Your single source of truth for business-value driven delivery
Purpose: The context folder preserves business intent from Phase 0 through Phase 5 Setup Time: 30 seconds with provided script Phase 0 is tiered: Lean (3 docs, 1–2 hrs), Standard (6 docs, 3–5 hrs), or Enterprise (8 docs, 5–8 hrs) Key Principle: Context is the DNA of your BVDLC implementation
Phase 0 Has Three Tiers — Pick Yours
Same framework, three depths. The structure inside 00-business-context/ depends on which tier fits your initiative. Answer five questions to find your fit.
The Scoring Rubric
Each “Yes” = 1 point.
Does this cross department or team boundaries?
Does budget approval go beyond your direct leader?
Are more than 8 stakeholders materially affected?
Is regulatory, compliance, or audit review involved?
Is this multi-quarter or platform-level change?
Your Score → Your Tier
0–1 points — Lean
3 docs, 1–2 hours. Best for startups, small teams, founder-led decisions.
01-intent-and-case
02-approach-and-investment
03-decision-record
2–3 points — Standard
6 docs, 3–5 hours. Best for corporate departments, midsize companies, director-led initiatives.
01-executive-intent
02-business-case
03-success-metrics
04-solution-approach
05-investment-and-approval
06-handoff
4–5 points — Enterprise
8 docs, 5–8 hours. Best for board-level transformations, regulated industries, multi-year programs.
01-executive-intent
02-business-case
03-success-metrics
04-solution-approach
05-investment-thesis
06-stakeholder-alignment
07-phase-0-approval
08-handoff
Override Rules
Even if your score says otherwise:
If regulated or audited → minimum Standard
If board visibility → Enterprise
If sole decision-maker + team < 10 → Lean
You can start Lean and upgrade later. The logic is the same. You’re just adding depth.
Tailor the Folder to Your Tier
Once you’ve picked a Phase 0 tier above, here’s how the rest of the context folder bends to fit.
Lean Tier
Keep everything in one repo with lightweight Markdown; founders or product own updates.
Combine Phase 2 and Phase 3 folders if the tech lead is the same person.
Focus on linking real customer names, not formal approvals.
Standard Tier
Give each squad a subfolder inside 03-planning/ and share Phase 0/1 across squads.
Treat the context folder as the “source of truth” for Jira epics.
Use the templates below to keep decisions and prompts consistent.
Enterprise Tier
Mirror the structure in your doc system if Git access is limited.
Add compliance subfolders (audits, legal approvals) under 00-business-context/ and 04-build-test-deploy/.
Assign a context owner per portfolio to run weekly health checks.
Quick Setup (30 seconds)
Run this in your terminal to create the complete BVDLC folder structure:
#!/bin/bash
# Create BVDLC context folder structure
mkdir -p project-context/{00-business-context,01-prototyping,02-architecture,03-planning,04-build-test-deploy,05-monitoring-value}
# Create subfolders for Phase 1
mkdir -p project-context/01-prototyping/{prototype-experiments,user-feedback,validation-reports}
# Create subfolders for Phase 2
mkdir -p project-context/02-architecture/{architecture-decision-records,diagrams}
# Create subfolders for Phase 3
mkdir -p project-context/03-planning/{ai-prompts,acceptance-criteria}
# Create subfolders for Phase 4
mkdir -p project-context/04-build-test-deploy/{test-results,quality-reports,deployment-logs,dev-notes}
# Create subfolders for Phase 5
mkdir -p project-context/05-monitoring-value/{monitoring-dashboards,value-realization-reports,operations-runbooks,handover-docs,improvement-backlog}
echo "✓ BVDLC context folder structure created successfully!"
echo "Next: cd project-context && git init"