SDLC Practices¶

Overview¶

The SDLC Practices represent six cross-cutting disciplines that sustain quality, predictability, and learning throughout all stages of delivery.
Each practice complements the others — forming the behavioral and technical foundation of a reliable delivery system.

These practices act as the horizontal layer of the 3SF — spanning all SDLC Stages (Discover → Evolve) to ensure alignment, quality, and continuous improvement.

The Six SDLC Practices¶

Practice	Definition	Core Focus
Product Thinking	We co-create clarity and direction with clients by defining goals, value, and outcomes before committing to delivery.	Shared understanding of why we build.
Architecture & Design	We shape scalable, secure, and adaptable solutions by aligning technical design with product intent and constraints.	Fit-for-purpose design and feasibility.
Engineering & Quality	We build maintainable, high-quality software through craftsmanship, automation, and shared responsibility.	Consistency, reliability, and craftsmanship.
DevOps & Delivery	We enable fast, safe, and repeatable delivery by integrating automation, environments, and monitoring from day one.	Speed and stability through automation and visibility.
Governance & Risk	We manage complexity and protect value by embedding compliance, security, and accountability into every step.	Transparency, predictability, and responsibility.
Feedback & Learning	We continuously improve by listening to signals from users, systems, and teams — turning insight into better outcomes.	Growth, reflection, and adaptability.

Practices as the Delivery Backbone¶

These practices work across all SDLC Stages — ensuring continuity from discovery to sustainment.
They stabilize delivery flow by balancing speed, quality, and adaptability.

Product Thinking brings clarity of purpose.
Architecture & Design ensures technical feasibility.
Engineering & Quality secures craftsmanship and maintainability.
DevOps & Delivery provides automation and reliability.
Governance & Risk maintains control without bureaucracy.
Feedback & Learning closes loops between product, people, and outcomes.

Together, they form the delivery backbone of 3SF — connecting intent (why), structure (how), and learning (what next).

Practices Across SDLC Stages¶

Each SDLC Practice manifests differently depending on the stage of delivery.
The table below shows how every practice supports the system throughout its flow.

Stage →	Discover	Shape	Build	Validate	Release	Run	Evolve
Product Thinking	Define goals, outcomes, and user needs.	Align scope and priorities with value.	Keep user outcomes visible during development.	Validate value and user satisfaction.	Communicate impact to stakeholders.	Monitor usage and adoption.	Reframe opportunities from insights.
Architecture & Design	Explore high-level approaches and constraints.	Define architecture vision and feasibility.	Implement patterns and integrations.	Validate non-functional requirements.	Harden deployment architecture.	Ensure scalability and reliability.	Modernize design and stack.
Engineering & Quality	Evaluate feasibility and risks.	Prepare automation and QA strategy.	Build with test coverage and code quality.	Run functional and security tests.	Stabilize and fix regressions.	Handle incidents and performance.	Improve maintainability and refactor.
DevOps & Delivery	Define automation vision and environments.	Configure pipelines and CI/CD baselines.	Automate builds and integration.	Integrate testing and staging.	Execute deployments and rollback.	Monitor infrastructure and uptime.	Evolve pipelines and observability.
Governance & Risk	Define governance and decision cadence.	Validate feasibility vs. budget and compliance.	Track progress and scope change.	Ensure acceptance and compliance sign-offs.	Control approvals and audits.	Manage SLA and operational risks.	Integrate governance learnings.
Feedback & Learning	Capture assumptions and unknowns.	Validate feasibility and stakeholder feedback.	Collect delivery metrics for improvement.	Measure outcomes and quality.	Gather user feedback post-release.	Analyze incidents and usage data.	Feed learning into discovery and training.

This table visualizes how practices connect horizontally across the lifecycle, while SDLC Stages define the vertical flow of value.
Mature systems maintain consistency of these practices even when the project emphasis shifts between stages.

Practice Interdependence¶

No single practice guarantees success; the system works when all are balanced:

When practice X is weak...	Resulting system effect
Product Thinking	Misaligned priorities, wasted effort.
Architecture & Design	Fragile or over-engineered solutions.
Engineering & Quality	Unpredictable releases, rework cycles.
DevOps & Delivery	Manual bottlenecks, low feedback speed.
Governance & Risk	Unclear accountability, unmanaged debt.
Feedback & Learning	Stagnation and repeated mistakes.

A mature team develops healthy tension among practices — trading off intentionally instead of neglecting one dimension.

When Practices Compete¶

In practice, organizations often over-optimize a single discipline — seeking efficiency, control, or speed at the expense of balance.
Common patterns include:

DevOps & Delivery dominating Engineering & Quality, resulting in automated deployment of unstable code.
Governance & Risk overshadowing Product Thinking, leading to compliance without innovation.
Architecture & Design overemphasized early, creating rigidity that slows later adaptation.

Such competition signals systemic imbalance, not bad intent.
The corrective action is to revisit the shared outcomes and ensure every practice still serves the product’s purpose, not its own metrics.

Practices as a Foundation for Maturity¶

As projects evolve, each practice demonstrates maturity through visible behaviors:

Practice	Early Maturity Behavior	Advanced Maturity Behavior
Product Thinking	Feature focus, limited validation.	Outcome focus, evidence-based decisions.
Architecture & Design	Ad-hoc patterns, reactive fixes.	Intentional evolution, transparent trade-offs.
Engineering & Quality	Manual testing, quality owned by QA.	Shared quality ownership, automation first.
DevOps & Delivery	Manual deployments, unstable environments.	Full CI/CD automation, continuous observability.
Governance & Risk	Escalation-based control, unclear roles.	Embedded governance, proactive risk sharing.
Feedback & Learning	Occasional retrospectives.	Continuous data-driven learning loops.

These behaviors become inputs to the RAC and CRC, ensuring maturity assessments reflect system reality — not just process compliance.

Summary¶

SDLC Practices are the operating disciplines that make each stage reliable and adaptive.
The Stages–Practices Matrix shows how these disciplines interact through the lifecycle, ensuring flow and stability.
Balanced practices ensure that progress is fast, visible, and sustainable.
Together, they form the continuous backbone of the 3SF delivery system, enabling predictable execution and continuous learning.