1 of 9 · Chip programs

Recover the tape-out when a supplier's IP slips four weeks

For: VP Engineering · Program lead

What just happened

An IP vendor emails one engineer: the SerDes delivery will be four weeks late. Six blocks use it.

Why it is hard

The delay does not hit every block the same way, the possible fixes compete for the same timing engineers, and every day spent working out the answer removes an option.

Where Tymeline works

  • Supplier email
  • Timing reports
  • Jira
  • Slack
What Tymeline doesinside the limits you set
  1. TraceFollows the delay through every block that uses the IP. Three absorb it. The coherent fabric cannot: it moves 28 days, and samples move 11.
  2. SimulateModels three recoveries against the real plan: re-sequence fabric timing with a parallel run, switch to an alternate IP drop, or cut the fabric feature. Only the first recovers all 11 days without added cost or lost scope.
  3. PrepareBuilds the decision packet: the new sequence, who moves, what it asks of each team, and the escalation to the vendor.
  4. ExecuteOn approval, re-sequences the work in Jira, tells every owner whose dates change, sends the vendor escalation and signs the record.

You decideThe VP of Engineering approves the recovery, with MFA.

How it endsTape-out stays on its date. Six minutes from the vendor's email to an approved plan already in motion.

2 of 9 · Chip programs

Close a verification gap before it becomes a slip

For: Verification lead · Program lead

What just happened

Coverage on the DDR5 controller is still rising, but the curve no longer reaches the freeze date. Nothing is late yet.

Why it is hard

The fix is two engineers for six weeks. Every team says it has none to spare, the regression licences are full every night, and a request like this normally waits for the quarterly review.

Where Tymeline works

  • Coverage database
  • Regression farm
  • Licence server
  • Jira
What Tymeline doesinside the limits you set
  1. ForecastProjects the coverage curve against the freeze date every day, and puts a number on the gap while it is still small.
  2. Find capacityReads who is really loaded. Finds two engineers on a block that reached sign-off early, and a free window in the regression licences.
  3. PlanDrafts the loan: who moves, for how long, what their own team gives up, and a regression schedule that fits the licences.
  4. ExecuteOn approval, updates both teams' plans, schedules the extra regressions, and tracks the curve until it is back on the date.

You decideThe verification lead and the lending manager approve the loan.

How it endsCoverage closes before the freeze. Firmware and samples never find out there was a problem.

3 of 9 · Chip programs

Arrive at the tape-out gate with the blockers already moving

For: VP Engineering · Program lead

What just happened

The tape-out review is on Friday. Ten blocks have to be at sign-off. Two are not.

Why it is hard

Readiness lives in ten teams' tools. The usual answer is a week of slides, and the two real blockers come out in the meeting, when it is too late to do anything about them.

Where Tymeline works

  • Sign-off reports
  • Simulation results
  • Jira
  • Email
What Tymeline doesinside the limits you set
  1. MeasureReads sign-off for every block from the tools. USB4 is blocked on link-training corners. SerDes has a gap at the 1.0 V worst-case corner.
  2. MobilisePages the two owners with exactly what is missing, and lines up the corner runs that would close each gap.
  3. ModelWorks out the choices for the gate: tape out on the date with a waiver, or defer five days and close both. Shows the risk of each.
  4. PackageBuilds the readiness packet with the evidence attached, and puts it in front of the approver before the review.

You decideA person decides go or no-go. No AI Employee approves a tape-out gate.

How it endsThe review takes twenty minutes and ends in a decision, because the fixes were already under way.

4 of 9 · Firmware & software programs

Re-plan firmware the same hour the samples date moves

For: Firmware lead

What just happened

The foundry moves the samples date by eleven days. The firmware team is two weeks into a bring-up sprint planned around the old date.

Why it is hard

Firmware milestones hang off that date, AI coding agents have work queued against it, and the customer's SDK beta date has not moved.

Where Tymeline works

  • Foundry email
  • Jira
  • Git
  • CI
What Tymeline doesinside the limits you set
  1. PropagateMoves every firmware milestone that depends on samples, and leaves alone the ones that do not.
  2. Re-sequenceRebuilds the sprint: work that needs silicon moves back, work that can be done without it moves forward, so nobody waits.
  3. ProtectFinds that the customer SDK beta would now slip, and moves two tasks to the driver team to hold it.
  4. ExecuteOn approval, updates Jira, re-points the coding agents' queued tasks, and tells each owner what changed for them.

You decideThe firmware lead approves the new plan, with MFA.

How it endsFirmware is on the bench the day the samples arrive, and the customer's SDK date holds.

5 of 9 · Firmware & software programs

Ship a release that AI coding agents helped write

For: Firmware lead · CISO

What just happened

Twelve engineers and three AI coding agents are building one release. An agent opens a change that touches an interface frozen last week.

