Build around the workflow. Prepare for operation.

Understand

Observe the workflow, users, constraints, available data and the real cost of the current problem.

We begin with people, handoffs, exceptions and constraints. The model is one component of that environment, not the starting point for defining it.

Build

Implement the smallest complete solution that can perform useful work in the intended environment.

The implementation keeps accountability explicit: what the system may do, what a person must decide, and how an uncertain result should be handled.

Deploy

Connect the system to the required applications, data, identity and operating controls.

Deployment includes the connections, permissions, documentation and operating controls needed outside a demonstration environment.

Improve

Measure performance, manage changes and address issues that emerge through use.

Performance and failure patterns are reviewed over time so changes can be made deliberately rather than reactively.