The engineering phase

The engineering phase is about defining how the change should be built, at the architecture level only. Not implementation details. Those come later.

When you move an iteration to engineering, Itera's engineering agent reviews the product specs and asks high-level technical questions. Examples:

• API contract changes between frontend and backend
• New third-party dependencies
• Whether a new service is needed
• Module-level architectural decisions

The pattern is the same as the product phase: the agent proposes specifications with a before and after, you approve them, give feedback, or write your own. You can also ask the agent for proposals when you're not sure how to approach something.

The engineering phase does not make decisions about code-level implementation. It treats each piece of architecture as a black box and only defines how those boxes should interact differently after the change.

When all engineering questions are resolved, click the action button to move to Planning.