Roadmap
18 months path to upskilling in AI, with a focus on agent and multi-cloud orchestration. Built in public, with AI tools wherever possible, alongside the enterprise tools being developed in a separate project.
This is the actual working roadmap for Project Vigil — updated as things change, honest about what got dropped or delayed. Successes and failures noted.
Academic Structure
| Module | Title | Target |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Landscape Report | Spring 2026, Week 8 ✅ |
| 2 | Governance Framework | Summer 2026 |
| 3 | Technical Prototype | Fall 2026 |
| 4 | Workforce Impact Assessment Tool | Fall–Spring |
| 5 | Student Roadmap | Spring 2027 |
| 6 | White Paper + Capstone | Spring 2027 |
Capstone deadline: May 1, 2027
Week Types
| Type | Meaning |
|---|---|
| SPRINT | Full build week — primary deliverable expected |
| LIGHT | Reduced sprint — coursework pressure week |
| RECOVERY | No sprint required — built in intentionally |
| FINALS | One post or commit only — protect the GPA |
| TRANSITION | Planning, admin, retrospective |
| BUILD | Free month — uninterrupted, no coursework |
Certifications
Already complete: Azure Copilot and Agent Administration Fundamentals
| Cert | Target | Status |
|---|---|---|
| AWS AI Practitioner (AIF-C01) | Summer S4 | Planned |
| Azure AI Engineer Associate (AI-102) | Summer S8 | Planned — prereq for AB-100 |
| AB-100 Agentic AI Business Solutions Architect | Fall F5 | Planned — expert level, requires AI-102 |
| AWS Agentic AI Demonstrated (microcredential) | Fall F9 | Planned |
| CEET Responsible AI | Fall F13 | Planned |
| AWS GenAI Developer Professional | Spring 2027 C5 | Planned |
Multi-cloud story: Azure depth (Copilot + Agent Admin + AI-102 + AB-100 expert-level) + AWS breadth (AI Practitioner → Agentic AI → GenAI Developer Professional) + vendor-neutral ethics (CEET). Six new certs plus two already complete by Spring 2027. AB-100 is the expert-level Microsoft agentic AI cert, requires AI-102 as prerequisite.
Open Source Tools
- Waive Builder — generates a portable
waive.mdcard. CLI live at projectvigil.org. Web app in progress. - Ledger Agent — drop folder watcher, builds efficiency ledger entries from URLs and files.
- PII Classifier — document processing pipeline with PII detection. Ships Spring W13.
The final project is Custos Bank, a fictious financial institution undergoing an AI transformation, demonstrated a as a platform integrating all portfolio projects.
Spring 2026 — Weeks 8–15
Classes Machine Learning , Ethics in AI · AWS AI Practitioner
| Wk | Type | Vigil Deliverable | Portfolio | Cert |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| W8 | SPRINT ✅ | Ledger agent v1 shipped. Waive Builder scoped. | Azure infra provisioned. GitHub Pages live. | AWS AI Practitioner: study begins |
| W9 | SPRINT | Waive Builder v0.1 deployed. CLI open-sourced → projectvigil.org. Flask web app live on Azure. | RAG pipeline v0.1 — ingestion, chunking, embedding, retrieval. 50 docs in Azure AI Search. | AWS AI Practitioner: continued study |
| W10 | SPRINT | Waive Builder v0.2 — free-text input with LLM PII filter. Web UX iteration. | RAG pipeline v0.2 — hybrid search. Chunking experiments measured. | AWS AI Practitioner: practice exam |
| W11 | LIGHT | Data Principles & Policy doc refined. | Azure Document Intelligence setup. PII detection scoped. | — |
| W12 | SPRINT | Model Card Database v0.1 — first 3 model profiles (GPT-4o, Claude, Gemini). PII Classifier scoped. | PII Classifier: architecture defined. Azure Doc Intelligence integration designed. | AWS AI Practitioner: practice exam |
| W13 | LIGHT | ML capstone: model matching engine design. | P1 “PII Classifier” v0.1. PDFs → structured data, PII detection. Azure Doc Intelligence. GitHub public. | — |
| W14 | FINALS | One commit. waive.md updated. | One commit. README updates only. | — |
| W15 | FINALS | Retrospective written. | Portfolio site scaffolded. | — |
Spring → Summer Break — 20 days
Summer 2026 — Weeks S1–S10
Python II · Systems Analysis & Design · AI-102 Azure AI Engineer
Multi-cloud mandate this term: Portfolio Project P3 is built on AWS Bedrock, not Azure.
