Using FPF and its DPF Suites

This is the common working instruction for people and AI agents using FPF or its DPFs, including work that develops or reviews the frameworks themselves. Apply it whenever the work relies on their methods, not only when processing an intake. Paths below are relative to the folder containing this file.

For an assisting agent, make this instruction part of the project’s ordinary instructions: attach the file or link it from AGENTS.md or the environment’s equivalent. A link in a past conversation does not establish that the current performer can retrieve and apply it. Reuse a current reading while the instruction and access conditions remain unchanged; return to the relevant section when they change or the instruction is no longer available in working context.

When a referenced publication is present in this folder, resolve its pattern references in that copy, including references written as GitHub links. Use another edition when the task calls for an update or a comparison.

Make the publications available

Check what the present environment can actually read and search. A GitHub link, a listed filename or a truncated preview is not access to the publication’s full text. Some interfaces cannot retrieve a large publication through an attachment or connector. Do not assume that one interface’s access limits apply to another.

Where the environment supports local files, obtain the publication files through an available download or repository checkout and use content search on those files. Keep this instruction with them. Where only excerpts can be supplied, obtain the complete relevant patterns or sections, including the conditions and dependencies needed for the question, and retain their publication names and pattern IDs. Use an accessible README, contents entry or search result to locate the needed material; the locator does not replace it. If the necessary passage cannot be obtained, state the missing access and keep the dependent conclusion open. You can continue work whose basis is available.

Establish the available publication set once, and update it when files or access change. The full distribution includes FPF, both DPF Suites and their References, and the independent Narrativization DPF; a downloaded subset or one attached document offers less. The public Readme.md and Suite README.md files identify the publications. Search the available set together when the question might need contributions from more than one practice. A missing search result means that this search has not found an answer in those sources, not that the ecosystem lacks the method.

For development or review, use the edition and candidate selected by the assignment. Distinguish a proposed contribution from published guidance when reporting what the framework already supplies.

Choose what to read

Start with the actual situation, the object being worked on, and the result the answer needs to support. If a pattern is already named, find its body directly. Otherwise search the available publications together, using terms for the difficulty and needed result. Include English technical terms when the user’s language differs from the sources. You can find an individual method or a connected application without first choosing a Suite, Reference or pattern file.

Inspect a promising passage with its enclosing heading. A pattern body supplies its method; a Reference answer can explain how several contributions work together; a README or contents row helps locate that explanation. Open the substantive source and the conditions needed for the present use. When exploring the repertoire without a useful search phrase, start with FPF Part headings or the corresponding Suite overview, then retrieve selected entries. Search a large Table of Contents as text and read the matching rows; do not load it in full merely to begin a lookup. Its technical terms, practical questions and dependencies can help reformulate the search.

To perform a selected method, read its description, applicability conditions, and the related patterns needed for that use. To use a particular technique, read its section together with the conditions it depends on. Apply it to the facts and constraints of the task. If a candidate method presupposes a result you still need to obtain, search for that earlier result or operation rather than silently treating it as given. For example, resolving a known conflict does not by itself explain how to notice a difficulty in ordinary work. A later method’s scope limit is not evidence that the earlier contribution is absent from the framework.

Explain results and give feedback in the language of the project’s work. Preserve the source distinctions that affect the answer. Cite the patterns and locations used. State assumptions, missing evidence, use limits, and the need for human judgement where they affect the decision. Let the current question determine the next step.

When a question needs several methods, use a relevant connected example or Practical-Use Card. Follow the intermediate results: what each method returns, which operation uses it, and what changed condition sends the work back. A mantra helps retain that connection. Read the supplying patterns and start at the contribution whose inputs are available. If one method’s result leaves the larger work unresolved, search the same publications for that larger result together with the method’s ID or useful terms. Continue through the connected account only where it supplies a contribution the work still needs. An adequate earlier result or a sufficient individual method can end the lookup.

