared rule. The exception must have a reason and an owner, without becoming a vague authorization to ignore the agreement.
When the team encounters an unforeseen situation, record how the decision was made and whether the matrix needs to change. Avoid turning each isolated occurrence into a new permanent obligation without examining its function.
Test the New Division Before Treating It as Definitive
The Microsoft ExP describes the link between hypotheses, measurement, and iteration in development. In role review, the proposal is to experiment with a defined division and observe if it solves the identified difficulty.
Choose signals related to the problem: decisions without owners, tasks returned due to lack of context, waiting time for authority, or changes accepted without agreed evidence. Do not rely only on the perception that the team seems more organized.
At the end of the observation period, keep, adjust, or replace the division with justification. Roles need to support current work and remain reviewable. The next step is to choose a recurring task and make explicit the decisions the agent began to prepare, execute, or influence.
If you want to discuss this decision in your company’s context, talk to dooop.
Further Reading
- How to Prepare a Software Company to Work with AI
- How to Form an Internal AI Practice Community
- How to Train Developers to Work with AI
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