| Wk | Type | Vigil Deliverable | Portfolio | Cert |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S1 | BUILD | Waive Builder v1.0 — web app polished, projectvigil.org live. | LangChain + Semantic Kernel basics. AWS Bedrock: first model deploys. | AI-102 + AWS AI Practitioner: study begins |
| S2 | SPRINT | Benchmarking Infrastructure v0.1 — waive cards vs model endpoints. | AWS: Bedrock Knowledge Bases, Bedrock Agents, Lambda. Single agent with tool use. | AI-102: Computer Vision, Doc Intelligence |
| S3 | SPRINT | Model Card Database v1 — 8 models profiled. | P3 “Operations Assistant Agent” — built on AWS Bedrock. First full AWS build. | AI-102: Azure OpenAI, prompt engineering |
| S4 | SPRINT | Model Matching Engine v0.1 — card input → model scores. | Multi-agent system v0.1. Run on Azure OpenAI and AWS Bedrock. | AWS AI Practitioner: sit exam |
| S5 | LIGHT | Worker Model Recommendation v0.1 — card in, recommendation out. | Integration: Microsoft Graph API + AWS EventBridge, Step Functions, Lambda. | AI-102: Azure Speech, Bot Framework |
| S6 | SPRINT | Peer Mentorship Pairing Engine — design doc + matching logic v0.1. | P4 “AI Transformation Assessment Team.” Multi-agent. Built on AWS Bedrock Agents. | AI-102: intensive review |
| S7 | SPRINT | Enterprise Model Recommendation Report v0.1 — 5+ cards → department output. | P3 upgraded with enterprise integration. Same agent, parallel AWS build. | AI-102: mock exam |
| S8 | SPRINT | Workforce Impact Assessment Tool — early requirements. Role input schema v0.1. | AI-102 exam week. P5 scoped. | AI-102: sit exam |
| S9 | LIGHT | projectvigil.org v1 — live. Card builder link, community hub, white paper placeholder. | P5 “Production RAG System” v0.1. CI/CD pipeline. Azure AI Search + AWS Bedrock Knowledge Bases. | AB-100: study begins |
| S10 | TRANSITION | Summer retrospective. Deliverables audit. | P1–P5 audited. Portfolio site updated. Multi-cloud cost ledger updated. | — |
Summer → Fall Break — 20 days
Fall 2026 — Weeks F1–F16
NLP · Data-Centric AI · AB-100 cert
| Wk | Type | Vigil Deliverable | Portfolio | Cert |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| F1 | SPRINT | Workforce Impact Assessment Tool — requirements + scoring rubric v0.1. | P5 v1.0 complete. Production RAG on Azure + AWS with CI/CD + monitoring. | AB-100: agentic architecture |
| F2 | SPRINT | Workforce Impact Assessment Tool v0.1 — web app. Role + department → risk output. | P2 “M365 Adoption Analytics” v0.1 — Microsoft Graph API, Copilot usage by department. P6 “AI Governance Framework” — scoped. | AB-100: tool use, agent memory |
| F3 | SPRINT | White Paper — Share First Methodology — first draft. | P6 v0.1 deployed. AI use case → risk assessment + mitigations + regulatory output. | AB-100: orchestration, routing |
| F4 | SPRINT | Model Matching Engine v1.0 — production. Individual + aggregate queries. | P6 v1.0 complete. Cross-platform governance audit tool. Published with cost comparison. | AB-100: evaluation, safety |
| F5 | LIGHT | Tiered Observation Consent Architecture — v1 design doc. Three tiers. Worker approval flow. | P7 “AI Vendor Landscape Assessment” — research sprint. 15 platforms. Azure vs AWS vs GCP. | AB-100: sit exam / AWS Agentic AI: study begins |
| F6 | SPRINT | Enterprise Model Recommendation Report v1.0 — full pipeline live. | P7 draft complete. Category maps, evaluation matrices, 3-year cost projection. Multi-cloud framework. | AWS Agentic AI: Bedrock labs |
| F7 | SPRINT | Model Selection Protocol v1 — documented decision logic for model routing. | P7 v1.0 complete. Security: Azure Entra ID vs AWS IAM + Cognito. ADRs for P3–P5. | AWS Agentic AI: continued |
| F8 | RECOVERY | Review docs. No new builds. | Review all deployments. Update documentation. | Review weak areas |
| F9 | SPRINT | Workforce Impact Assessment Tool v1.0 — complete. Public URL. Demo-ready. | P8 Custos Bank: integration architecture scoped. All P1–P7 demo hooks designed. | AWS Agentic AI Demonstrated: sit microcredential |
