WISE: A Collaborative, Outcome-Led Framework for Integrating Discovery, Delivery and Value Realisation in Software Engagements

Abstract

Digital delivery initiatives frequently fail not because of technology, but because business problems, user needs, solution design, engineering practice, and value realisation are treated as disconnected activities across a project's lifecycle. Established scaling and delivery frameworks -- including the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD), and Dual-Track Agile -- each address part of this problem, but none combines problem discovery, delivery governance, and value traceability into a single continuous mechanism suited to small and mid-sized technology service organisations. This paper introduces WISE (Wizard Integrated Software Excellence), a conceptual framework comprising a five-stage lifecycle (Discover, Define, Design, Execute, Evolve), a cross-stage Control Layer of eight governance questions, and a structured approach to outcome traceability, innovation embedding, and organisational role mapping. WISE is positioned relative to SAFe, DAD, and Dual-Track Agile, and its distinguishing contribution --combining a single connected lifecycle with continuous outcome traceability at a scale appropriate to small technology firms -- is identified through comparative analysis rather than empirical claim. An illustrative application scenario demonstrates the framework's intended use, and a proposed measurement, maturity, and assessment approach is presented as a basis for future empirical validation. This paper is offered as a conceptual and practitioner contribution; it does not report empirical outcomes and explicitly identifies this as a limitation to be addressed through subsequent field validation.