The 4-Element Software Development Lifecycle: Ideate, Design, Build, Approve. AI builds ~80% of the code. Humans review, approve, and make strategic decisions.
Every feature flows through four phases with 8 mandatory human gates. No gate can be skipped.
Define requirements, epics, and user stories. AI assists with spec generation from natural language.
Architecture decisions, implementation plans, and buildspecs reviewed and approved by humans.
Claude Code implements features (~80% of code). Humans review security, code quality, and correctness.
Multi-environment testing, stage validation, production gates, and controlled feature flag rollout.
Every feature passes through all 8 gates in order. AI assists at each stage but cannot approve its own output.
Review AI-generated buildspecs for accuracy and completeness
Review implementation plan for technical feasibility
Review code changes for security vulnerabilities
Review PR to main after tests pass in test environment
Approve promotion from stage to prod after full testing
Final approval before production deployment
Update product roadmap after successful deployment
Controlled rollout from flag-gated to fully enabled
Three real projects at different stages of the 4SDL lifecycle, with fabricated demo data.
The 4-Element SDLC platform itself. Admin UI, Customer UI, and Ideation app. Enterprise plan with 9 builder personas.
TTRPG campaign management platform. Character builder, dice engine, game session manager. Team plan with 3 game system SME personas.
Bird watching app: log sightings, identify species, track life lists, share with community. Just starting — PRD ready for first review.
This POC minisite demonstrates the 4SDL workflow with realistic fabricated data across three real projects at different lifecycle stages: