Engineering/Courses/Catalog/Claude from Zero to Mastery (Claude Certified Architect prep)/1.6 Breaking work down: fixed chains versus dynamic splitting
BeginnerLesson 14 of 4710 min · hands-on
1.6 Breaking work down: fixed chains versus dynamic splitting
Part of the Claude from Zero to Mastery (Claude Certified Architect prep) course
Before this: Lesson 0.6 (workflow versus agent) and Lesson 1.2.
A big job has to be broken down. The question is whether to set the pieces in advance or let them emerge as the work goes on. The wrong answer ruins both sides. ...
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Start this lesson1.6 Breaking work down: fixed chains versus dynamic splittingWhat you'll learn
- The story: two jobs, two failures
- Prompt chaining: when the steps are known
- Dynamic decomposition: when the steps are not known
- How to choose
- The obvious way and why it breaks
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All lessons in this course
47 lessons- 10.1 What is Claude, really?10 min
- 20.2 How programs talk to Claude10 min
- 30.3 Tokens and the context window: the model's short-term memory10 min
- 40.4 Prompts: how to ask the model for work10 min
- 50.5 Tools: how a model with no hands gets things done10 min
- 60.6 What an agent is, and why a loop comes into it10 min
- 70.7 A map of the Claude family: models, API, Claude Code, SDK and MCP10 min
- 81.0 Introduction: why agents break in practice10 min
- 91.1 The agentic loop10 min
- 101.2 The coordinator and subagent pattern10 min
- 111.3 Building a subagent and giving it context15 min
- 121.4 Enforcing in code, and handoff15 min
- 131.5 Hooks in the Agent SDK15 min
- 141.6 Breaking work down: fixed chains versus dynamic splitting10 min
- 151.7 Sessions: continue, resume and fork10 min
- 162.0 Introduction: a tool is the model's user interface10 min
- 172.1 Tool descriptions and boundaries10 min
- 182.2 Structured errors in MCP10 min
- 192.3 Distributing tools, and tool_choice15 min
- 202.4 Connecting MCP15 min
- 212.5 Choosing the built-in tools10 min
- 223.0 Introduction: how Claude Code learns what your project is like10 min
- 233.1 The CLAUDE.md hierarchy10 min
- 243.2 Commands and skills10 min
- 253.3 Path-specific rules10 min
- 263.4 Plan mode or direct execution10 min
- 273.5 Iterative refinement10 min
- 283.6 Claude Code in CI10 min
- 294.0 Introduction: from "a good answer" to "output you can rely on"10 min
- 304.1 Explicit criteria to cut false positives10 min
- 314.2 Few-shot10 min
- 324.3 Tool use and JSON schema15 min
- 334.4 Validation and retries10 min
- 344.5 Message Batches10 min
- 354.6 Multi-instance and multi-pass review10 min
- 365.0 Introduction: a system that behaves well on a bad day too10 min
- 375.1 Keeping facts in a long conversation15 min
- 385.2 When to escalate to a human10 min
- 395.3 Error propagation in a multi-agent system10 min
- 405.4 Exploring a large codebase10 min
- 415.5 Human review and calibration10 min
- 425.6 Provenance and uncertainty10 min
- 43Wrap-up: the exam's six scenarios10 min
- 44The logic of the answers: eight rules10 min
- 45The exam versus today10 min
- 46Glossary10 min
- 47The exam itself and its conditions10 min
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