TFD-0012: R&D Pipeline Redesign — 6-Stage Gated Pipeline

Status: Accepted Date: 2026-03-24 Decision makers: CEO (Oscar), Philippe (Process Consultant), Riley (R&D Analyst), Francois (Framework Specialist)

Context

The R&D lifecycle had 4 informal sub-processes with 13 identified gaps. All 10 evaluations were CEO-triggered (zero proactive scans saved). No traceability from evaluation to implementation. No decision records. No outcome tracking.

Decision

Expand to a 6-stage gated pipeline:

1. INTAKE (Stage 0, enhanced) — Capture sources, auto-classify, deduplicate
2. EVALUATE (Stage 1, unchanged) — Score, compare, summarize
3. DECIDE (Stage 2, new) — CTO Clara records Go/Hold/Kill decision
4. PROTOTYPE (Stage 3, new) — Skippable for simple items; build proof-of-concept
5. PROPOSE (Stage 4, enhanced) — Impact assessment + traceability to prior stages
6. VALIDATE (Stage 5, new) — Outcome tracking against original evaluation

Additional mechanisms:

• Technology Radar with 4 rings: Adopt / Trial / Assess / Hold
• Weekly /rd-scan cadence for proactive source scanning
• Watch list for Hold items requiring periodic review
• 30-day auto re-eval for parked items (Riley-owned)
• Elena notified at Stage 2 for architecture impact assessment

Sub-Decisions

ID	Decision	Status
D1	JSON data file as single source of truth for pipeline state	Approved
D2	Weekly scan cadence (not ad-hoc)	Approved
D3	Riley auto-re-evaluates parked items after 30 days	Approved
D4	Kanban dashboard replaces video evaluation dashboard	Approved

Consequences

Positive:

• Full pipeline visibility from intake to outcome validation
• Traceability — every item linked from source through decision to implementation
• Proactive scanning replaces CEO-triggered ad-hoc evaluations

Negative:

• More process overhead per R&D item (6 stages vs. informal flow)

Risks:

• Notification fatigue — mitigated by lightweight gates (most stages are automated or quick)

References

• CON-0001