| F10 | SPRINT | Employee AI Adoption Toolkit v0.1 — card builder + assessment tool. | P2 “M365 Adoption Analytics” v1.0 complete. P8 Custos Bank: build begins. | CEET: study begins |
| F11 | SPRINT | Benchmarking Infrastructure v1.0 — automated weekly runs. Results to ledger. | P8 Custos Bank: P1–P4 integrated. | CEET: continued |
| F12 | LIGHT | White Paper v1.0 — complete draft. Share First Methodology with efficiency ledger data. | P8 Custos Bank: P5–P7 integrated. | CEET: intensive study |
| F13 | SPRINT | Vigil product architecture: all 17 deliverables documented. | P8 Custos Bank: full integration sprint. All 8 projects running together, demo-ready. | CEET: sit exam |
| F14 | SPRINT | Full integration sprint — card → matching engine → recommendation report. End-to-end documented. | P8 Custos Bank: polished and documented. | CEET: complete |
| F15 | LIGHT | Vigil product architecture final. All 17 deliverables mapped. | Portfolio site finalized. Interview narratives prepared. | — |
| F16 | FINALS | VIGIL_CONTEXT.md updated. One commit. | One commit. Fall retrospective. | — |
Fall → Spring Break — 30 days
Spring 2027 — Weeks C1–C16
Computer Vision · Capstone = Project Vigil · AWS Agentic AI microcredential · CEET
| Wk | Type | Vigil Deliverable | Portfolio | Cert |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C1 | SPRINT | Capstone proposal submitted. Advisor aligned. | Workforce AI Readiness Assessment scoped. | AWS GenAI Developer Professional: study begins |
| C2 | SPRINT | Peer Mentorship Pairing Engine v1.0 — live. | Readiness Assessment v0.1. Skills gap + reskilling program design. AWS Bedrock + Lambda. | AWS GenAI Professional: Domain 1 |
| C3 | SPRINT | Capstone Ch 1–2: Introduction and Literature Review. | Ch 1–2 also serves as transformation methodology literature review. | AWS GenAI Professional: Domain 2 |
| C4 | SPRINT | Capstone Ch 3–4: Methodology and System Design. Three-layer architecture documented. | P8 Custos Bank: final integration sprint. All 8 components live. | AWS GenAI Professional: Domains 3-4 |
| C5 | SPRINT | Capstone Ch 5–6: Results and Discussion. 18 months of efficiency ledger data. | P8 Custos Bank: complete. | AWS GenAI Developer Professional: sit exam |
| C6 | SPRINT | Student Roadmap published on projectvigil.org. Free forever. | Specialization project v1.0 complete. Portfolio site updated. | AWS GenAI Developer Professional: complete |
| C7 | SPRINT | Capstone final draft complete. | P8 Custos Bank complete. Assessment → RAG → governance → vendor brief → analytics all connected. | — |
| C8 | SPRINT | Capstone submitted. Job search launched. 5 target applications sent. | Apply strategically. Target mid-market companies early in AI journey. | — |
| C9 | LIGHT | Portfolio walkthrough. 3-minute pitch rehearsed. | 10 informational interviews targeted. | — |
| C10–C14 | LIGHT | Ongoing applications. Vigil continues as a living product regardless of outcome. | Catch up, iterate, or rest. Keep applying. | — |
| C15 | FINALS | Finals. One commit. One post. | — | — |
| C16 | FINALS | Done. Final context update. Archive everything. | 8 projects, 8 certifications, 3 cloud platforms, 18 months documented. | — |
Multi-Cloud Progression
| Skill | Azure | AWS | GCP |
|---|---|---|---|
| LLM calls | Azure OpenAI Service | Amazon Bedrock | Vertex AI Gemini |
| RAG | Azure AI Search | Bedrock Knowledge Bases | Vertex AI Search |
| Agents | Semantic Kernel, Copilot Studio | Bedrock Agents, Step Functions | Vertex AI Agents |
| Document AI | Document Intelligence | Textract | Document AI |
| Responsible AI | Content Safety | Bedrock Guardrails | Vertex AI safety |
| MLOps | Azure ML workspace | SageMaker, CodePipeline | Vertex AI Pipelines |
| Identity / Auth | Entra ID | IAM, Cognito | Cloud IAM |
| Automation | Logic Apps, Power Automate | Step Functions, EventBridge, Lambda | Cloud Functions |
Last updated: March 12, 2026 — v2 restructure. Custos Bank introduced. AB-100 replaces AZ-305. 8-project portfolio stack. Waive Builder / waive.md naming locked.