Lerianstudio Ring Pre Dev Task Breakdown

Task Breakdown - Value-Driven Decomposition

Foundational Principle

Every task must deliver working software that provides measurable user value.

Creating technical-only or oversized tasks creates:

• Work that doesn't ship until "everything is done"
• Teams working on pieces that don't integrate
• No early validation of value or technical approach
• Waterfall development disguised as iterative process

Tasks answer: What working increment will be delivered? Tasks never answer: How to implement that increment (that's Subtasks).

Mandatory Workflow

Explicit Rules

✅ DO Include in Tasks

Task ID, title, type (Foundation/Feature/Integration/Polish), deliverable (what ships), user value (what users can do), technical value (what it enables), success criteria (testable/measurable), dependencies (blocks/requires/optional), effort estimate (AI-agent-hours with confidence), testing strategy, risk identification with mitigations, Definition of Done checklist

❌ NEVER Include in Tasks

Implementation details (file paths, code examples), step-by-step instructions (those go in subtasks), technical-only tasks with no user value, tasks exceeding 2 weeks (break them down), vague success criteria ("improve performance"), missing dependency information, undefined testing approach

Task Sizing Rules

*Calendar duration assumes 1.5x multiplier (standard validation), 90% capacity, and 1 developer

Value Delivery Rules

• Foundation: Enables other work (database setup, core services)
• Feature: Delivers user-facing capabilities
• Integration: Connects to external systems
• Polish: Optimizes or enhances (nice-to-have)

AI-Assisted Time Estimation

See shared-patterns/ai-agent-baseline.md for baseline definition.

After defining task scope and success criteria, the system automatically estimates implementation time.

Estimation Process

1. Tech Stack Detection: Identify project type from TRD

   • Go project → dispatch ring:backend-engineer-golang
   • TypeScript Backend → dispatch ring:backend-engineer-typescript
   • React/Next.js → dispatch ring:frontend-engineer
   • Mixed/Unknown → dispatch ring:codebase-explorer

2. Scope Analysis: Specialized agent analyzes:

   • Technical components (endpoints, schemas, services)
   • Complexity level (CRUD vs custom algorithms)
   • Available libraries (lib-commons, frameworks)
   • Test requirements (coverage %, test types)
   • Documentation requirements

3. Time Calculation: Agent estimates per scope item

   • Database schema + migrations
   • Repository/data layer
   • Business logic layer
   • API handlers/controllers
   • Validation logic
   • Error handling
   • Unit tests (TDD)
   • Integration tests
   • Documentation

4. Output: Total in AI-agent-hours

For detailed baseline definition and capacity explanation, see shared-patterns/ai-agent-baseline.md.

Confidence Levels

Example Output

**Effort Estimate:**
- **Baseline:** AI Agent via ring:dev-cycle
- **AI Estimate:** 4.5 AI-agent-hours
- **Estimation Method:** ring:backend-engineer-golang analysis
- **Confidence:** High (standard CRUD, lib-commons available)

**Breakdown:**
- Database schema + migrations: 0.5h
- Repository layer (CRUD): 0.5h
- Service layer (business logic): 0.5h
- HTTP handlers (4 endpoints): 1.0h
- Input validation: 0.3h
- Error handling: 0.2h
- Unit tests (TDD, 85% coverage): 0.8h
- Integration tests: 0.5h
- OpenAPI documentation: 0.2h
**Total: 4.5 AI-agent-hours**

**Assumptions:**
- lib-commons/http, lib-commons/postgres, lib-commons/validator available
- Standard CRUD patterns (no complex algorithms)
- PostgreSQL database configured
- ring:dev-cycle will execute implementation

**Team Type:** Backend Engineer (Go)

Rationalization Table

Red Flags - STOP

If you catch yourself writing any of these in a task, STOP:

• Task estimates over 2 weeks
• Tasks named "Setup X" without defining what X enables
• Success criteria like "works" or "complete" (not measurable)
• No dependencies listed (every task depends on something)
• No testing strategy (how will you verify?)
• "Technical debt" as a task type (debt reduction must deliver value)
• Vague deliverables ("improve", "optimize", "refactor")
• Missing Definition of Done

When you catch yourself: Refine the task until it's concrete, valuable, and testable.

