How we build

A real project plan, from a product you can download.

Most firms show you a methodology slide. We’re showing you the build of Starkive Manifest, live on the App Store, laid out the way your PMO would run it: phases, gates, deliverables and a RAID log. Every date comes from the project’s own record.

See the timeline Read the RAID log
15 weeks
from first commit to three platforms
6 weeks
to a feature-complete 1.0
2,041
commits, every one reviewable
5,415
automated tests
The method

Gates for your governance. Sprints for the build.

Hybrid delivery is now how most organizations run projects. Outside, six stage gates you sign at, each one a natural payment milestone. Inside, weekly sprints that end in something working. And for AI, checkpoints mapped to the NIST AI Risk Management Framework.

Stage gates

Six phases, six sign-offs. Scope, budget and risks are agreed at each gate before more money is spent. Your steering committee always knows where it stands.

Weekly sprints

Inside the build, a working version every week, tested and demonstrated. You see progress in the product, not in a status colour.

AI checkpoints

Map the risks in Discover, set evaluation cases in Design, measure before release, manage after launch. NIST AI RMF and ISO/IEC 42001 ready.

Hybrid rose from 20% to 31.5% of projects between 2020 and 2023 (PMI Pulse of the Profession 2024), and 41% of project managers now use it, the most of any approach (Capterra 2025).

The timeline

Fifteen weeks, week by week.

Each square is a real week of work on that part of the product, shaded by how much was committed. Pick a phase to see what happened in it.

Swipe the chart to see all 15 weeks →

Week
1
Jun 24
2
Jul 1
3
Jul 8
4
Jul 15
5
Jul 22
6
Jul 29
7
Aug 5
8
Aug 12
9
Aug 19
10
Aug 26
11
Sep 2
12
Sep 9
13
Sep 16
14
Sep 23
15
Sep 30
Phases and gates
Workstreams, by commits each week less more
Core register & data model
Mac app
On-device AI
Compliance & evidence
Design system
iPhone app
Cloud backend
Security & encryption
Independent reviews
Release & App Store
AI agent servers (MCP)
Windows port
Milestones
Kickoff: scope and a ten-phase build plan G1
•
Design spec and task plan signed off G2
• •
Version 1.0 feature complete, submission pack G3
•
Release readiness: App Review note and checks G4 •
Live on the App Store, Mac and iPhone G5
•
Help centre live: 22 support articles G6

Source: the project’s git history, 2,041 commits across all branches, 24 June to 4 October 2026, merges excluded. A commit counts once in every workstream whose files it touched, so rows don’t add up to the total. Weeks start on Wednesdays; week 15 is partial.

Phase 3 · weeks 1 to 10

Build

Weekly sprints, each ending in something working.

G3 · Feature complete

The release scope is built, tested and demonstrated.

What happened on Manifest
  • Weeks 1 to 4: the register, assets, alerts, licences, contracts, vendors and on-device AI.
  • Weeks 5 to 9: the iPhone app and the cloud backend, built in parallel.
  • Week 10: MCP servers so outside AI agents can read the register, read-only.
Deliverables, and the Manifest evidence
  • Working increments 2,041 commits, all in reviewable history
  • Unit and integration tests 5,415 automated tests
  • Weekly status and RAID updates Written handover at every session
  • Change log Every change in version control
Milestones

The dates, in order.

  1. G1
    Week 1 · 24 Jun 2026
    Kickoff: scope and a ten-phase build plan
  2. W3
    Week 3 · 12 Jul 2026
    On-device AI reads documents into assets
  3. G2
    Week 4 · 20 Jul 2026
    Design spec and task plan signed off
  4. W5
    Week 5 · 25 Jul 2026
    iPhone app and cloud backend running
  5. W5
    Week 5 · 28 Jul 2026
    First written independent review
  6. G3
    Week 7 · 5 Aug 2026
    Version 1.0 feature complete, submission pack
  7. W8
    Week 8 · 16 Aug 2026
    Security control review and ISMS written
  8. G4
    Week 10 · 27 Aug 2026
    Release readiness: App Review note and checks
  9. W10
    Week 10 · 28 Aug 2026
    MCP servers for outside AI agents
  10. G5
    Week 11 · 8 Sep 2026
    Live on the App Store, Mac and iPhone
  11. W12
    Week 12 · 10 Sep 2026
    Windows port begins
  12. G6
    Week 14 · 26 Sep 2026
    Help centre live: 22 support articles
RAID log

What went wrong, and what we did about it.

Every project has risks, issues and hard calls. Here are real ones from this build. You get the same log on yours, updated every week.

Type Week Item Response Status
Decision 3 Should the AI assistant count assets when someone asks “how many”? No. Counts are computed exactly by the register, every time. The model only explains the answer, so a number never depends on a guess. Decided
Issue 6 A cloud upload could stall forever after one network blip. Rebuilt the upload queue as a state machine with retries. Fixed the same week. Closed
Risk 8 A privileged database key could rewrite a customer’s audit trail. Update and delete removed from every API role, a hash chain on each row, and a check that verifies it. Treated
Risk 8 One operator: a bus factor of one. Everything in version control, independent review before shipping, written handovers. Disclosed to customers, not hidden. Accepted
Risk 10 An AI agent changes an audited record and nobody is accountable. The agent server opens the register read-only. Writes get their own design or don’t get built. Treated
Dependency 7 The App Store is the only way to ship. Logged in the supplier register. Installed copies keep working if the store stops. Monitored
Issue 11 App Review asked for proof on real hardware and why the Mac accepts network connections. A 62-second, one-take film on a physical iPhone and a written answer naming the exact code. Approved four days later. Closed
Your project

Same plan. Your gates, your sign-off.

On Manifest we were the sponsor and the team, so decisions came back the same day. On yours, every gate is a meeting where you decide, and the timeline flexes with access and decisions. You get a dated plan at the end of Discover.

Who does what

Activity You Us
Business goals and success measures A C
Scope, backlog and priorities A R
Architecture, security and build C A/R
AI evaluation cases and thresholds A R
User acceptance testing R S
Go-live decision A R
Run, support and improve I R

R responsible · A accountable · C consulted · I informed · S supports

Focused build

About 5 weeks

The six gates collapse into three: Discover and Design in two weeks, Build and Test in three, then Release. Starkive Studio ran this way.

Platform build

3 to 4 months

All six gates, released in stages, exactly as above. A first release around the two-month mark, then more platforms and integrations on top.

Every week, you get

  • A working build you can try
  • A written status and an updated RAID log
  • Independent review of the work before it ships
  • The full change history, yours to keep

Want this plan with your name on it?

Tell us what you need built. After a short call you get a Discover proposal with the gates, the deliverables and a first timeline.

Plan your build →