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Agentic PDLC Tutorial: Run AI Agent Projects, Step by Step

Short lessons on running software projects where an AI model does part of the work: what to decide, in what order, and how to know you got it right.

Free · 55 lessons · by Akash Das · Read it on the site, with live diagrams ↗

Tip

This free tutorial teaches the agentic PDLC, a four-phase lifecycle (P0 Frame, P1 Design & Spec, P2 Build & Prove, P3 Run & Learn) for products in which a model drafts, decides or acts, in five-to-ten-minute lessons. It works with whatever method you already use, including AWS AI-DLC, the BMAD Method, spec-driven development and Scrum. The home page and the method page call it the SkyWays PDLC; the two names mean the same lifecycle.

Each role's part in the four phases is drawn on the method page.

Start where you are

If you are…	Start with	Because
New to agentic delivery	What is the agentic PDLC?	Everything else assumes the four phases
A product manager	For product managers	The pain, the autonomy and the bar are yours
A programme or delivery manager	For programme managers	The board, the cadence and the review queue
A solution architect	For solution architects	Which steps may guess, and where the caps live
An engineer or engineering lead	For software engineers	Bolts, the harness and the merge gate
A forward-deployed engineer	The forward-deployed engineer guide	Frame, Deliver, Evolve: twelve steps, each with its template
In QA	For QA	"It works" becomes proof that it works
In DevOps or platform	For DevOps and platform	The gateway, the flags and the rollback
A sponsor	For business sponsors	Two numbers, on one line, every cycle
An executive	For executives	Four decisions nobody else can make
Leading the change	Rolling it out in 90 days	One feature, five phases, one trap each
Wanting practice	The SkyWays case study	Ninety days, thirteen episodes, failures left in
Preparing for an interview	Six answer frameworks	Then the bank for your role, with strong answers
Curious about forward-deployed work	What is an FDE?	The role, its three stages, and who works beside it
Wondering why these projects go wrong	Why agentic AI projects fail	The failure modes are new, and quiet
About to write a spec	The eight-field spec	The step comes with its template
About to launch	Shadow, then five percent	The order a cut-over goes in
Asked for a business case	The value line	The arithmetic is worked
Running a workshop	37 scenarios	Twenty sectors to choose from

What you will be able to do

By the end of the fundamentals you will be able to:

1. Frame an AI feature as a measured pain, decide whether it needs a model at all, and set how much the machine may do on its own.
2. Specify it so a coding agent, or an engineer who was not in the room, can build it without asking, with an acceptance bar per slice.
3. Build and prove it in bolts, against a bar, with evidence a sceptic accepts.
4. Run it: cut over safely, catch drift, and report what it saved beside what it cost.

The role, organisation and practice tracks then apply the same four phases to your job, to how a whole organisation adopts them, and to a full ninety-day case with twelve exercises; the interview track turns all of it into answers for AI product, FDE, GenAI, agentic and AWS roles.

How the lessons work

Every lesson has the same slots in the same order: the answer first, a picture, the problem stated plainly, the idea step by step, a problem to try, three takeaways, and its sources, each marked Borrowed, Adapted or Original to this manual. Why it is built that way.

The lessons are written once and published twice: here, with the live diagrams, and on the GitHub wiki, where they sit beside the manual's full reference pages.

Every lesson, in order

1 · Getting started

What the agentic PDLC is, in one sitting, and how to get the most out of the lessons that follow., 2 lessons, about 17 minutes.

1. What Is the Agentic PDLC? The P0 to P3 Framework Explained, 10 min
2. How This Tutorial Works, and Why Every Lesson Looks the Same, 7 min

2 · Agentic PDLC fundamentals

The four phases, the one hard gate, the eight loops and the evidence that crosses each hand-off: the model every other track builds on., 9 lessons, about 67 minutes.

1. Evolution of the PDLC: From Waterfall to Agentic Delivery, 8 min
2. Why Agentic AI Projects Fail: 7 Failure Modes and Fixes, 7 min
3. P0 Frame: How to Decide If an AI Agent Is Worth Building, 8 min
4. P1 Design & Spec: Write a Spec an AI Agent Can Build From, 8 min
5. The Hard Gate: The Hand-off You Can't Skip in AI Delivery, 7 min
6. P2 Build & Prove: How to Build an AI Agent in Proven Slices, 8 min
7. P3 Run & Learn: How to Run an AI Agent in Production Safely, 7 min
8. The 8 Feedback Loops of AI Delivery and the 3 Teams Forget, 7 min
9. The Evidence Pack: What Must Exist Before Each AI Hand-off, 7 min

3 · Methods decoded

AWS AI-DLC, AIDD, the BMAD Method and spec-driven development: what each one is, who coined it, where it sits on the four phases, and what it leaves for you to decide., 7 lessons, about 49 minutes.

