AI-First SDLC
We built the PBCY standard so clients stop paying for rework.
Most software cost overruns trace to one failure: code was written before the problem was fully understood. InWork's AI-First SDLC uses AI to front-load understanding — so we build the right thing the first time.
The problem with traditional SDLC
The most expensive phase comes before the most important conversations.
A developer starts coding at Sprint 1. By Sprint 3, the product manager realizes the scope was misunderstood. By Sprint 6, QA discovers the architecture doesn't support a requirement that was "obviously implied." By Sprint 10, the client is paying to rewrite Sprint 1. This is not a people problem — it is a process problem.
The PBCY standard is InWork's architectural response to that failure pattern. It mandates that before any engineer writes production code, six things must be complete — each AI-assisted — so understanding is front-loaded instead of discovered the expensive way.
The PBCY standard
Plan Before You Code — six stages.
Each stage is AI-assisted and human-reviewed, and nothing downstream starts until the upstream artifact is approved.
Stage 1 — AI-Assisted Requirement Clarification: an AI agent parses the brief, surfaces unstated assumptions, and generates clarifying questions, producing a structured requirements document with explicit acceptance criteria per feature.
Stage 2 — AI-Assisted Architecture Design: AI generates component diagrams, data flow models, and API contracts; senior architects review and approve an architecture decision record (ADR) before build begins.
Stage 3 — AI-Assisted Test Planning: before any code is written, AI generates unit-test specs, integration scenarios, edge-case enumeration, and performance parameters — the specification is the artifact, not the code.
Stage 4 — AI-Accelerated Implementation: engineers build against the approved architecture and test specs using GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and Claude Code for scaffolding, review assistance, and documentation.
Stage 5 — Human QA + Security Review: the QA team runs the pre-written test matrix plus exploratory and regression testing, with an OWASP Top 10 scan, dependency audit, and auth review. Zero critical vulnerabilities to production.
Stage 6 — Production Monitoring + Continuous Improvement: dashboards, error alerting, performance baselines, and AI-assisted log analysis are configured at deployment, not bolted on afterward.
PBCY by the numbers
What changes when you plan first.
Traditional SDLC versus the InWork PBCY standard across the metrics clients feel.
The software factory
A repeatable production system, not a coding shop.
A coding shop takes requirements and writes code. A software factory runs specifications in, working software out — with quality baked into the process.
Specs are the primary artifact
Code implements the spec, the spec drives the tests, the tests validate the code. When requirements change, the spec changes first and everything downstream updates.
AI executes patterns, humans solve novel problems
Boilerplate, scaffolding, docs, and test generation are AI's domain. System design, integration debugging, and security architecture are human domain.
Integration is a first-class deliverable
A maintained catalog of 50+ pre-built connectors means integration is a pull from the catalog, not a custom build from scratch each time.
Quality is a gate, not an afterthought
Software that doesn't pass the pre-written test matrix does not ship. Our QA team has authority to block releases — and exercises it.
<10%
rework rate, target
When requirements are clarified, architecture is defined, and tests are written before code starts, scope surprises drop dramatically — which is why InWork's fixed-price quotes are more accurate and clients stop paying twice for the same work.