7. Change, continuity and delivery

Where a decision takes effect

People can discuss a decision accurately while the decision fails to reach the source that governs work. A person approves a changed behavior, but the requirement still promises the old behavior. Or the implementation changes, but its consumer still relies on the earlier interface. The problem is the broken connection between the decision and its use.

The right source depends on what changed. A product commitment, a technical realization and a shared method have different homes. One decision can affect several owners, and each owner is responsible for the consequences in their contribution. A second register that repeats all their decisions cannot replace those changes.

Version history keeps earlier meaning, so each current document need not narrate it. Historical evidence describes its actual subject. An update to a present account does not make an old test describe new bytes. And a later understanding does not erase the significance of a failed attempt.

Records and recovery

Records can support a decision, an examination, an operation or recovery. They can also be part of the product: an accepted model history or a required professional record can be an output that someone relies on. Their value depends on that use, not on a general preference for more documents or for fewer.

A growing history of routine activity can make the current question harder to find. A replaceable recovery note can help when the existing artifacts and review records leave a real gap in continuity. The note becomes another burden if it only restates state that people can recover more reliably from the source.

Interrupted operations show why actual state matters. If a write or a release occurred but its confirmation was lost, a repeat can cause a second, unintended action. A successful preparation step is different from execution. An absent narrative is different from absent work. Recovery concerns the usable basis, the actual operation, the remaining conditions and the present authority.

Committed history and untracked local work need different care. A reproducible build directory can be disposable. A unique local fixture or an active operation may not be. Retirement can keep an identifiable earlier result while it removes that result from current work. Restoration of an old source does not by itself reactivate the undertaking that once used it.

Discovery and reliance

A stable discovery pointer helps someone find a current edition. Reliance on exact content needs a more specific subject. A decision or comparison can depend on a named edition and revision after the discovery pointer has moved elsewhere.

These relationships are compatible. An index can show a successor without adopting it for every consumer. A project can follow development on a branch or keep a published source. The participants who rely on the chosen relationship need to understand it.

A historical citation can keep a meaning that a later explanation develops differently. If people treat every old reference as stale, they erase the difference between current discovery and an actual earlier reliance. But an old citation is not enough if a current instruction silently promises a different behavior.

Positions in development

Development can be discussed in positions: conceptual, front-end engineering design, 30%, 60%, 90% and delivery. These positions describe what has become established enough for dependent work. They do not measure code, cost or elapsed effort. Their usefulness depends on the questions they expose in a particular undertaking.

Conceptual work concerns the intended result and plausible means. Front-end engineering design develops scope and the principal interfaces. Around the 30% position, the execution responsibilities and the conditions for useful production should be clear. Around 60%, consequential design and integration premises become important grounds for more dependent work. Around 90%, the intended contributions come together for concentrated examination of their combined use.

These descriptions are abstractions. A small undertaking can combine several questions in one conversation. A substantial project can have different contributions at different positions. A late interface finding can reopen one premise without a return of the whole project to its beginning. The descriptions become harmful when a label demands ceremonial outputs regardless of the actual work.

Where a person adopts a gate, its decision has an identified subject and authority. Where nobody adopted a gate, a chapter heading does not create one. The Root case in chapter 9 records actual gate decisions by the owner and keeps their limited meaning.

Completion and the recipient

Completion concerns fulfillment of the agreed work and its required examination. Integration concerns whether contributions form a usable combined result. A source merge can contribute to integration without establishing it. The recipient's activity gives the distinction practical meaning: each component can pass its own checks while the assembled product fails to keep accepted state.

Before another closing activity can be justified, there is a question: what claim would it establish? Existing evidence may already support the agreed result. Or the connecting path or the actual form of delivery may still be unexamined. If all remaining uncertainty counts as missing work, completion becomes impossible. If missing required work counts as mere uncertainty, the work looks complete when it is not.

Delivery transfers an identified result, with the information and continuing responsibilities that its use needs. Acceptance is an authorized act concerning a subject, a scope and a purpose. Release authorizes making an identified result available for a stated audience or use. Reliance is someone's use of a contribution as a basis for action or decision. These events can occur together, but their subjects and consequences stay different.

A source archive, an installed application and an issued technical document make different demands on their recipients. Identity, instructions, limitations and recovery matter according to the selected form. A narrower result can be useful when its scope is explicitly authorized. It does not fulfill a broader obligation merely because it is ready to deliver.