What This Stage Covers
The use case is engineered into a pilot. Pilot charter signed. Baseline metrics captured (per the metric defined at Concept). Vendor scored on the 6 Vendor Index dimensions and selected via bake-off. PoC runs on team data. Gold-set evaluation pre-run. Initial Risk Register + Evidence Register entries are filed against the canonical 9-class taxonomy.
Exit Gate — Required Evidence
G2
Pilot success against pre-defined baseline; gold-set evaluation passed; AI Use Policy compliance verified; signed vendor contract with portability + exit-assistance + notice SLAs; initial Evidence Register entries filed.
Editorial Framing
Build is the stage where methodology becomes concrete. The vendor is selected. The configuration is set. The control framework is designed. Most of the methodology transparency the function will rely on for the life of the capability is established here — which is why methodology transparency (Defensibility Element 2) is most active in Build.
Required Artefacts
- Pilot charter
- Baseline metrics record
- Vendor Defensibility Scorecard
- Gold-set + evaluation results
- AI Use Policy compliance verification
- Vendor contract with portability + exit-assistance + notice SLAs
- Initial Risk Register entries (per canonical class)
- Initial Evidence Register entries (per system × per class)
Common Failure Modes
- Pilot charter unsigned — pilot runs on informal alignment
- Baseline metrics skipped or captured after the pilot starts
- Vendor selected outside the Vendor Defensibility Scorecard
- Gold-set evaluation deferred to Operate stage
- Contract signed without portability + exit-assistance + notice SLAs