Kelly Handbook: Software Factory Pattern

Summary: Chapter 11 describes the Software Factory — a production-line architecture for building software with minimal human intervention. The factory takes product ideas through a staged pipeline: Intake → Research → Planning → Implementation → Testing → Release. Each stage has defined artifacts, gates, and specialized agents. The Kelly Router coordinates everything.

Key Concepts

**Software Factory:** A structured pipeline that processes ideas into shipped software with minimal human intervention
**Six-Stage Pipeline:** Intake → Research → Planning → Implementation → Testing → Release
**Pipeline Stages:** Defined as Phase → Subphase → Agent, with explicit gates between each
**Quick Path vs Full Pipeline:** Bug fixes skip research; new products go full pipeline
**TEA Audit:** Test, Evaluate, Assess — structured quality gate before release
**Operator Decision:** Human approves SHIP or NO-SHIP at the final gate

Notable Patterns

The Six-Stage Pipeline

Idea → Research → Planning → Implementation → Testing → Release   │       │         │            │           │         │ Intake   CIS      PRD+         Sprint      TEA      Operator          Loop    Arch+        Execution   Audit    Decision                   UX Design

Stage 1: Intake

When a new idea arrives, the router:

Creates a timestamped project directory
Writes `intake.md` with project ID, timestamp, original idea, initial classification, and path recommendation

PROJECT_ID=$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S) mkdir -p /clawd/projects/$PROJECT_ID/{research-artifacts,planning-artifacts,implementation-artifacts,test-artifacts}

Stage 2: Research (CIS Loop)

The research-lead agent runs the Context → Information → Synthesis pipeline:

**Context:** What do we know? What exists?
**Information:** What do we need to know? Find it.
**Synthesis:** What does it all mean?

Output: research-artifacts/research-summary.md with gate: READY or NOT-READY

Stage 3: Planning

The project-lead agent creates:

`product-brief.md` — What are we building and why?
`prd.md` — Full product requirements
`architecture.md` — Technical design
`ux-design.md` — User experience specs
`planning-summary.md` — Gate decision (PASS/FAIL)

Stage 4: Implementation (Sprint Execution)

Break work into user-story sized chunks
Execute each story with validation before marking done
Document deviations from plan
Output: `implementation-summary.md`

Stage 5: Testing (TEA Audit)

**Test:** Implementation against requirements
**Evaluate:** Non-functional requirements (performance, security)
**Assess:** Overall quality

Output: tea-summary.md with gate: PASS, PASS-WITH-FOLLOWUPS, or REMEDIATE

Stage 6: Release

Operator decision: SHIP or NO-SHIP

Quick Path vs Full Pipeline

Task Type	Path
New product	Full pipeline
Feature	Full pipeline
Bug fix	Quick path (skip research)

Case Study: CSV Export Feature

From idea to production-ready in ~75 minutes:

10:15 AM: Operator sends feature request via WhatsApp
10:15–10:21 AM: Intake → Planning (6 minutes)
10:22–11:15 AM: Implementation (53 minutes)
11:30 AM: TEA Audit complete — PASS-WITH-FOLLOWUPS
11:31 AM: Release decision sent to operator

Other Sections in Chapter 11

**11.2:** Research and Competitive Intelligence — CI Collector pattern, weekly cron job
**11.3:** Document Processing Pipeline — contract summarizer, meeting notes, proposal generator
**11.4:** Code Review Automation — pre-review checklist, automated review on git commit
**11.5:** Project Tracking — daily status cron job, status board format
**11.6:** Client Communication — automated status updates, meeting prep generator

[[kelly-handbook-multi-agent]], [[kelly-tweets-factory]], [[kelly-tweets-agents]]