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Framework ART

Focus: Core src/fcc/ framework, R.I.S.C.E.A.R. specification, workflow engine, plugin system, compliance pipeline, CLEAR+ evaluation. PI cadence: 10-week Program Increment with five 2-week iterations inside; last iteration absorbs PI close, system demo, and Inspect & Adapt. Value streams served: Framework (primary), Delegation (plugin contracts).

Team topology (Skelton & Pais)

The Framework ART is a team-of-teams pattern even though it runs inside a single repository. Using the Skelton & Pais (2019) topology vocabulary:

  • Core framework team — Stream-aligned team owned by Research Crafter (RC) and Blueprint Crafter (BC). Owns src/fcc/personas/, src/fcc/workflow/, src/fcc/scenarios/, src/fcc/simulation/, the cross-reference matrix, and the action engine. This team's stream is the canonical R.I.S.C.E.A.R. + FCC workflow cycle.
  • Governance team — Complicated-Subsystem team owned by Governance Compliance Auditor (GCA) and Forensic Auditor (FA). Owns src/fcc/governance/, src/fcc/compliance/, the PHOENIX 58-gate registry, constitution tiers, EU AI Act + NIST AI RMF mappings, and the evidence-graph exporters. Treated as a complicated subsystem because the 256+ EU AI Act requirements + 29 NIST AI RMF subcategories demand deep specialist knowledge that would dilute the stream-aligned team.
  • Evaluation team — Platform team owned by Research Crafter (RC). Owns src/fcc/evaluation/, the CLEAR+ metric system, the benchmark runner, model cards, and the data-sheet generator. Provides CLEAR+ as a platform that all other teams consume to measure their deliverables.
  • Plugin contract team — Platform team owned by Plugin Ecosystem (PE). Owns the 11 plugin ABCs under src/fcc/plugins/, the plugin registry, the cross-plugin orchestration patterns, and the preview plugins under src/fcc/plugins/v1_5_preview/. Provides the plugin contract as a platform for internal + external consumers (Delegation value-stream primary surface).
  • Docs enabling team (shared) — Enabling team served by Documentation Evangelist (DE), who attends system demo ceremonies to keep docs ahead of code. DE is formally a Docs ART member but enables Framework ART velocity by removing docs-debt friction.

Ownership is strict: every file under src/fcc/ has a designated owner team. Cross-team PRs trigger a designated-reviewer CODEOWNERS entry. Team topologies are stable across PIs; role reshuffling happens only at PI boundaries.

PO / PM / RTE mapping

SAFe prescribes three coordination roles. FCC maps them onto canonical personas:

  • Product Owner (PO) — Blueprint Crafter (BC). Owns the iteration backlog, prioritizes Stories, accepts completed work. One PO per iteration.
  • Product Manager (PM) — Research Crafter (RC). Owns the PI backlog, authors PI objectives, aligns Framework ART with portfolio epics. One PM per ART.
  • Release Train Engineer (RTE) — Plugin Ecosystem (PE). Facilitates PI planning, iteration reviews, system demos, and Inspect & Adapt. One RTE per ART.

This mapping is intentional: BC's Blueprint role is closest to "what gets built next"; RC's Research role is closest to "what should we build"; PE's cross-plugin orchestration role is closest to "how do the trains stay on time."

Cadence

  • Daily: async-first via GitHub issue comments + PR reviews. No forced standup.
  • Iteration (2 weeks): PR merges and branch cuts. Iteration review consolidates what shipped; iteration retrospective surfaces friction as SMC flow-metric inputs.
  • Backlog refinement: mid-iteration, asynchronous. BC drafts story-size estimates; RC confirms priority; PE resolves dependencies. Roughly 2 hours of PO + PM time per iteration.
  • PI boundary (10 weeks): system demo of every major framework deliverable, followed by PI planning for the next 10 weeks. SMC publishes the PI scorecard.
  • PI cadence aligns with RC's quarterly rhythm — see ../pi-calendar.md.
  • Innovation & Planning (IP) iteration: the final iteration of each PI is treated as an IP iteration — reduced feature work, higher enabler-story density, PI-close ceremonies.

Backlog (PI-2026-Q3)

Populated at PI planning on 2026-06-30. Initial candidates:

  • Absorb ice_ext classification patterns into src/fcc/classification/ and register POLARIS/LYRA preview plugins.
  • Land the SAFe bootstrap scaffold (this docs/safe/ tree + make safe-report + 5 new personas) and complete it in v1.4.4 (current work).
  • Prepare for PE-001 (GraphRAG) by documenting current RAG retrieval strategy + seams for graph-walk extension.
  • Harden vocabulary-parity CI (.github/workflows/vocabulary-drift.yml) against the 13+ provider ecosystem.
  • Advance compliance pipeline automation: close gaps surfaced by PHOENIX Tier-1 audit findings.
  • Grow CLEAR+ baseline corpus so the v1.5 performance epic (PE-006) has a real baseline to compare against.

Metrics signals

SAFe Metrics Crafter (SMC) aggregates these signals into the Framework ART PI scorecard:

  • Test coverage (target ≥99%, held via coverage ratchet policy).
  • CLEAR+ score (7-dimension aggregate with trend direction).
  • PR throughput, PR lead time, and PR WIP per iteration.
  • Plugin-contract stability (plugin ABC breakage surface).
  • Compliance pipeline pass rate (EU AI Act + NIST AI RMF).
  • Flow Efficiency = active time / (active + wait time) per story.

Collaboration with sibling ARTs

  • Ecosystem ART consumes Framework ART outputs as pinned dependencies (fcc-agent-team-ext==<version>). Framework ART must honor semver and publish release notes before Ecosystem ART kicks off integration tests.
  • Docs ART consumes Framework ART changes for Guidebook updates, model-card regeneration, and API doc regen. Framework ART tags every PR with docs impact flags so DE can batch doc updates.
  • Three-Layer Doc Reconciler (TLDR) audits Framework ART's ROADMAP.md, STRATEGIC_ARCHITECTURE_REVIEW.md, and AGENTS.md for layer consistency.
  • Pattern Harvester (PHV) surfaces upstream-worthy patterns from Framework ART PRs for sibling-repo absorption.

Quality gates

The Framework ART honors the PHOENIX 58-gate registry. Particularly load-bearing for this ART:

  • QG-FW-001 through QG-FW-020 — framework-API contract stability gates.
  • QG-DGS-001 — Data Governance Integration exemplar gate.
  • QG-CLEAR-001 — CLEAR+ regression gate.
  • QG-PLUGIN-001 — plugin-contract compatibility.

PI objective template

Each PI, the Framework ART commits to 3-5 objectives scoped to 10 weeks. Objectives follow the SAFe template (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Reasonable, Timed). Commit level is classified: committed, uncommitted (stretch), or emergent. Predictability = committed objectives hit / committed objectives planned. Targeted predictability band is 80-100% (SAFe 6.0 guidance); below 60% triggers an Inspect & Adapt root-cause review.