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Workload and progression contract

Plan 460–655 focused hours. These are author planning estimates, not measured learner completion times. Record actual reading, implementation, debugging and assessment hours; prerequisite repair, breaks and optional depth are additional. Waiting for delayed recall does not count as study time.

Allocation without duplication​

  • Quality attributes: 75–105 hours. Original scenarios, views, tactics and characteristics work 57–79; evidence extension 18–26.
  • Patterns/modularity: 80–115 hours. Original style comparison, source enforcement, extraction and reversal 60–85; boundary extension 20–30.
  • DDD: 85–120 hours. Original discovery, context map, language, repository and coordination work 63–88; domain extension 22–32.
  • API evolution: 85–125 hours. Original HTTP/specification, durable retry, migration and consumer work 65–95; compatibility extension 20–30.
  • Decisions/reviews: 70–100 hours. Original ADRs, review, drift and real fitness-function work 52–74; review extension 18–26.
  • Required security/formal-reasoning strand: 35–45 hours. Trust boundaries 6–8; privacy decision 6–8; state model 7–9; model/implementation comparison 8–10; security fitness check 8–10.
  • Semester integration: 30–45 hours. Adapt/assemble project 12–18; checkpoint/cumulative review 6–9; written exam 3 plus defense 2; repairs and delayed transfer 7–13.

Modules total 395–565 hours. Strand and integration add 65–90. Reuse artifacts across module, strand and project assessment; record creation time once. Strand hours cover added security properties and integration, not reimplementing every prior lab. Original quizzes and selective reading are inside module allocations. Independent reviewer availability can add calendar delay beyond these focused hours.

At 10 hours weekly allow 46–66 weeks; at 15, 31–44; at 20, 23–33. Legacy weeks 70–75 are ordering coordinates, not a six-week completion promise. Module day-by-day flows are sequences rather than duration guarantees.

Mandatory progression​

Every QA1–QA6, MB1–MB6, DD1–DD6, AC1–AC6 and AR1–AR6 gate must reach level 2 independently. Every security category S1–S5 must also reach level 2. Retain checkpoint 80%, exam 70% overall and at least 60% per major section, completed project and integrity requirements. All conditions apply; averages cannot hide a missing category.

Use 0 missing/incorrect, 1 prompted/incomplete, 2 independent correct evidence with limitations, 3 justified fresh transfer. Any required category below 2 means repair required — incomplete. A written repair plan or accepted risk alone does not permit advancement. AC6 and AR4 require independent consumer/review participation; solo practice remains useful but must not be mislabeled independent evidence.

Keep an evidence ledger with requirement, artifact revision, prediction, command/trace or review record, outcome, limitation, score, repair and retest. The supplied model labs do not replace actual source checks, network extraction, repository conflict tests, asynchronous workflows, HTTP migration/rollback, durable retries or real-project security checks.

Sequence and prerequisites​

Carry Semester 06's invariant, uncertainty and recovery packet forward. Establish quality scenarios, compare boundaries/styles, discover domain language, implement explicit contracts and then review the actual evidence. Begin the trust-boundary/privacy inventory early and revisit it when APIs, caches or deployment boundaries change. Use synthetic data. Connect Semester 05's transport/permission failures to the service rather than treating security as a diagram-only exercise.

Integrated defense and forward bridge​

In the two-hour defense, trace a reservation read through authorization, cache, domain state and API response. Revoke access, replay an old request and roll back a consumer/provider version. Explain which model and service evidence applies, which becomes stale and which claim is unverified. Reject a faster design that violates the stated integrity contract. Change one workload assumption and supersede an ADR without rewriting its history.

After at least 48 hours, independently solve a fresh case in the weakest category. Carry into Semester 08 a baseline workload, two measurable scenarios, capacity assumptions, a domain/ownership map, one observed failure, one unresolved risk and a rejected alternative. These become inputs to system-design estimates rather than a new pattern catalog.

Authored and locally verified material is not an independent learner pilot or external curriculum review.

Assistance and verification evidence​

Complete the linked review exercise as required subchecks of AR1/AR2/AR5, using 3–4 hours of the existing 8–12-hour review experiments. Reuse the existing packet; no extra semester hours or gate IDs are added. All original real-system and independent-review requirements remain.

Independent practice route and evidence reuse​

The following entry checks and changed-case practice make the existing module work inspectable. Use them within the current original-practice, lab and retention allowances; no full-book reading or new parallel project is added. An existing artifact can satisfy both an original exercise and this route when it demonstrates the same claim. Keep one evidence index linking each required gate to the exact artifact, actual run, assistance and reviewer status. Do not waive a topic simply because a different lab passes.

Keep authored material, author execution, learner attempts, independent review and delayed transfer as distinct statuses. Retain existing construction, security, HCI, AI-use, world-class and capstone strands and all per-gate minima. Real-system and human requirements remain pending until observed; planned observations are not completed evidence. Record actual study time before revising estimates.