Mantra:
every phase has a trigger, an agent fleet, humans in the loop, artifacts produced, and an explicit handoff. No bookshelf outputs. The loop closes from Operate back to Discover —
production reality is the strongest signal for the next round of work.
Tier:
Built & live
MUST — to engineer
Nice to have
Discover
Sense what to do. Surface signals worth acting on.
Built 7MUST 8Nice 0
Triggers
Briefing surfaces an anomaly
LOB lead raises a need
AOP intake question opens
Agents
Humans
PM
UX
LOB lead
CS
Surfaces
Connectors used
Chorus
Pendo
Salesforce
Atlassian (CNQ)
Memory federation
Artifacts produced
Project Brief
Research synthesis
Daily briefing
Memory writes
evidence
conversation
→ Feeds Plan · brief + signals + open questions drive PRD authoring
Plan
Decide what to build and why. PRD · architecture · epics.
Built 14MUST 5Nice 0
Triggers
Discover artifact lands
Capacity opens in a LOB
Strategic objective set by VP
Agents
Humans
VP Product
VP Tech
PM
Architect
LOB lead
Surfaces
Connectors used
Atlassian (JPD)
Notion
Bedrock / Claude
Memory federation
Artifacts produced
BRD
PRD
Architecture doc
Initiative plan
Workflow template
Memory writes
decision
evidence
→ Feeds Build · PRD + architecture + epic decomposition land in build queue
Build
Implement the spec. Agents draft code → open a PR on Azure DevOps.
Built 10MUST 8Nice 0
Triggers
PRD approved
Epics decomposed
Sprint kicks off
Agents
Humans
Engineer
Architect
UX Designer
Tech Writer
Surfaces
Connectors used
Azure DevOps (PR target)
GitHub
Bedrock / Claude
Devin (autonomous · opens PR)
azdo-pr-deploy
Artifacts produced
Story spec
AzDO Pull Request
Unit tests
Docs
Memory writes
decision
code-review note
pr-link
→ Feeds Test · the PR opens in AzDO with the agent as author. Pipelines run automatically; human reviewer (Architect / Engineer) gates the merge.
Test
PR review · AzDO Pipelines · eval gates. Nothing merges without sign-off.
Built 10MUST 5Nice 0
Triggers
PR opened on AzDO
Pipelines complete
Pre-publish eval requested
Agents
Humans
QA
Architect
Engineer
Surfaces
Connectors used
Azure DevOps (PR + pipelines)
Eval framework
Datadog
Browser / Computer Use
Bedrock / Claude
Artifacts produced
PR review + approval
Eval report
QA checklist
Epic-IQ score
Memory writes
eval-run
lesson
pr-review-notes
→ Feeds Ship · PR merges (or back to Build for rework). Merge triggers AzDO release pipeline.
Ship
PR merges → AzDO pipeline deploys. Launch readiness in parallel.
Built 11MUST 9Nice 1
Triggers
PR merged on AzDO
Release pipeline succeeds
Launch window opens
Agents
Humans
VP Product
VP Tech
Exec
Sales
Marketing
Surfaces
Connectors used
Azure DevOps (release pipelines)
AWS CloudFront
AWS Lambda
AWS ECS
AWS S3
Slack (announce)
DocuSign
Artifacts produced
Release notes
Launch narrative
Sales battle cards
Live deployment
Memory writes
decision (launch)
status
→ Feeds Operate · running production system that's actually used
Operate
Sense · learn · iterate. The loop closes here.
Built 13MUST 7Nice 0
Triggers
Production incident
Usage drop or anomaly
FinOps cap warning
Customer feedback arrives
Agents
Humans
Memory Curator
VP Tech
CS
LOB lead
Surfaces
Connectors used
Datadog
PagerDuty
Kubernetes
AWS S3 (logs)
FinOps caps
Artifacts produced
Incident report
Lesson entry
Metric digest
Prompt-edit draft
Memory writes
lesson
status
decision
↻ Feeds Discover · production reality is the strongest signal for the next round
The loop closes — every cycle
Discover
→
Plan
→
Build
→
Test
→
Ship
→
Operate
↻
back to Discover
Every phase outputs something a downstream phase consumes — that's the no-bookshelf rule, enforced by the Workflow Output Validator. In most cases the Build phase terminates in an Azure DevOps Pull Request, which is where a human reviewer (Architect, Engineer, or QA) gates the merge. The PR is the explicit handshake between AI agents and the human review process — no agent merges without sign-off. Once merged, AzDO release pipelines take over to actually deploy.
The Operate signals then close the loop: incidents and usage data flow back through the Briefing into the next round of Discover.
Memory accumulates across cycles — decisions, evidence, lessons — so each pass is informed by the last, and the Conductor agent helps anyone navigate where they are in the cycle.