feat(docs): Agent-inclusive SDLC paper with concrete Squad examples

[diberry]

Summary

This paper examines how AI agents participate as first-class contributors across every phase of the software development lifecycle. Uses Squad as the concrete example with specific patterns, protocols, and real orchestration logs.

Requested by Brady — High priority ask for specifics and examples, not high-level hand-waving.

What's Included

Comprehensive coverage of each SDLC phase with concrete Squad examples:

Requirements and Planning

• PRD Mode ingestion and work decomposition
• Design Review ceremony before multi-agent tasks
• Decision capture in .squad/decisions.md

Design and Architecture

• ADRs enforced by code (hook-based governance)
• Design meeting structure with real example (PAO External Comms)
• Module ownership table for routing

Implementation

• Parallel fan-out: "Team, build this" decomposition
• Drop-box pattern for conflict-free collaboration
• Anticipatory downstream work (testers start before implementation completes)

Code Review

• Reviewer rejection protocol with strict lockout semantics
• Multi-reviewer gate (4-reviewer example from real orchestration log)
• CI as first-class reviewer

Testing

• Test agents writing cases from specs during implementation
• Adversarial testing approach
• Metrics test script pattern for process compliance

Deployment and Release

• Ralph work monitor evaluating 4-gate merge readiness
• GitHub Actions integration
• Watch mode for autonomous operation

Maintenance and Knowledge

• Persistent agent histories (.squad/agents/{name}/history.md)
• Skills system for executable workflows
• Knowledge compounding across sessions

Case Study

Complete trace of PAO External Communications feature through all phases:

• Day 1: Requirements and design ceremony
• Day 2-3: Parallel implementation (EECOM, PAO, FIDO, RETRO)
• Day 3-4: Multi-reviewer gate with rejection and lockout
• Day 4: Adversarial testing finding edge cases
• Day 5: Ralph auto-merge after all gates pass
• Ongoing: Scribe extracting decisions into team memory

Format

Written paper style (not bullets), approximately 3800 words. Includes:

• Real orchestration log excerpts
• Specific file paths and command examples
• Comparison table (traditional vs agent teams)
• Lessons learned and open questions
• Appendices with key paths, commands, and full log example

Conventions

• Uses "and" not ampersands (team convention)
• Branch name: squad/agent-sdlc-paper
• Created docs/papers/ directory for future papers

[diberry]

EECOM Review — ⚠️ Needs Clarity

PR body describes an SDLC paper (~3,800 words), but the actual diff contains PAO external communications infrastructure (skills, templates, SQL schema, tests). This is a mismatch between description and content.

If this is PAO comms infrastructure: The technical implementation looks solid — SQLite review state, audit trail, humanizer skill integration, and tone validation. All runtime state properly gitignored. The .squad/comms/ structure is clean and well-documented.

If this is meant to be an SDLC paper: The paper file (docs/papers/agent-inclusive-sdlc.md) is missing from the diff.

Please clarify which PR this is, or update the body to match the actual changes. I cannot approve until description and content align.

[diberry]

Closing — content moved outside repo for reclassification. EECOM flagged description/diff mismatch and the scope needs rethinking (may belong as an extension, not core).