brief: "citco sdlc" audience: "execs" model: "anthropic:claude-opus-4-8" template: null
marp: true paginate: true
Citco SDLC: Enough Is Enough
Our software delivery is failing us — and we're paying for it every single day
The SDLC Is Broken. Let's Stop Pretending.
- Releases slip. Deadlines mean nothing.
- Defects ship to production — again.
- No single source of truth, no accountability.
- Every team points at the next team.
<!-- Open hard. Don't soften it. The Citco software development lifecycle is not a process today — it's a cycle of slipping dates, surprise defects, and finger-pointing. We have normalized failure. Look around this room: every one of us has signed off on a 'plan' we knew was fiction. That stops now. I'm not here to manage expectations. I'm here to tell you we are losing, and we are losing on purpose because nobody owns this. -->
What This Is Actually Costing Us
- Missed delivery windows = missed revenue.
- Rework and firefighting burn our best people.
- Client trust erodes with every late release.
- Compliance and audit risk we can't keep absorbing.
<!-- Let's talk numbers, because emotion without cost is just noise. Every slipped release is revenue we walked away from. Our senior engineers — the people we cannot afford to lose — are spending their weeks on rework and firefighting instead of building. Clients notice. They count our broken promises better than we do. And in a regulated business, the audit and compliance exposure from this chaos is not a risk we get to keep gambling on. This is real money and real reputation, bleeding out daily. -->
Why This Keeps Happening
- No clear ownership end-to-end.
- Requirements change with no discipline or trace.
- Testing is an afterthought, not a gate.
- We reward heroics, not repeatable delivery.
<!-- Here's the uncomfortable truth: this isn't bad luck and it isn't bad engineers. It's a system we built and tolerate. Nobody owns the lifecycle end to end, so it's nobody's fault by design. Requirements shift constantly with no traceability, so we're always building on sand. Testing is bolted on at the end instead of being a hard gate. And worst of all, we celebrate the heroes who pull all-nighters to save a launch — which means we are literally rewarding the broken process. Stop applauding the symptom. -->
We Fix This Now — No More Excuses
- Name one accountable owner for the SDLC. This week.
- Define gates: no gate passed, no release. Period.
- Mandate traceable requirements and automated testing.
- Report progress to this room every 2 weeks — with teeth.
<!-- I'm not leaving this room with a vague agreement to 'do better.' Four things, and I want commitments today. One: a single accountable owner for the entire lifecycle, named by end of week — not a committee. Two: hard quality gates. If the gate isn't met, the release does not go. No exceptions, no executive overrides for vanity dates. Three: traceable requirements and automated testing become non-negotiable standards. Four: this group reviews progress every two weeks, and there are consequences for missing. We have the talent. What we've lacked is the will. That changes in the next five minutes. Who owns it? -->