A1.04 · Why an Agile Agent Workflow
Two layers
The framework has two planning layers, and keeping them apart is the whole discipline. A roadmap plans how we deliver; a spec defines what we build and how we know it is right. The roadmap plans the spec; the spec builds the system.
The roadmap layer is coarse and re-plannable — an ordered sequence of rungs that points at specs and never defines behaviour. The spec layer is fine and authoritative — the single source of truth, edited only by feedback, that every other artifact derives from. Three dives: the roadmap, the spec, and the one rule that keeps the two apart.
Two layers over a core
The framework stacks two layers over the system it builds. On top, the roadmap answers how we deliver: the milestones, the iterations, the order of rungs. It points at the specs below it and never defines behaviour, so it stays coarse and re-plannable. In the middle, the spec answers what we build and how we know it is right: for each rung, a precise definition and its acceptance. It is the single source of truth, edited only by feedback.
The relationship runs straight down: the roadmap plans the spec; the spec builds the domain core that actually ships. Two questions, two layers, two cadences — and the discipline is keeping them apart, so delivery can be re-planned without disturbing what a rung means, and a rung's meaning can be sharpened without re-planning delivery.
The stack · roadmap over spec over core
Separate the plan of delivery from the definition of correctness: a coarse, re-plannable roadmap over a fine, authoritative spec that is the single source of truth.
A roadmap of rungs — one id, then one stored event, then a read model — over a spec per rung (the id contract). The order re-plans freely; the spec changes only on feedback.
Two layers, two questions, two cadences: the roadmap plans how we deliver, the spec defines what we build and prove — and keeping them apart is the discipline.
The three dives
Each dive takes one part of the model, in the arc deliver → define → keep apart: the roadmap that plans delivery, the spec that defines correctness, and the one rule that holds the two layers stable. Read them in order — A1.04.1 starts.
The roadmap layer
How we deliver: the coarse, re-orderable plan of rungs that points at specs and never defines behaviour. A plan you can change because it holds order, not behaviour.
The spec layer
What we build and prove: the single source of truth, the hub every artifact — user stories, agent brief, code, tests — derives from.
The single source of truth
The rule that keeps the layers stable: only feedback edits the spec. The two cadences, and what conflating the layers costs.
After A1.04, the next module — A1.05 · Correct by definition — fixes what “done” means: a closure over traced, executed checks, and the gates that hold it. Return to the A1 module navigation to continue.
References
The planning tradition this two-layer split draws on, and where it is sketched in the course.
Sources
- Cohn, M. — Agile Estimating and Planning — release planning over an ordered backlog.
- Schwaber & Sutherland — The Scrum Guide — the ordered product backlog, distinct from the increment it produces.
- Hunt & Thomas — The Pragmatic Programmer — the single source of truth.
Related in this course
- A1.04.1 · The roadmap layer
- A1.04.2 · The spec layer
- A1.04.3 · The single source of truth
- A0.2.1 · The two-layer model — the sketch this module expands.
- A1 · Why an agile agent workflow