Also recover the constituent–whole connections in the relevant Method and Work structures: what larger work is being performed through this action now, what constituent performances it needs, and which conditions must hold together. Use B.1.5.EW when this is unclear and B.1.5.RS for a proposed constituent replacement. A DPF can describe only some of those connections. Retain already available capabilities, expose missing intermediate coordination or support, and check joint demands on shared resources. Use CGUS conditions when these facts change which continuation is available. Explain the connection in the language of the work. C.30.ASV:4.5a helps distinguish the relevant structures when that affects the decision. If a drawing uses vertical or horizontal direction, name the represented structure and relation as A.22:4.3a explains; a diagram is optional.

Learn the contribution the work needs

Using a method to obtain a result and learning to perform it are different purposes. Decide which contribution you need to make yourself and which can be supplied by a source, tool, specialist or AI assistant. For example, interpreting a model’s limits may be necessary even when another contributor constructs and computes it. An available answer can be enough for the current work; it does not establish that you can produce or adapt it in a different situation.

When learning is the purpose, use the Human Capability Development DPF. HCD.1–.3 connect later work, current preparation and the choice of development or support. HCD.9 guides practice with feedback and correction; HCD.10 helps vary it for the missing operation. HCD.12 distinguishes evidence of applying an already learned method under a changed condition from evidence of learning a new method with a source. HCD.15 reopens development when the work or its support changes. Read only the contributions needed for your question; the order of publications is not a requirement to learn every method first.

File structure

A publication contains several patterns, located by their IDs. For example:

IDs also occur in contents tables and cross-references. Match a heading at the start of a line to locate the pattern itself. Line numbers help retrieve portions of a file; IDs locate a pattern after its line numbers change. A reference such as SYSE.24:4.1 points to a subsection; read it through to the next heading of the same or a higher level.

Search and read

Use rg (ripgrep), or the environment’s equivalent search tool with regular expressions. Run these commands with the public distribution folder as the working directory, or prepend its actual path to the file arguments. In a source repository, limit the search to the selected public publications; campaign notes and historical drafts are not the public corpus.

Inspect the available Markdown files once to establish the search scope. This lists filenames; it does not search their contents:

rg --files --no-ignore -g '*.md' .

For the illustrative question “obtain a needed engineering result: build or buy”, search the text across that scope:

rg -n -i -C 2 --no-ignore -g '*.md' -- 'build or buy|obtain a needed engineering result|obtain climate control' .

This query can return a pattern, a contents row and a connected Reference case. Compare the question each passage answers, open its enclosing section and retain the useful result or return condition. If the output is too large, use the same query with -l instead of -n -C 2 to list matching files, then inspect promising passages. Reformulate an unsuccessful query; a lexical match alone does not establish fit, and no match does not establish that the method is absent.

A browser or retrieval system can serve the same search when it covers the declared publications, including Reference answers. If it exposes only one file or titles, state that limit and extend access when the question requires it.

Locate the file and the start and end lines of the selected pattern:

rg -n --no-ignore -g '*.md' '^## SYSE\.24 |^### SYSE\.24:End[ \t]*\r?$' -- .

Read that pattern in full:

rg -U --no-heading --no-line-number --no-filename --color never '(?ms)^## SYSE\.24 [^\r\n]*\r?\n.*?^### SYSE\.24:End[ \t]*\r?$' -- "Engineering DPF Suite/SYSTEMS-ENGINEERING-PRINCIPLES-FRAMEWORK.md"

Here -U enables multiline search; (?m) makes ^ and $ match line starts and ends, and (?s) lets a dot match a newline. (?ms) combines them. .*? matches through to the nearest specified :End heading; \r?\n accepts Windows and Unix line endings. Substitute another ID and file as needed; escape literal dots in IDs as \..

For other searches, -F treats the query as literal text, -i ignores case, and -C 2 includes neighbouring lines. --no-ignore searches files even in a Git-ignored folder; -g '*.md' selects Markdown files.

If the tool truncates a long result, read the selected text in successive line ranges with the available file reader. Folder search already covers separate publications; no combined file is needed.