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PDaCProduct Definition as Code

Delivery Slices

An approved Product Change MAY be divided into one or more Delivery Slices. A slice is an implementable, verifiable product increment that preserves meaningful product behaviour through the stack. A slice is not necessarily one requirement, one use case, one technical layer, one endpoint or one screen — and slicing by technical layer is exactly what slices exist to avoid.

Structure

Section titled “Structure”

Slices are YAML files under their Product Change’s slices/ directory (schema delivery-slice/v1alpha1):

schema: product-definition-as-code/delivery-slice/v1alpha1
id: SLI-HANDOFF-001
title: Generate a Product Handoff for one backlog item
status: approved
product-change: CHG-HANDOFF-001
outcome: A product engineer can generate a stable SDD input for one delivery increment.
implements:
  - requirement: FR-HANDOFF-001
    coverage: full
affects:
  - UC-HANDOFF-001
  - TERM-PRODUCT-HANDOFF
depends-on: []
verification:
  - The handoff includes the selected requirement and its transitive product context.
out-of-scope:
  - Creating a GitHub issue through the GitHub API.

Field rules:

  • product-change MUST reference the Product Change whose directory contains the slice.
  • implements[].requirement MUST reference a Functional Requirement, Quality Requirement or Constraint present in the change’s overlay (baseline or proposed).
  • implements[].coverage is full or partial. When partial, the entry MUST include a precise scope field describing which part of the requirement the slice covers.
  • affects lists product artifacts the slice touches beyond the implemented requirements.
  • depends-on lists other slices of the same change that must be completed first.
  • verification (non-empty) states how the increment is verified in product terms.
  • out-of-scope states explicit exclusions.

Lifecycle

Section titled “Lifecycle”

deliverySliceStatus: draft → proposed → approved → in-progress → completed, with cancelled reachable from any non-completed state. Cancelling a slice is the explicit waiver recognized by promotion.

Authority and approval

Section titled “Authority and approval”

Slice files are the authoritative delivery decomposition of their Product Change. AI MAY propose slices; a human MUST approve them (status approved is a human decision). Deterministic tooling validates references, coverage declarations and dependency cycles; it does not judge whether a slice is a good increment — that judgment belongs to the slicing skill and its human reviewer.