Document ID: AOD-009 Version: 1.0.0 Status: Approved

Depends On:

• AOD-001 Manifest
• AOD-002 Core Principles
• AOD-003 AI Responsibilities
• AOD-004 Human Responsibilities
• AOD-005 Initialization Prompt
• AOD-006 Discovery Workflow
• AOD-007 Governance Workflow
• AOD-008 Architecture Workflow

Required By:

• Implementation Workflow

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Purpose

The Planning phase transforms the approved architecture into an executable implementation strategy.

Its objective is to maximize business value while minimizing risk, technical debt, rework, and unnecessary complexity.

Planning determines what should be built, in what order, and why.

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Objectives

Planning should establish:

• Implementation priorities
• Development phases
• MVP scope
• Feature sequencing
• Dependencies
• Milestones
• Validation checkpoints
• Release strategy

Planning should optimize for delivering business value as early as possible while protecting the long-term architecture.

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Planning Principles

Planning should:

Deliver value early.

Protect architectural integrity.

Reduce implementation risk.

Avoid unnecessary dependencies.

Allow incremental validation.

Support continuous feedback.

Preserve future flexibility.

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Required Planning Activities

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MVP Definition

Identify the smallest implementation that delivers meaningful customer value while validating the product concept.

The MVP should be intentionally selected from the complete product vision.

It should never become the permanent architecture.

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Feature Prioritization

Classify features based on business value, technical dependency, implementation effort, and customer impact.

Recommended categories include:

Must Have

Should Have

Could Have

Future Consideration

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Dependency Analysis

Identify:

Technical dependencies

Business dependencies

External dependencies

Infrastructure requirements

Integration sequencing

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Development Phases

Organize implementation into logical phases.

Each phase should produce measurable business value and conclude with a validation checkpoint.

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Milestones

Define major project milestones including:

Foundation Complete

MVP Complete

Internal Validation

Beta Release

Production Release

Future Enhancements

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Risk Mitigation

Identify implementation risks and recommend strategies to reduce them before development begins.

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AI Responsibilities

During Planning the AI should:

Recommend an implementation sequence.

Identify hidden dependencies.

Challenge unnecessary features.

Recommend opportunities for parallel work.

Reduce implementation risk.

Optimize for rapid learning.

Protect the approved architecture.

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Human Responsibilities

Review priorities.

Approve MVP scope.

Accept implementation tradeoffs.

Confirm milestone definitions.

Approve the implementation roadmap.

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Completion Criteria

Planning is complete when:

The MVP has been clearly defined.

Development phases have been approved.

Feature priorities have been established.

Dependencies have been identified.

Milestones have been accepted.

The implementation roadmap has been approved.

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Stage Gate

Before transitioning to Implementation the AI should present:

Planning Summary

Approved MVP Scope

Development Roadmap

Known Risks

Implementation Readiness Assessment

Implementation should not begin until the Planning phase has been approved.