Implementation Approach

Implementation Approach

Strategy Selection

Use this sequence when a design or task needs an implementation approach:

1. Current evidence — inspect the relevant responsibility, data/control path, representative repository pattern, and constraints that can change the choice.
2. Direct MVP — describe the simplest end-to-end change that delivers the confirmed outcome through the existing architecture and dependencies.
3. Failure check — test that Direct MVP against current requirements, verified constraints, observed problems, and evidence-backed material risks within scope.
4. Targeted expansion — add only what resolves a failed item. Compare the smallest sufficient design with and without the addition; technical correctness makes an option admissible but does not make it valuable.
5. Value and subtraction check — retain the addition only when observed or governing evidence shows that its outcome benefit justifies its total UX, runtime, implementation, testing, documentation, and maintenance cost over the smaller design.

Possible future reuse, generic best practice, speculative edge cases, and optional hardening are not failed items. A path or file count is supporting evidence, not a scale or strategy rule.

For implementation agents, keep this analysis in the active execution context. Create a separate artifact only for a named downstream consumer. Design Docs and Work Plans record only adopted decisions that control downstream implementation; unselected candidates remain transient unless an ADR records them as decision history.

Slicing Choice

Choose the smallest slicing structure that preserves dependency order and yields observable progress:

• Vertical — one user- or consumer-visible outcome can be completed across its layers without first creating a shared foundation.
• Foundation-first — multiple required outcomes depend on the same contract or mechanism that must exist before any can work.
• Hybrid — one verified shared dependency comes first, followed by outcome-oriented slices.

Create phases from verified dependency order rather than architecture layers. Keep independently executable work separate when combining it would obscure ownership or verification.

Verification Level

Select the narrowest level that exercises the boundary named by the requirement:

• L1: Local — a unit, pure transformation, local command, build, or artifact check.
• L2: Integration — interaction across components, persistence, processes, or another named integration boundary.
• L3: End-to-end — the complete user, browser, process, or service journey required by the acceptance criterion.

A broader check does not replace a required focused proof, and a focused check does not prove a wider boundary. Prefer evidence in this order when applicable: observable operation, focused test, then build/static evidence.

Completion Check

• The approach delivers the confirmed outcome through existing patterns where sufficient.
• Every added mechanism resolves a current failed item.
• Task order follows verified dependencies rather than hypothetical rollout needs.
• Verification exercises the required observable boundary without adding an unnecessary wider lane.