In short
Autonomous program management should mean software that holds every commitment on a program to its date, acts on a move within the hour, and does so inside an authority envelope the company set, with a named approver for consequential decisions and a signed receipt under every action. It should not mean software that reports faster. The test is what happens, unprompted, in the hour after a supplier moves a date.
The definition
Four properties. It reads the truth from the tools and the mail rather than being told. It holds commitments to the date and re-plans when one moves. It acts within a boundary the company set, and widens that boundary only as the record shows it is safe. And it writes a receipt for every action that an auditor, a CISO or a vice president can read later.
The test
Move a date in a supplier's email during the demo. Autonomous software re-plans the dependent work, puts the fix in front of the owner and sends the approver a quantified choice, within the hour and without anyone asking. Software that is not autonomous shows a dashboard that is still green. Tymeline is built to pass the test, and Kendrel is the part that works out the fix.