Why it is hard

Agents work fast and around the clock. A change that breaks a frozen interface is cheap to stop at the merge and very expensive to find at bring-up.

Where Tymeline works

  • Git
  • CI
  • Jira
  • Your identity provider
What Tymeline doesinside the limits you set
  1. CheckCompares every agent commit with the agent's scope, the release plan and the interface contracts.
  2. StopHolds the merge: the change is outside the agent's scope. The code owner is asked, with the reason and the teams affected.
  3. Re-routeProposes the in-scope way to do the same work, and re-plans the two tasks that were waiting on it.
  4. RecordSigns every agent commit and every decision, so each line in the release traces to an identity and an approver.

You decideCode owners approve every merge. An agent never approves its own work.

How it endsThe release ships on its date, and the audit is an export, not an investigation.

6 of 9 · Equipment & tool programs

Rebuild a tool program around a ten-week part delay

For: Platform lead · Site head

What just happened

Week 47 of a 30-month platform program. The chamber supplier moves its delivery by ten weeks.

Why it is hard

The part sits under the alpha build, the software release and the beta tool promised to a customer fab. Those dates live in ERP, PLM and Jira, under three different managers.

Where Tymeline works

  • ERP
  • PLM
  • Jira
  • Supplier email
What Tymeline doesinside the limits you set
  1. ConnectTies the supplier's new date to the build that needs the part, and to everything downstream of that build.
  2. Re-sequenceReorders the alpha build so the work that does not need the chamber goes first.
  3. Re-planMoves the software release to the new hardware date, so the software team is not planning against hardware that will not be there.
  4. ExecuteOn approval, makes the changes in PLM, Jira and ERP, and sends the escalation to the supplier.

You decideThe platform lead approves the packet, with MFA.

How it endsSix minutes from the supplier's message to one plan carried out across three systems. Nobody finds out in a Thursday review.

7 of 9 · Qualification & ramp programs

Recover a customer qual without moving the sign-off

For: Site head · Account owner

What just happened

Week 11 of a 26-week automotive qualification. Reliability lot 3 falls behind, and the sign-off is now at risk.

Why it is hard

Dozens of quals share the same chambers and testers. Recovering one customer's lot must not push another's, and this customer has to hear it from you first.

Where Tymeline works

  • MES
  • Test floor
  • Qual database
  • Customer email
What Tymeline doesinside the limits you set
  1. Re-sequenceReorders the remaining lots across the capacity that is free, and checks the new order against this customer's qual criteria.
  2. ProtectConfirms that no other customer's date moves. Each customer's program is isolated from the others.
  3. DraftWrites the note to the customer: the facts, the recovery plan, and the sign-off date that still holds.
  4. ExecuteOn approval, updates the lot plan and hands the note to the account owner, who sends it that afternoon.

You decideThe site head approves the plan. The account owner sends the note.

How it endsThe customer hears it from you first, and signs off on the original date.

8 of 9 · Across programs

Settle two programs that need the same team in the same month

For: Program office · VP Engineering

What just happened

Two chip programs both plan to use the physical-design team in March. Neither plan knows about the other.

Why it is hard

Each plan is correct on its own. The clash only exists across the two, and the people usually go to whoever notices first, not to the program that needs them most.

Where Tymeline works

  • Both program plans
  • Capacity data
  • Jira
  • Slack
What Tymeline doesinside the limits you set
  1. DetectReads both plans against the team's real capacity, weeks before the clash.
  2. SimulateModels the choices: start one program's layout two weeks later, split the team, or bring in contractors. Shows what each does to both dates.
  3. RecommendProposes the later start. That program has the slack, and both dates hold.
  4. ExecuteOn approval, updates both plans, makes the reassignment, and tells both VPs the reasoning.

You decideThe two program owners approve it together.

How it endsBoth programs keep their dates, and it took one decision instead of an escalation.

9 of 9 · Every program

Make sure the same slip cannot happen twice

For: VP Engineering · Program office

What just happened

The last program shipped samples seventeen days late. The review blamed verification.

Why it is hard

The visible cause is rarely the real one. The real one was a decision made months earlier, by people who could not see what it would cost.

Where Tymeline works

  • The record
  • Capacity requests
  • Jira
What Tymeline doesinside the limits you set
  1. ReplayRebuilds the decision trail from the first warning to the missed date, from the record.
  2. FindShows the real cause: a request for two engineers, deferred to a quarterly review 87 days before the deadline.
  3. ChangeTurns it into three process changes and a standing rule: a capacity request against a block that is off its trend is decided that week.
  4. EnforceOn the next program, when the same pattern starts, raises it with the last outcome attached, and keeps it open until someone decides.

You decideLeadership approves the rule once.

How it endsThe next program starts with the lesson built in, not written on a slide nobody reads.

Bring the problem you're worried about.

45 minutes. No slide deck.

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