Project Inception: From Vision to Phase Prompts¶

This document describes how the Forma3D.Connect project was started: from a high-level vision, through requirements, to a roadmap, and finally to phase prompts that drive AI-assisted implementation.

1. Overview: The Inception Pipeline¶

The project follows a staged inception pipeline. Each stage produces artifacts that feed the next, so that nothing is built without a clear lineage from the original vision.

2. Stage 1: Creating the Vision¶

The first step is to ask for a vision: a concise statement of what the product or project should achieve, for whom, and why. The vision anchors all later decisions.

Key vision artifacts:

• Vision statement: One sentence that captures the desired end state (e.g. "To create a seamless, automated bridge between e-commerce orders and 3D print production...").
• Objectives: Measurable goals (e.g. 100% of orders auto-created in SimplyPrint within 60 seconds).
• Scope: In scope (e.g. Shopify ↔ SimplyPrint integration) and out of scope (e.g. building a new e-commerce platform).

3. Stage 2: From Vision to Requirements¶

Once the vision is agreed, the next step is to derive requirements: functional (what the system must do) and non-functional (quality, security, performance). Each requirement should trace back to one or more vision objectives.

Traceability is important: requirements are numbered (e.g. FR-SH-001, NFR-SEC-001) and linked to phases and objectives so that the roadmap can prioritize them.

4. Stage 3: From Requirements to Roadmap¶

The roadmap turns the requirements into a phased plan: ordered work items with effort estimates and dependencies. No phase starts without its prerequisites being satisfied.

Roadmap dependency graph (conceptual): items depend on earlier items; parallel tracks are possible where there are no dependencies.

5. Stage 4: From Roadmap to Phase Prompts¶

Each roadmap item (phase or epic) is turned into a phase prompt: a single markdown file that an AI (or developer) can use to implement that slice of work. The prompt encodes context, acceptance criteria, and constraints from the requirements and roadmap.

Phase prompt structure (what each prompt file contains):

6. End-to-End Flow (Summary)¶

The full flow from “we want a product” to “here is an AI-executable prompt” looks like this:

Artifact locations in this repo:

This inception pipeline keeps the project aligned with the original vision and makes sure every phase prompt can be traced back to requirements and the vision.