Section 190 · Chapter 20, The Practical Playbook

Agentic Frameworks vs. Parameterized Workflows

Most workflows do not need an autonomous agent. They need a well-bounded procedure with a few intelligent steps.

agentic frameworks parameterized workflows

What to do

Define the workflow as steps.
Require confirmations for irreversible actions.
Score the trajectory, not just the final answer.

Evidence to preserve

Preserve the inputs, versions, configurations, raw outcomes, and results for agentic frameworks parameterized workflows needed to reproduce work on Agentic Frameworks vs. Parameterized Workflows.
Report results for agentic frameworks parameterized workflows by relevant slice, separate blocker failures from averages, state uncertainty and blind spots, and connect the result to a release decision.

Expert note

At scale, evaluate autonomy as a risk budget. Every degree of freedom needs a reason, a guardrail, an observable trace, and a test. The best AI architecture is often not the most agentic one; it is the one with the smallest amount of autonomy that still solves the user problem.

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Cite this page

Jason Arbon. "Agentic Frameworks vs. Parameterized Workflows." Testing AI Knowledge Edition, section 190.

https://jarbon.ai/testing-ai/knowledge/ch190-agentic-frameworks-parameterized-workflows.html