# Implementation Guidance

## Phased Delivery

| Stage | Timeline | Focus |
|-------|----------|-------|
| MVP | 2-4 weeks | Core workflow only, simplest architecture, manual processes OK. Validate problem-solution fit. |
| Beta | 4-8 weeks | Key features, basic scalability, monitoring, automated deployment. Validate product-market fit. |
| Production | 8-12 weeks | Full features, production-grade reliability, auto-scaling, DR. Scale and optimize. |
| Optimization | Ongoing | Performance tuning, cost optimization, feature refinement. Efficiency and experience. |

## Critical Path Analysis

For each stage identify:
- **Blocking dependencies**: What must be done first?
- **Parallel workstreams**: What can happen simultaneously?
- **Resource constraints**: Who's needed, when?
- **Risk areas**: What might delay us?
- **Decision points**: What decisions can't be delayed?

## Observability Stack

### Metrics (quantitative health)

- Business metrics (signups, transactions, revenue)
- System metrics (CPU, memory, disk, network)
- Application metrics (request rate, latency, errors)

### Logging (what happened)

- Structured JSON logs
- Correlation IDs across services
- Context (user ID, request ID, session)
- Appropriate levels: ERROR actionable, WARN concerning, INFO key events

### Tracing (where time spent)

- Distributed traces with OpenTelemetry
- Critical path instrumentation
- Database query timing
- External API call timing

### Alerting (what needs attention)

- SLO-based alerts (error rate, latency, availability)
- Actionable only (if it fires, someone must do something)
- Runbooks for each alert
- Escalation policies