Kelly Handbook Ch11 — Software Factory Pattern

Date Compiled: 2026-04-27
Summary: Chapter 11 documents the Kelly Router's "software factory" — a pipeline that takes product ideas through six stages (Intake → Research → Planning → Implementation → Testing → Release) with structured gates between each phase. The chapter includes a detailed case study showing a complete feature (CSV export) going from idea to production-ready in 75 minutes. The factory operates with two speed paths: a full pipeline for new products and a quick path for features and bug fixes.

Key Concepts

  • Software factory pipeline: Idea → Research → Planning → Implementation → Testing → Release
  • Stage 1 — Intake: Project directory creation, intake.md with classification (new product vs. feature vs. bug fix)
  • Stage 2 — Research (CIS loop): Context → Information → Synthesis → READY/NOT-READY gate
  • Stage 3 — Planning: product-brief.md, prd.md, architecture.md, ux-design.md, planning-summary.md (gate: PASS/FAIL)
  • Stage 4 — Implementation: Stories (user-story sized), sprint execution, validate each story, implementation-summary.md
  • Stage 5 — Testing (TEA audit): Test against requirements, evaluate non-functional requirements, assess quality → PASS / PASS-WITH-FOLLOWUPS / REMEDIATE
  • Stage 6 — Release: Operator decision: SHIP or NO-SHIP
  • Quick path vs full pipeline: Quick path skips research; used for features and bug fixes
  • Full artifact structure: research-artifacts/, planning-artifacts/, implementation-artifacts/, test-artifacts/ per project
  • Daily CI update cron: Automated competitive intelligence collector, weekly CI update
  • Document processing pipeline: Contract summarizer (PDF), meeting notes processor, proposal generator
  • Code review automation: Pre-review checklist (security, quality, docs, testing), automated on git commit
  • Client communication: Automated status updates (drafts only), meeting prep generator

Notable Patterns

The 75-minute case study is the chapter's centerpiece. At 10:15 AM, an operator requests CSV export via WhatsApp. Kelly Router creates the project record in 5 seconds, routes to project-lead with quick-path flag, and confirms receipt. Planning completes at 10:21, implementation at 11:15, TEA audit at 11:30 with PASS-WITH-FOLLOWUPS (edge case noted), and a release decision is sent at 11:31. The entire loop, including operator communication, takes 76 minutes.

TEA (Test, Evaluate, Assess) audit is the testing gate. Unlike simple pass/fail, TEA produces three outcomes: PASS (ship it), PASS-WITH-FOLLOWUPS (ship but track issues), REMEDIATE (fix first). This nuance matters — not everything is binary, and deferring minor issues with visibility is often better than blocking release.

The pipeline script pattern — each stage has an entry script that creates directories, writes intake metadata, and sets the initial gate state. Scripts live in /clawd/scripts/ and are called by the router at each phase transition.

software-factory, cis-pipeline, tea-audit, kelly-router, pipeline-stages, quick-path, full-pipeline, ralph-protocol, artifact-pattern, ship-or-no-ship