Gate 7 Validation Checklist

Gate Result: ✅ PASS → Subtasks | ⚠️ CONDITIONAL (refine oversized/vague) | ❌ FAIL (re-decompose)

Multi-Module Task Tagging

If TopologyConfig exists in research.md frontmatter (from Gate 0):

Read Topology Configuration

# From research.md frontmatter
topology:
  scope: fullstack
  structure: monorepo | multi-repo
  modules:
    backend:
      path: packages/api
      language: golang
    frontend:
      path: packages/web
      framework: nextjs
  doc_organization: unified | per-module

Task Target Assignment

Each task MUST have target: and working_directory: fields when topology is multi-module.

Agent assignment depends on both target and api_pattern:

How to Determine Agent for Frontend Tasks

Read api_pattern from research.md frontmatter:

# From research.md
topology:
  scope: fullstack
  api_pattern: direct | bff | other

Decision Flow:

Is task target: frontend?
├─ NO → Use backend-engineer-* based on language
└─ YES → Check api_pattern
    ├─ direct → ALL frontend tasks use frontend-engineer
    └─ bff → Split tasks:
        ├─ API routes, aggregation, transformation → frontend-bff-engineer-typescript
        └─ UI components, pages, forms → frontend-engineer

Task Format with Agent Assignment

## T-003: User Login API Endpoint

**Target:** backend
**Working Directory:** packages/api
**Agent:** ring:backend-engineer-golang

**Deliverable:** Working login API that validates credentials and returns JWT token.

...rest of task...

## T-004: User Dashboard Data Aggregation

**Target:** frontend
**Working Directory:** packages/web
**Agent:** ring:frontend-bff-engineer-typescript  # Because api_pattern: bff

**Deliverable:** BFF endpoint that aggregates user profile, recent activity, and notifications.

...rest of task...

## T-005: User Dashboard UI

**Target:** frontend
**Working Directory:** packages/web
**Agent:** ring:frontend-engineer  # UI task, even with BFF pattern

**Deliverable:** Dashboard page component consuming aggregated data from BFF.

...rest of task...

Validation for Agent Assignment

Per-Module Output

Document placement depends on topology.structure:

Single-Repo

All tasks in one file:

docs/pre-dev/{feature}/
└── tasks.md           # All tasks with target tags

Monorepo (per-module placement)

Index at root, filtered tasks in module directories:

docs/pre-dev/{feature}/
└── tasks.md           # Index with ALL tasks (target tags included)

{backend.path}/docs/pre-dev/{feature}/
└── tasks.md           # Backend tasks only (target: backend)

{frontend.path}/docs/pre-dev/{feature}/
└── tasks.md           # Frontend tasks only (target: frontend)

Multi-Repo (distributed placement)

Tasks distributed to respective repositories:

{backend.path}/docs/pre-dev/{feature}/
└── tasks.md           # Backend tasks only

{frontend.path}/docs/pre-dev/{feature}/
└── tasks.md           # Frontend tasks only

Note: For multi-repo, there is no central index. Each repo contains only its relevant tasks.

Task Splitting Logic

def split_tasks_by_module(all_tasks: list, topology: dict) -> dict:
    """
    Split tasks into module-specific files.

    Returns dict with keys: 'index', 'backend', 'frontend'
    """
    structure = topology.get('structure', 'single-repo')
    modules = topology.get('modules', {})
    backend_path = modules.get('backend', {}).get('path', '.')
    frontend_path = modules.get('frontend', {}).get('path', '.')

