01DISCOVER
1–2 WEEKSWe work out what is actually being solved before anyone estimates anything.
— Stakeholder and user interviews— Current-state system audit— Constraint and risk mapping— Success metric definition
ArtefactA written problem statement with measurable success criteria.
02ARCHITECT
1–3 WEEKSThe expensive decisions get made deliberately, on paper, while they are still cheap to change.
— System and data model design— Technology selection with trade-offs recorded— Threat model and security boundaries— Delivery plan with sequenced milestones
ArtefactArchitecture decision records you can review and challenge.
03BUILD
4–20 WEEKSTwo-week increments, each ending in something running that you can use.
— Vertical slices, not horizontal layers— Code review on every change— Continuous integration from day one— Demo and re-prioritisation each increment
ArtefactA deployed environment that moves forward every fortnight.
04VERIFY
CONTINUOUSTesting runs alongside the build rather than as a phase at the end that gets cut.
— Automated unit, integration and end-to-end tests— Load testing against defined SLOs— Security review and dependency audit— Accessibility conformance testing
ArtefactA test suite and a report against agreed thresholds.
05DEPLOY
1 WEEKRelease is a pipeline with a rollback path, not an evening with the lights on.
— Infrastructure as code provisioning— Staged rollout with health gates— Monitoring, alerting and on-call setup— Runbook and handover session
ArtefactA repeatable deploy anyone on the team can execute.
06SCALE
ONGOINGWhat happens after launch is where most of a system’s lifetime cost is decided.
— Performance and cost optimisation— Capacity planning against real usage— Iterative feature delivery— Quarterly architecture and security review
ArtefactA system that gets cheaper per user, not more expensive.