Work Order Management System — Executive Summary
Classification: Decision Support — CTO / VP Engineering / Head of Platform Date: 2026-02-13 Recommendation: Go (Conditional)
Problem Statement
CODITECT's autonomous agents operate on validated systems in regulated environments (FDA 21 CFR Part 11, HIPAA, SOC 2). Every change to these systems — whether initiated by an AI agent, a vendor, a scheduled maintenance program, or a human operator — requires a formal Change Control record. Without a structured Work Order system, CODITECT cannot:
- Guarantee audit trail completeness for regulatory inspections.
- Enforce approval gates (System Owner + QA) before changes reach production.
- Track resource allocation (people, tools, experience) against change activities.
- Manage complex multi-step changes (Master WO → linked child WOs) with dependency enforcement.
- Provide cost and schedule visibility for change management operations.
The absence of this capability is a blocking gap for regulated industry deployments.
Solution Overview
A Work Order Management subsystem integrated into CODITECT's control plane, providing:
- Hierarchical WO structure — Master WOs decompose into logically independent linked WOs, each with its own lifecycle, job plan, and approval chain.
- Three origination channels — Automation (PM/calibration programs), External (vendor actions), Manual (ad-hoc changes).
- Resource graph — Pre-entered assets, tools, persons, and experience ratings enable intelligent assignment and capacity planning.
- Compliance-native lifecycle — Every state transition generates immutable audit entries. Completion requires electronic signatures from System Owner and QA.
- Agent integration — WO lifecycle maps directly to CODITECT's orchestrator-workers pattern, enabling agents to create, execute, and close WOs as part of autonomous workflows.
Fit for CODITECT
| Dimension | Fit Assessment |
|---|---|
| Architecture alignment | ✅ Strong — Master/Linked WO hierarchy maps to orchestrator-workers. Dependencies map to prompt chaining. Approval gates map to agent checkpoints. |
| PostgreSQL state store | ✅ Strong — WO schema uses PostgreSQL natively. RLS for tenant isolation. Append-only audit trail. Optimistic locking for concurrency. |
| Compliance engine | ✅ Strong — WO approval workflow provides the structural enforcement layer the Compliance Engine needs. E-signatures, audit trails, and role-based access are built into the data model. |
| Event-driven architecture | ✅ Strong — WO state transitions emit events to the Event Bus. Compliance Engine and Observability Stack subscribe for real-time monitoring. |
| Multi-tenancy | ✅ Strong — Row-level security on all WO tables. Tenant-scoped resource graphs. Per-tenant PM schedules. |
| Model routing | ✅ Moderate — Compliance validation routes to Opus. Schedule optimization to Sonnet. Notifications to Haiku. Clear mapping but limited surface area. |
Risks & Unknowns
| Risk | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Credential storage in Job Plans requires vault integration | Critical | Unresolved — must not store secrets in JSONB |
| Dependency cycle detection needed for linked WO graphs | High | Design identified, implementation needed |
| Vendor WO coordination is inherently unpredictable | Medium | Timeout + escalation policies needed |
| PM automation at scale (1000+ instruments) needs batch APIs | Medium | Architecture supports it, APIs not designed |
| Partial Master WO completion policies undefined | Medium | Business rules needed per tenant/domain |
| Experience rating expiration automation | Low | Schema supports it, service logic needed |
Recommendation
Go — Conditional on three prerequisites:
-
Vault integration for Job Plan credentials. Must not ship with secrets in PostgreSQL JSONB. Integrate HashiCorp Vault or GCP Secret Manager before any regulated tenant onboarding.
-
DAG validation for WO dependencies. Implement cycle detection on linked WO dependency graph creation. A dependency deadlock in a regulated workflow is an audit finding.
-
Define partial completion policies. Work with initial regulated customers to define business rules for Master WOs where some linked WOs are blocked indefinitely. This is a domain policy decision, not a technical one.
Implementation sequence:
- Phase 1 (4 weeks): Core WO schema, lifecycle service, audit trail, basic approval workflow.
- Phase 2 (3 weeks): Resource graph (assets, tools, experience), job plan management, dependency enforcement.
- Phase 3 (3 weeks): Agent Orchestrator adapter, event emission, compliance engine integration.
- Phase 4 (2 weeks): PM automation scheduling, vendor WO coordination, observability dashboards.
Total estimated effort: 12 weeks, 2–3 engineers. ROI category: Compliance-enabling (required for market entry, not optional feature).