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SkyWaysThe agentic manual
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The method

The SkyWays PDLC, on one page

The product development lifecycle behind this manual, which the lessons call the agentic PDLC: four phases, eight loops and a hard gate, the sign-off before anything is built.

P0P1P2P3
  • P0Frame
  • P1Design & Spec
  • Sign-off (the hard gate)
  • P2Build & Prove
  • P3Run & Learn
  1. What happens in each phase?The four phases and the one hard gate
  2. What brings production back?Eight loops, three with nobody waiting
  3. Who does what, and when?Five delivery roles across the four phases
  4. What may a model draft?And the one thing per step that stays with you
The four phasesP0 to P3: the SkyWays PDLC loopFour phases that run as a spiral rather than a line. Each pass takes an idea a step closer to production, and what production teaches starts the next pass. The name of each phase opens its lesson.
What the sign-off is
The one hand-off nobody may skip. The lessons call it the hard gate: the spec, the bar per slice and the authority budget are signed before a line of the agent is written.
Why it sits between P1 and P2. Paper is cheap to change and production is not. The other three crossings are soft: they check evidence and let the line move.
Go deeper. The four phases in one lesson · What the sign-off checks
P0Frame: Decide whether to build it at all, and whether it is AI at all. The product manager owns it. You leave with a pain that is a measurement, an AI-fit verdict and a ceiling in writing. Open the lesson.

Accountable product manager

Decide whether to build it at all.

  1. Pain registerone line, a count, a cost
  2. AI-fit verdictnaming what was rejected, and why
  3. Autonomy ceilinghow much the machine may do
You leave with
  • A pain that is a measurement
  • A verdict with an alternative named
  • A ceiling, in writing
P1Design & Spec: Decide exactly what, and under whose authority. The solution architect owns it. You leave with a signed spec, a bar per slice and a named approver per gate. Open the lesson.

Accountable solution architect

Decide exactly what, and under whose authority.

  1. Eight-field specwhat a machine can build from
  2. A bar per slicederived from damage over saving
  3. Authority budgetwhat it may do unasked, and where it stops
You leave with
  • A signed spec
  • A bar per slice, not one bar
  • A named approver per gate
Sign-off (the hard gate)
P2Build & Prove: Prove it meets the bar, slice by slice. The engineering lead owns it. You leave with evidence at the bar, a lower bound and a shadow run that agrees. Open the lesson.

Accountable engineering lead

Prove it meets the bar, slice by slice.

  1. Bolts, not sprintsten days, one owner, one artefact
  2. Golden set in CIa required check, run in cost order
  3. Shadow runbeside the desk, not instead of it
You leave with
  • Evidence at the bar
  • A lower bound, never a score
  • A shadow run that agrees
P3Run & Learn: Watch it, cost it and feed the next frame. The sponsor owns it. You leave with two numbers, a drift readout and the next P0 brief. Open the lesson.

Accountable the sponsor

Watch it, cost it, and feed the next frame.

  1. Trace and driftthe three signals a normal stack lacks
  2. The bill, by factorcontext, tier, cache, attempts
  3. Two-number reportand the brief the next P0 starts from
You leave with
  • Two numbers, not a dashboard
  • A drift readout
  • The next P0 brief, with an owner
The feedbackEight loops that run every team's workflow, P0 to P3Five loops carry work forward, from requirements to trust, and close on their own because someone downstream is waiting. Three close only if a named person makes them: cost back into design, incident back into framing, and governance across the whole line.
The eight, as drawn
Forward, five
Requirements P0 → P1Spec P1 → P2Trust P2 → P3Decision P1 → P1Delivery P2 → P2
Nobody waiting, three
Cost P3 → P1Incident P3 → P0Governance P0 → P3
Nobody downstream is waiting for the three, so they have to be built on purpose. Name the person who owns each; if you cannot, the loop is absent.
Governance · P0 → P3 · owned by the sponsorP0FrameP1Design & SpecP2Build & ProveP3Run & LearnRequirements · P0 → P1Spec · P1 → P2Trust · P2 → P3Decision · P1 → P1Delivery · P2 → P2Cost · P3 → P1Incident · P3 → P0P0 FrameP1 Design & SpecDecision loopP2 Build & ProveDelivery loopP3 Run & LearnRequirementsSpecTrustGovernanceCostIncident
The three nobody is waiting for
P3 → P1Cost

A bill that left its estimate is a design question, not a finance question. It closes when an architecture decision record changes, not when a budget does.

Owner
Solution architect
Closed when
An ADR has a v2 with a diff
Confidence
documented
P3 → P0Incident

A postmortem that does not produce a brief has not finished. The finding is the control that would have made the incident impossible, named.

Owner
Every role
Closed when
A next-P0 brief exists, with an owner
Confidence
established
P0 → P3Governance

Spans the whole line and belongs to the sponsor, not to any delivery role. It is the only loop with nobody downstream waiting, which is why it is the one most often absent.

