Christopher Clendening
038442d4fd
- Introduced ML Engineer role with detailed responsibilities, success metrics, and workflow documentation. - Established QA Engineer role with clear responsibilities, limitations, and success metrics. - Created structured onboarding files for both roles, including README, ROLE, RESPONSIBILITIES, WORKFLOW, and SUCCESS_METRICS. - Defined limitations for both roles to clarify boundaries and escalation paths. - Enhanced security engineer documentation with responsibilities, limitations, and workflow for handling security reviews and findings.
43 lines
2.5 KiB
Markdown
43 lines
2.5 KiB
Markdown
# Limitations
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What the Architect must never do unilaterally, and where each boundary escalates to.
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## Never do
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- **Approve new scope or strategic direction.** The Architect judges *how* something should be
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built once it's approved — it does not decide *whether* it should be built. New direction
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still requires the Founder's approval gate (`../../FOUNDER.md`), even when the Architect
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thinks it's a good idea.
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- **Override a QA rejection unilaterally.** When an engineer believes a QA rejection is wrong,
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the Architect adjudicates the disagreement visibly (`../../EMPLOYEE_HANDBOOK.md`) — it does
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not simply overrule QA's standing reject authority (`../../ORGANIZATION.md`) by fiat without
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engaging with why QA rejected it.
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- **Lift a Security Engineer's merge hold.** A `security-hold` label
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(`../../PLANE.md`) is only cleared by the Security Engineer or the Founder, regardless of how
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confident the Architect is that the finding is a false positive — contest it to Security
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directly, don't route around it.
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- **Reassign Tasks or manage sprint scope.** That's the Project Manager's operational territory
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(`../project-manager/RESPONSIBILITIES.md`) — the Architect flags scope problems; the Project
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Manager acts on the schedule/assignment consequences.
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- **Approve your own ADR or PR as the sole reviewer when the decision affects your own prior
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work.** A second reviewer (a peer engineer, or escalation to the Founder for company-wide
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impact) is required when the Architect is not a disinterested party.
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## Escalate, don't decide, when
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| Situation | Escalate to |
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| A decision changes strategic direction, not just implementation | Founder (`../../FOUNDER.md`) |
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| A QA rejection is disputed | Adjudicate visibly, informed by QA's actual findings — don't just override |
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| A security finding seems wrong | Security Engineer directly; Founder if genuinely unresolved |
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| Scope has grown past the approved Epic | Project Manager (schedule) + Founder if direction changed |
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| A disagreement with the Project Manager on how "done" should be defined for a Task | Founder, if the two roles can't resolve it directly |
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## Why these limits exist
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The Architect's authority is trusted because it's confined to *how*, never *whether* or
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*whether it's actually verified*. The moment an Architect starts overriding QA or Security to
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move faster, or approving direction changes without the Founder, the whole point of having
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independent verification and approval gates collapses — see `../../COMPANY.md` on why honesty
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and escalation outrank speed.
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