Softlander blog perspectives published in August 2026.
A certificate that expires in production was not forgotten by an individual. It was issued by a process that did not include renewal, into a system that had no way to reload it.
A useful tabletop follows one plausible agent failure through detection, containment, evidence, business recovery and accountable return to service.
Model concrete failure scenarios across detection, containment, correction, disruption and consequence, then use ranges to choose controls.
“Internet access” is too broad a permission for an agent. Define destinations, protocols, data-release rules and failure behaviour, then test bypasses against the deployed network path.
Boards do not need to review prompts or model scores. They need a clear account of what each agent may do, whose mandate it carries and how control is recovered.
Maintenance agents can turn condition signals into coordinated work, but plant safety and control demand bounded action and field verification.
A joint lab should be a governed way to create decision evidence across organisations, with shared methods but explicit ownership of systems, data and conclusions.
Buy evidence, controllability and lifecycle obligations—not a confident demo or an unrestricted promise of autonomy.
KEEP EXPLORING
Read the method, assumptions and questions to ask.