Artifact

The AI-augmented Delivery Loop

DIAGRAM · REVISION 1.4 · UPDATED JUL 2026

High-performance delivery, human-in-the-loop control, thoughtfully engineered. A structured, repeatable process that turns business needs into working software — and self-improves on every pass.

Ship · Learn · Repeat
01SPEC
02DESIGN
03ARCHITECT
04PREFLIGHT
05STRUCTURE
06PLAN
07DEVELOP
08INTEGRATE
09DEPLOY
10RELEASE
11CLOSE-OUT
12MEASURE
Human-led Automated — CI/CD Go-live AI-assisted
PIPELINE STAGES
01
SPEC Human AI
Draft a PRD spec that defines the problem, what success looks like, and sets targets.
02
DESIGN Human AI
Decide what the user sees.
03
ARCHITECT Human AI
Decide how it's built underneath.
04
PREFLIGHT Human AI
Resolve open questions; sign off before work starts.
05
STRUCTURE Human AI
Break the work into dev items.
06
PLAN Human AI
Estimate and sequence the dev items.
07
DEVELOP Human AI
Write the code.
08
INTEGRATE Auto · CI AI
Auto-build, test, and merge every change.
09
DEPLOY Auto · CD AI
Push the build to environments.
10
RELEASE Go-live Human AI
Draft the release notes. Switch it on for users.
11
CLOSE-OUT Human AI
Confirm what shipped; archive the project.
12
MEASURE Human AI
Did it move the needle? Monitor the KPIs and the effects on outcomes.
AI is a co-pilot, not a stage. It assists most phases — drafting the spec, generating designs, writing code, summarizing results — while people still decide.