Lines of questioning — Alpha lead

Point 6 — Have a multidisciplinary team

Ask:

• Who ran the Alpha, and which hypotheses did each discipline own?
• Where was the team thin, and what did you do about it?
• Who will be on the Beta team in the first month, by name or by funded role?
• Which decisions can a civil servant take without the supplier?

Evidence to request: team shape through Alpha, a Beta staffing plan, the name of the accountable civil servant.

Answers that indicate Met: the people who tested the risky hypothesis are identified, and Beta staffing is funded rather than hoped for.

Answers that indicate Not Met: user research or technology "will ramp up in Beta" after an Alpha that needed them. The supplier holds the only copy of the decision log.

Point 7 — Use agile ways of working

Ask:

• Show the hypothesis backlog. Which item was the riskiest, and how did you test it?
• Which options did you discard, and what evidence killed them?
• What did the sponsor see during Alpha, and what changed after they saw it?
• What are you asking permission to do in Beta, and what are you explicitly not ready to promise?
• If the panel said "stop", which evidence would make that the right call?

Evidence to request: hypothesis backlog, decision log including discarded options, a short Beta proposal that names residual risk.

Answers that indicate Met: at least one hypothesis failed in a way that changed the plan. The Beta proposal is narrower than the Alpha opening brief.

Answers that indicate Not Met: the log is a list of successes. Red line A4. Or the Beta proposal is the original business case with a new cover.

Cross-cutting

• Did any work during Alpha become production infrastructure or a single signed-off design? If so, flag it for the design or technical assessor. Do not treat it as delivery progress.