---
title: Role Guides
description: Find your role-specific guide for AI-assisted engineering with HVE Core tooling
author: Microsoft
ms.date: 2026-02-18
ms.topic: concept
keywords:
  - roles
  - guides
  - AI-assisted engineering
  - collections
estimated_reading_time: 5
---

HVE Core provides role-specific tooling through collections of agents, prompts, instructions, and skills. Each role guide covers recommended collections, stage walkthroughs, starter prompts, and collaboration patterns tailored to how you work.

## Role Overview

| Role                     | Dedicated Assets | Total Addressable | Primary Stages                              | Guide                                                   |
|--------------------------|------------------|-------------------|---------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------|
| Engineer                 | 26               | 28+               | Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 6, Stage 7, Stage 8 | [Engineer](engineer.md)                                 |
| TPM                      | 24               | 32+               | Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 8 | [TPM](tpm.md)                                           |
| Tech Lead / Architect    | 19               | 23+               | Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 6, Stage 7, Stage 9 | [Tech Lead](tech-lead.md)                               |
| Security Architect       | 3                | 9                 | Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 7, Stage 9          | [Security Architect](security-architect.md)             |
| Data Scientist           | 6                | 13                | Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 6, Stage 7, Stage 8 | [Data Scientist](data-scientist.md)                     |
| SRE / Operations         | 8                | 13+               | Stage 1, Stage 3, Stage 6, Stage 8, Stage 9 | [SRE / Operations](sre-operations.md)                   |
| Business Program Manager | N/A              | N/A               | Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5          | [Business Program Manager](business-program-manager.md) |
| New Contributor          | 2                | 10                | Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 6, Stage 7          | [New Contributor](new-contributor.md)                   |
| Utility                  | N/A              | 13                | All                                         | [Utility](utility.md)                                   |

> **Dedicated Assets** count agents, prompts, instructions, and skills built specifically for a role's primary workflow. **Total Addressable** adds cross-cutting tools (memory, Git prompts, auto-activated instructions) and shared collection assets. The **+** suffix indicates additional auto-activated assets not individually enumerated.

## Find Your Role

| I want to...                                                | Recommended Role Guide                                  |
|-------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------|
| Write code, implement features, or fix bugs                 | [Engineer](engineer.md)                                 |
| Plan projects, manage requirements, or track work           | [TPM](tpm.md)                                           |
| Design architecture, review code, or set standards          | [Tech Lead](tech-lead.md)                               |
| Assess security, create threat models, or review compliance | [Security Architect](security-architect.md)             |
| Analyze data, build notebooks, or create dashboards         | [Data Scientist](data-scientist.md)                     |
| Manage infrastructure, handle incidents, or deploy          | [SRE / Operations](sre-operations.md)                   |
| Define business outcomes or manage stakeholder alignment    | [Business Program Manager](business-program-manager.md) |
| Get started contributing to the project                     | [New Contributor](new-contributor.md)                   |
| Use cross-cutting utilities (memory, docs, media)           | [Utility](utility.md)                                   |

## Collaboration Patterns

Roles frequently collaborate across workflows. These scenarios illustrate common multi-role interactions:

* Engineers and tech leads collaborate on feature development with architecture review, coding standards enforcement, and implementation guidance. See the [Engineer](engineer.md) and [Tech Lead](tech-lead.md) guides.
* TPMs and security architects coordinate secure product launches combining requirements gathering, threat modeling, and compliance verification. See the [TPM](tpm.md) and [Security Architect](security-architect.md) guides.
* Data scientists and engineers bridge analytics pipeline development with data specification, notebook prototyping, and production integration. See the [Data Scientist](data-scientist.md) and [Engineer](engineer.md) guides.
* New contributors progress to engineers through onboarding from guided workflows to full autonomous engineering. See the [New Contributor](new-contributor.md) and [Engineer](engineer.md) guides.

## Coverage Notes

Each role intersects with 9 lifecycle stages, producing 72 role-stage pairs. Coverage levels across those pairs:

| Level    | Role-Stage Pairs | Percent |
|----------|-----------------:|--------:|
| Strong   |               11 |     15% |
| Moderate |               15 |     21% |
| Thin     |               18 |     25% |
| None     |               28 |     39% |

**Strongest coverage**: Engineer at Stages 6-7 (implementation and review), TPM at Stages 2-5 (requirements through sprint planning), SRE at Stage 9 (operations).

**Thinnest roles**: Security Architect (3 dedicated assets, 6 of 9 stages at None or Thin) and Business Program Manager (beta, all tooling borrowed from shared collections).

**Least-covered stage**: Stage 4 Decomposition — 7 of 8 roles have no dedicated tooling. Only TPM has strong coverage at this stage.

> [!NOTE]
> Gaps represent contribution opportunities. See the [lifecycle stage guides](../lifecycle/) for per-stage details and [Contributing](../../contributing/README.md) for guidance on creating new agents, prompts, and instructions.

## Next Steps

> [!TIP]
> See the full project lifecycle at [AI-Assisted Project Lifecycle](../lifecycle/) to understand how stages connect across roles. Each stage guide maps available HVE Core tools and role-specific guidance for that phase of work.

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