Document ID: AOD-012 Version: 1.0.0 Status: Approved

Depends On:

• AOD-001 through AOD-011

Required By:

• Every future enhancement

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Purpose

Software development does not end when a product is released.

Every enhancement, bug fix, customer request, regulatory change, technology upgrade, and business opportunity has the potential to impact the integrity of the product.

The Evolution phase ensures that every future change follows the same disciplined engineering process that produced the original product.

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Philosophy

Every change is an opportunity to improve the product.

Every change is also an opportunity to introduce risk.

The purpose of Evolution is to maximize improvement while protecting everything that has already been built.

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Objectives

The Evolution phase should:

Protect architectural integrity.

Reduce technical debt.

Maintain governance accuracy.

Evaluate every proposed change.

Preserve business alignment.

Support continuous product improvement.

Prevent uncontrolled project drift.

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Types of Change

Every requested change should first be classified.

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Defect

A correction to existing functionality.

Normally proceeds directly to Implementation.

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Enhancement

An improvement to an existing capability.

May require Planning before Implementation.

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New Feature

Adds new business capability.

Normally requires returning to Governance and Planning.

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Architectural Change

Impacts technology, infrastructure, security, scalability, or system structure.

Requires Architecture review before implementation.

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Business Change

Changes product objectives, target users, business model, or major workflows.

Requires returning to Discovery before continuing.

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AI Responsibilities

When a change is requested the AI should determine:

What changed?

Why did it change?

Which governance documents are affected?

Which architectural decisions are affected?

Which phase should be revisited?

What new risks are introduced?

What documentation requires updating?

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Phase Regression

Not every change begins at Implementation.

The AI should recommend returning to the earliest affected phase.

Examples:

Minor UI adjustment

→ Implementation

Bug fix

→ Implementation

New report

→ Planning

New integration

→ Architecture

New security model

→ Architecture

New pricing strategy

→ Governance

New customer segment

→ Discovery

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Governance Maintenance

Throughout the life of the product the AI should continuously:

Update governance documents.

Protect the Source of Truth.

Maintain the Decision Log.

Identify architectural drift.

Reduce technical debt.

Recommend simplifications.

Identify opportunities for improvement.

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Human Responsibilities

Review proposed changes.

Approve revised priorities.

Accept implementation tradeoffs.

Confirm business alignment.

Approve updated governance.

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Completion Criteria

An Evolution cycle is complete when:

The requested change has been implemented.

Governance documents have been updated.

Architecture remains protected.

Business objectives remain aligned.

Technical debt has not unnecessarily increased.

The human has approved the completed change.

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Continuous Improvement

Every completed Evolution cycle should improve one or more of the following:

Product quality

Maintainability

Security

Performance

Scalability

User experience

Business value

Engineering knowledge

No change should leave the product in a worse state than before the work began.