Owner
Sponsor
Closed when
The four leadership decisions are dated
Confidence
working method
By roleYour role across P0 to P3One row per role, one column per phase. Read across for your own arc; read down to see who else is in the room when yours is the hard part. Every cell opens the step it names.
How to read it
The bar marks the phase a role is accountable for.
Dashed cells are on purpose. An engineering lead who starts building in P0, or a QA lead who arrives in P2, are the two most expensive habits in agentic delivery.
P3 belongs to the sponsor, which is why it has its own page.
P0 · FrameIs this worth doing, and is it AI at all?
P1 · Design & SpecWhat exactly, and under whose authority?
P2 · Build & ProveDoes it meet the bar, slice by slice?
P3 · Run & LearnIs it still doing it, and what did it cost?
Product manageraccountable for P0
P0 · FrameAccountableMeasure the pain, rule on AI-fitPain register · AI-fit record · autonomy ceilingP1 · Design & SpecWrite the spec, set the barEight fields, and a bar derived per sliceP2 · Build & ProveHold the three gates that are yoursA gate is defined by a name on itP3 · Run & LearnShadow, five percent, then widenThen two numbers and the next brief
Solution architectaccountable for P1
P0 · FrameCredit every line back to a personConstraint register, sorted by typeP1 · Design & SpecAccountableMap the chain, bound the authorityExact / best-guess / consequential · ADRs · gate mapP2 · Build & ProveAnswer against the mapDecisions here are read, not re-openedP3 · Run & LearnMake it cheap, auditable, redesignableCaching, routing, the missing-control finding
Engineering leadaccountable for P2
P0 · FrameDeliberately not yet on the clockReads the brief, sizes the unknowns, starts nothing
P1 · Design & SpecContext file, then the boundary lineThe never-touch list and what it must refuseP2 · Build & ProveAccountableFloor first, then model, then checkerBolts · harness in CI · shadow behind a flagP3 · Run & LearnCache, route, trace, keep the ledgerAnd the injection suite that never stops running
QA leadproof, throughout
P0 · FrameAsks the one question earlyWhat will right mean, and who says so?
P1 · Design & SpecDecide what proof each step owesProof map · bar sheet · the golden setP2 · Build & ProveWire the proof in so it cannot be skippedA required check, and a lower bound not a scoreP3 · Run & LearnWatch drift, turn incidents into controlsThe postmortem that names the missing control
DevOps and platformthe floor under all four
P0 · FrameAccount, tags and budget before the first callLanding zone and a cost baselineP1 · Design & SpecOne gateway, comparable environmentsModel access matrix, version pinnedP2 · Build & ProveMake the harness unbypassableA required status check, and a flag to ship behindP3 · Run & LearnThree signals, smallest identity, rehearsed rollbackTrace · cost record · alarms · containment

the bar marks the phase this role is accountable for

What actually changedWhere the model helps, and where it must notThe machine took the drafting. It did not take the judgement; it concentrated it. Every step in this manual names a tool, a use, a caution, and exactly one thing that is never delegated.
Read the red column first
Forty lines, one shape. Each of the forty steps names one thing that is never delegated, and every one is a fact about your business, your regulator or your ledger that no context window makes knowable from outside.
The job did not shrink. It is the same judgement, concentrated into fewer and larger decisions, each with a name on it.
P0FramePain, AI-fit and the ceiling
The model drafts
  • Distinct pains from six transcripts, deduplicated
  • Counts from a ticket export, with the script it ran
  • Cost-per-case arithmetic, assumptions in named cells
You check
  • Every line still carries the name of who said it
  • The script counted the right date column
  • A sceptic can move one cell and watch the answer move
Never delegated
  • Which pain is worth solving
  • Whether a wrong action can be undone
  • The autonomy level itself
P1Design & SpecSpec, bar and authority
The model drafts
  • The constraint register, sorted by type
  • A first pass at the agent map, every step tagged
  • The eight-field spec from the brief and the notes
You check
  • The register separates real constraints from habits
  • A $400 threshold is policy, not folklore
  • Each bar was derived from two money figures, not chosen
Never delegated
  • The read-back, to the person who said it
  • What counts as money
  • The bar and the autonomy fields
P2Build & ProveFloor, harness and shadow
The model drafts
  • The deterministic floor from the exact-code inventory
  • Checker implementations and a first judge rubric
  • Golden-set candidates pulled from real traffic
You check
  • The boundary line says what the system must refuse
  • The judge agrees with human labels on a fresh sample
  • The harness runs in cost order and blocks the merge
Never delegated
  • The never-touch list
  • The expected outcome on every golden case
  • The verdict: proven, failed or unproven
P3Run & LearnTrace, bill and the next brief
The model drafts
  • The trace schema and a starting alarm set
  • The bill decomposed into its four factors
  • A draft of the two-number report
You check
  • The factors multiply back to the bill you were sent
  • The blast radius of each new permission is named
  • Drift is measured against the launch set, not last week
Never delegated
  • What is masked and what is kept
  • Declaring the incident over
  • What the sponsor sees