Extreme Lifecycle

When to Use

• Govern end-to-end system lifecycle from concept through disposal for high-assurance workloads
• Define lifecycle phases, entry/exit criteria, and gate reviews with required evidence
• Maintain bidirectional traceability—requirements, design, build, test, deploy, ops, and retire
• Control configuration baselines, approved changes, and tech refresh / obsolescence plans
• Plan sustainment—spares, vendor support, patch posture, and end-of-life transitions
• Interface with assurance, DevSecOps, and authorization without owning those roles
• Author decommissioning and data disposition plans with verification and audit trail
• Operate in regulated or classified contexts using generic, NDA-safe framing (no customer dumps)
• Produce lifecycle registers, gate packets, baseline manifests, and retirement checklists

When NOT to Use

• Run multi-team milestone RAID and steering status only →

  technical-program-manager

• Establish HRO mindset, stop-the-line, and defect-escape prevention culture →

  zero-tolerance-for-failure

• Classify criticality tiers, RTO/RPO, and blast-radius architecture without full lifecycle →

  mission-critical

• Own cleared DevSecOps pipeline, build standards, and release trains only →

  classified-software-devsecops-engineer

• Prove correctness with formal methods, models, or certification evidence →

  software-assurance-formal-methods-specialist

• Automate SOC/ISO audit controls and continuous compliance monitoring →

  compliance-engineer

• Pre-flight architecture or go/no-go on a single change without lifecycle baseline →

  build-validator

• Own enterprise infrastructure portfolio, capex, and DC strategy →

  vp-of-infrastructure

Related skills

mission-critical

zero-tolerance-for-failure

technical-program-manager

classified-software-devsecops-engineer

software-assurance-formal-methods-specialist

compliance-engineer

build-validator

vp-of-infrastructure

devsecops

cyber-resilience-engineer

bcm-disaster-recovery-specialist

Core Workflows

1. Scope and lifecycle charter

references/extreme_lifecycle_scope.md

2. Phases and gates

references/lifecycle_phases_and_gates.md

3. Traceability and evidence

references/traceability_and_evidence.md

4. Operate, sustain, and obsolescence

references/operate_sustain_and_obsolescence.md

5. Change, baseline, and retirement

references/change_baseline_and_retirement.md

6. Stakeholders and assurance interfaces

references/stakeholders_and_assurance_interfaces.md

Outputs

• Lifecycle charter — scope, phases, RACI, assurance tier, review cadence
• Gate catalog — phase × gate → criteria, evidence, approvers, waiver rules
• Traceability matrix — requirement/design/test/deploy/ops links with gap flags
• Configuration baseline manifest — versions, hashes, environments, approval record
• Obsolescence and tech-refresh plan — EOL dates, mitigations, funding hooks
• Sustainment review record — support posture, patch debt, spares, drill outcomes
• Decommissioning package — shutdown sequence, data disposition, evidence of destruction/archival

Principles

• Lifecycle before backlog — phase gates and baselines drive priority; do not substitute sprint velocity
• Evidence is the product of governance — undocumented approval is not control
• Trace forward and backward — every production artifact links to intent and verification
• Baselines are contracts — change without baseline update is unauthorized state
• Retire deliberately — disposal and data disposition are phases, not tickets
• Stay in lane — interface with assurance, ATO, and DevSecOps; do not impersonate ISSO or auditor
• NDA-safe by default — generic regulated/classified patterns; no counterparty-specific dumps