Software Improvement Group publishes AI Adoption Framework
Software Improvement Group helps enterprise organizations move to agentic software development by mapping five adoption levels and the governance each one requires.
Amsterdam, 22 October 2026– Software Improvement Group (SIG) has published the AI Adoption Framework, a guide for IT leaders on advancing AI maturity and adopting the agentic software development lifecycle.
It covers software engineering specifically: how teams move from AI chat to agents that plan, build, and test code, and which controls need to be in place at each step.
Most organizations now invest in AI, but few see the return. Only 29% report significant ROI from generative AI, and 23% from AI agents.
Four core principles
The AI adoption framework is built on the following core principles, backed by proprietary data and industry-leading research.
1. AI amplifies what’s already there
Good foundations go faster. Poor foundations accumulate problems faster.
2. The harness matters more than the model
Models change. The harness around them (guides, context, sensors, monitoring) is what stays, compounds, and is yours. It is also what shapes the quality of what they produce.
3. The Agentic SDLC requires different ways of working
Unlike basic AI-assisted coding, agentic workflows operate autonomously across the entire project pipeline.
4. Governance must scale with adoption.
More AI requires proportionally stronger controls across six dimensions: costs, productivity, security, open source, architecture, and tech debt.
“Reaching enterprise AI maturity cannot be achieved through a single pilot project, tool, or purchase. We wrote this framework to help leadership teams assess where they stand and decide on next steps together,” said Jasper Geurts, CTO at Software Improvement Group.
What’s inside the AI Adoption Framework?
- Five adoption levels, from AI chat to self-improving and self-healing systems: Each level shows what it looks like in practice, the challenges for leaders and teams, the governance required, and the harness elements to build.
- A breakdown of the four core principles, with the research behind each: why AI amplifies what’s already there, how the harness shapes output quality, and what governance has to cover as adoption grows.
- A four-phase agentic software development lifecycle: Ground, Plan, Prevent, and Improve, with 12 use cases for managing AI coding agents across an enterprise portfolio.
- Six governance dimensions rated from low to critical at every level.
- Seven AI-adoption risks that scale with adoption
- Output, quality, and outcome metrics to track
Get the free AI Adoption Framework
About Software Improvement Group
Software Improvement Group (SIG) empowers organizations to govern the software their business runs on. Through complete portfolio analysis, benchmarking, and strategic guidance, SIG helps companies build better software and adopt AI without losing grip on cost, speed, and risks.
Sigrid®, its software portfolio governance platform, is offered as Sigrid Core and Sigrid Axis. AI makes writing code faster than ever, and harder to trust. Sigrid Core is built on SIG’s benchmark data and quality models, showing organizations whether their software is sound and what it will cost them if it isn’t. Sigrid Axis builds on that same foundation as the deterministic layer for probabilistic AI and works with AI coding agents to produce code that is secure, maintainable, and true to the architectural design.
SIG operates the world’s largest software quality benchmark, consisting of over 600 billion lines of code across more than 40,000 systems and 300+ technologies. It is also the world’s only ISO/IEC 17025-accredited laboratory for software quality analysis, and co-developed standards such as ISO/IEC 5338, the global standard for AI lifecycle management, and prEN 18282, the forthcoming draft of the official AI Act security standard.
Founded in 2000 and headquartered in Amsterdam, SIG has offices in North America and Europe, and partnerships across the world for global support.
Combining renowned quality models with technology and over 25 years of industry-leading expertise, SIG is the global authority on continuous software portfolio governance.
For more information, please visit Software Improvement Group‘s website or social media channels.
