# Building

Source: https://segern.com/practice/build-with-intention

Keep the standard inside the work.

Before building starts, the people involved should understand the primary outcome, their responsibilities, and what done means. The quality checks belong alongside the plan, not in a final inspection that discovers the foundation was wrong.

We define the evidence required for the deliverable and its consequences. A product change may need tests for ordinary use, failure, recovery, and accessibility. A strategic recommendation may need traceable sources, viable alternatives, explicit assumptions, and a clear account of the tradeoff. An agent needs bounded permissions as well as a task.

We review the work in a form that can expose what matters. Screens alone cannot establish that an interaction feels right. A persuasive document cannot establish that its claims are true. Where the medium affects the judgment, we work in that medium early enough to learn from it.

The definition of done records the steward, acceptance conditions, necessary artifacts, relevant edge cases, verification, and the decisions that need to remain understandable later. Open questions stay visible. A finished draft, a verified implementation, and an authorized release are different states of the work.