1. AI-DLC vs AIDD vs Agentic SDLC vs PDLC: What Each Term Means, 8 min
2. What Is AI-DLC? AWS's AI-Driven Development Lifecycle, 7 min
3. What Is AI-Driven Development (AIDD)? The Daily Craft, 7 min
4. What Is the BMAD Method? Five Agents, One Build Loop, 7 min
5. What Is Spec-Driven Development? Kiro and Spec Kit Explained, 7 min
6. How AI-DLC, BMAD, Spec Kit and Scrum Fit One Lifecycle, 7 min
7. How Much Process Does a Change Need? Sizing Agentic Work, 6 min

4 · Running delivery

The practical core: the twelve steps, bolts and boards, cutting delivery time, reviewing AI-written code, setting and proving the bar, launching safely, cost, guardrails, governance, drift and postmortems., 13 lessons, about 85 minutes.

1. How to Run an Agentic AI Project: A Step-by-Step Playbook, 7 min
2. Bolts vs Sprints: Planning Work When AI Writes the Code, 6 min
3. How to Set Up a Kanban Board for an Agentic AI Project, 7 min
4. Cut Delivery from Months to Weeks: What Shrinks, What Won't, 7 min
5. How to Review AI-Generated Code: By Risk, Not by Diff Size, 6 min
6. How Accurate Does an AI Agent Need to Be? The 3-Step Answer, 7 min
7. Is 82% Good Enough? How to Prove an AI Agent Meets Its Bar, 6 min
8. Shadow Mode and Canary Releases for AI Agents, Step by Step, 7 min
9. Why Your AI Agent Costs 4× the Estimate, and How to Fix It, 7 min
10. AI Agent Guardrails That Hold: Why a Prompt Is Not a Control, 7 min
11. AI Governance Gates That Don't Slow Delivery: The Five Gates, 6 min
12. AI Drift: How to Catch the Defect With No Error Message, 6 min
13. Postmortems for AI Incidents: Find the Missing Control, 6 min

5 · By role

How each discipline works in the agentic PDLC (product, programme, architecture, engineering, forward-deployed, QA, DevOps, the sponsor and the executive): what changes, what is theirs, and what is not., 9 lessons, about 58 minutes.

1. The Agentic PDLC for Product Managers: What Changes Monday, 6 min
2. Agentic PDLC for Program Managers: Boards, Bolts, Reporting, 7 min
3. Agentic PDLC for Solution Architects: Authority and Topology, 7 min
4. The Agentic PDLC for Software Engineers: Build With Agents, 6 min
5. AI-DLC and AIDD for Forward-Deployed Engineers: Field Guide, 7 min
6. The Agentic PDLC for QA: How to Test Probabilistic Software, 6 min
7. The Agentic PDLC for DevOps and Platform Teams, 6 min
8. The Agentic PDLC for Business Sponsors: Ask for Two Numbers, 6 min
9. Agentic AI for Executives: Four Decisions Only You Can Make, 7 min

6 · Teams and organisation

How to structure teams, measure productivity without fooling yourself, assess maturity by controls rather than tools, and roll the method out in ninety days., 4 lessons, about 28 minutes.

1. How to Structure Teams for Agentic AI: Roles, Pods and Seams, 6 min
2. How to Measure AI Productivity Without Fooling Yourself, 7 min
3. AI Maturity Model: Six Controls You Can Test in Ten Minutes, 7 min
4. How to Roll Out Agentic AI Delivery: A 90-Day Plan, 8 min

7 · Practice

The SkyWays case study in thirteen episodes, the operating rhythm from daily to quarterly, the workbench, and twelve exercises with worked answers., 4 lessons, about 30 minutes.

1. Agentic AI Case Study: SkyWays, 90 Days from Pain to Proof, 7 min
2. Agentic Delivery Cadence: What Runs Daily, Weekly, Quarterly, 7 min
3. Agentic AI Workbench: Practise 90 Days of Delivery Decisions, 7 min
4. Agentic PDLC Exercises: 12 Problems with Worked Answers, 9 min

8 · Interviews and careers

What a forward deployed engineer does, six frameworks for answering AI interview questions, and deep question banks with strong answers for AI product managers, forward deployed engineers, GenAI engineers, agentic AI engineers and AWS roles., 7 lessons, about 73 minutes.

1. What Is a Forward Deployed Engineer? The FDE Role, Explained, 9 min
2. How to Answer AI Interview Questions: Six Frameworks, 8 min
3. AI Product Manager Interview Questions, with Frameworks, 11 min
4. Forward Deployed Engineer Interview Questions and Answers, 11 min
5. GenAI Engineer Interview Questions: RAG, Evals and Cost, 11 min
6. Agentic AI Engineer Interview Questions and Answers, 11 min
7. AWS Generative AI Interview Questions: Bedrock, AgentCore, 12 min

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Also here: the playbook's full reference, The Agentic PDLC, the role pages, the journeys, the how-tos, Formulas and the Glossary. Every lesson links into them where you need the depth.

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