The Fifth Elephant
The Fifth Elephant

The Fifth Elephant Pune edition

Call for Proposals

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Chetan

Change Is Here: AI-Driven Software Development and the Evolving Role of Developers

Submitted Dec 29, 2025

Indicate the track in which your submission fits: Track 1 AI in Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) Type of submission: 30 mins talk

Session Description

The era of bloated software teams is over. For decades, the industry relied on assembly lines of specialized developers, QA engineers, architects, and managers, but this model has become a bottleneck that AI can now dissolve. By adopting the “Tech Officer” mindset, a single individual can now transcend these narrow specialties, serving as a Strategic Orchestrator who directs a suite of AI agents to handle the heavy lifting of coding and testing. This isn’t just about doing more with less; it’s about a fundamental redefinition of engineering where one person provides the architectural “soul” and vision that leads to a production-grade application.

Using the disciplined framework of Charter-Driven Development, we have demonstrated that it is possible to reduce the hours of effort on a project by 60-70%. This methodology eliminates the coordination overhead and “fuzzy clarity” that typically plague large teams, replacing meetings with durable, written intent. The result is a dramatic spike in productivity and a final product that maintains classical-level architectural control with vibe-level execution speed.

Key Takeaways

Charter-Driven Development: Learn how to use standardized document templates (Project, Task, and QA Charters) as persistent memory to ensure AI output remains consistent, secure, and maintainable.

Beneficial Audiences

Software Developers (1–2+ years experience): Those ready to evolve from master syntax-writers to architects of intelligence.

Engineering Leaders & Tech Leads: Managers looking for a structured operating system to maintain team productivity and code quality in the age of generative AI

I (Chetan Dhandal) am Technical Architect at Betacraft with over a decade of professional experience navigating the evolution of enterprise software. Having transitioned from “writing code in the trenches” to leading strategy as an architect, have developed the “Charter-Driven Development” methodology after witnessing firsthand how unguided AI generation can lead to codebase disasters. He is dedicated to equipping the next generation of “Tech Officers” with the vision and discipline to build resilient, scaling systems in a rapidly shifting technological landscape.

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