Methodology

Concept of the skill

Portable methodology design for rigorous agent work: planning multi-step implementations, designing quality gates, establishing verification protocols, and building checklists calibrated to known failure modes.

Domain Context

What is this skill? Provides the philosophical framework (methodology), specific techniques (methods), and ordered execution sequences (processes) that govern rigorous agent work. Covers the methodology-method-process stack, Cleanroom defect prevention, PSP/TSP measurement discipline, hypothesis-driven development, DMAIC quality management, aviation checklist design (Gawande), V&V frameworks (NASA/IEEE-style independent verification and validation), EDDOps for LLM agents, quality gates as hard stops, and the PDCA cycle for standardizing successes. Use when planning multi-step implementations, designing quality gates, establishing verification protocols, building agent checklists calibrated to known failure modes, or when an agent needs to understand WHY a process step exists (not just THAT it exists). Do NOT use for concrete PR review (use code-review), behavior-preserving implementation changes (use refactor), test-level selection (use testing-strategy), eval-case design (use eval-driven-development), or high-risk tool-call blocking (use guardrails).

Coverage

This skill covers the foundational frameworks that make rigorous agent work possible: the methodology-method-process three-layer stack (why these steps, not just which steps), Cleanroom defect prevention (quality built in, not inspected in), PSP/TSP measurement discipline (plan, review, post-mortem), hypothesis-driven development (define success criteria before the experiment), DMAIC/PDCA quality management (especially the skipped Control/Act phases), Gawande checklist design (calibrated to known failure modes, not generic), V&V frameworks from safety-critical industries (DO-178C bidirectional traceability, NASA verification standards), EDDOps for LLM agent evaluation (lifecycle coverage, slice-level validation, closed feedback loops), quality gates as hard stops (binary, blocking, measurable), and the 8 codifiable methodology patterns synthesized across all source disciplines.

Philosophy of the skill

Agents default to executing process without methodology. They apply steps without understanding the principle that makes the steps necessary, which is exactly why they skip steps that feel low-value in the moment. A pilot who knows the B-17 crash story understands why the gust-lock check exists. A pilot who just has a checklist might skip it when running late.

The academic distinction is load-bearing: Methodology is the philosophical framework — WHY you approach work a certain way. Method is a specific technique within the methodology. Process is the ordered sequence of steps executing a method. One process can contain multiple methods; one method can serve many processes. But without methodology, the agent has no basis for deciding when to apply extra rigor, when to challenge a process that seems wasteful, or when a shortcut is genuinely safe vs. when it compromises the underlying principle.

This skill installs the WHY. Adjacent quality skills install the execution surface: code-review evaluates concrete diffs, testing-strategy chooses test levels, eval-driven-development authors eval cases and graders, guardrails blocks high-risk actions, and best-practice catches cross-cutting quality gaps. Together they prevent both "knows the steps but skips them" (ineptitude) and "follows steps mechanically without understanding when they matter" (cargo culting).