    backend_tasks = [t for t in all_tasks if t.get('target') == 'backend']
    frontend_tasks = [t for t in all_tasks if t.get('target') == 'frontend']
    shared_tasks = [t for t in all_tasks if t.get('target') == 'shared']

    if structure == 'single-repo':
        return {
            'index': {
                'path': f"docs/pre-dev/{feature}/tasks.md",
                'tasks': all_tasks
            }
        }

    if structure == 'monorepo':
        return {
            'index': {
                'path': f"docs/pre-dev/{feature}/tasks.md",
                'tasks': all_tasks
            },
            'backend': {
                'path': f"{backend_path}/docs/pre-dev/{feature}/tasks.md",
                'tasks': backend_tasks + shared_tasks
            },
            'frontend': {
                'path': f"{frontend_path}/docs/pre-dev/{feature}/tasks.md",
                'tasks': frontend_tasks + shared_tasks
            }
        }

    if structure == 'multi-repo':
        return {
            'backend': {
                'path': f"{backend_path}/docs/pre-dev/{feature}/tasks.md",
                'tasks': backend_tasks + shared_tasks
            },
            'frontend': {
                'path': f"{frontend_path}/docs/pre-dev/{feature}/tasks.md",
                'tasks': frontend_tasks + shared_tasks
            }
        }

Module-Specific Task File Header

Each module-specific tasks.md should include:

---
feature: {feature-name}
module: backend | frontend
filtered_from: docs/pre-dev/{feature}/tasks.md  # (monorepo only)
total_tasks: N
---

# {Feature Name} - {Module} Tasks

This file contains tasks filtered for the **{module}** module.

**Full task list:** {link to index if monorepo, or note "distributed" if multi-repo}

---

Validation for Multi-Module

Task Template Structure

Output path depends on topology — see Output & After Approval for the full topology-dependent rules. The file starts with two summary sections followed by the full task details.

File Summary Sections (top of tasks.md)

MUST open with two summary tables before the individual task details.

Summary Table 1 — Technical Overview

A quick-reference table for the engineering team. The Status column is initialized by ring:pre-dev-task-breakdown and updated by ring:dev-cycle during execution.

• CANNOT set any value other than ⏸️ Pending at task creation time

## Summary

| Task | Title | Type | Hours | Confidence | Blocks | Status |
|------|-------|------|-------|------------|--------|--------|
| T-001 | Project Foundation | Foundation | 3.0 | High | All | ⏸️ Pending |
| T-002 | ... | Feature | 6.5 | Medium | T-004, T-008 | ⏸️ Pending |
| | **TOTAL** | | **85.0h** | | | |

MUST leave the Status cell of the TOTAL row empty. CANNOT apply ⏸️ Pending or any status value to the TOTAL row.

Status lifecycle (managed by ring:dev-cycle):

Summary Table 2 — Business Deliverables View

MUST appear immediately after Summary Table 1. A plain-language view for product managers, stakeholders, and the team to understand what value each task delivers.

## Business Deliverables

| Task | Deliverable (business view) |
|------|-----------------------------|
| T-001 | The team can develop and test locally from day one — **every contributor gets a working environment without manual setup**. |
| T-002 | **Transactions reach their destination** — messages conform to the agreed standard and counterparties accept every one sent. |
| ... | _(additional tasks omitted for brevity)_ |

Writing rules for Business Deliverables View:

What to include:

• The capability unlocked ("The product can...", "Users can now...")
• Why it matters to the business ("Without this, no transaction reaches its destination")
• Who benefits (developer, operator, end user, regulator)
• Business consequence if missing (when relevant)

What to exclude:

• File names, class names, function names
• Architecture terms (API, REST, handler, service layer)
• Infrastructure terms (Docker, Kubernetes, PostgreSQL)
• Implementation verbs (implement, create endpoint, configure database)

Validation for Business Deliverables View:

Per-Task Template

Each task includes:

AI Estimation Fallback Procedure

When AI estimation fails or is unavailable:

Failure Conditions

AI estimation is considered failed when:

• ❌ Agent unreachable (API timeout >30s)
• ❌ API errors (rate limit exceeded, 500 errors)
• ❌ Service outage (Claude API down)
• ❌ Invalid response (no estimate returned)
• ❌ Scope too ambiguous (agent returns Low confidence with no estimate)

Escalation Path

1. Immediate (0-5 min): Retry once with exponential backoff
2. Short-term (5-15 min): Switch to backup agent if available
3. Medium-term (15-30 min): Notify PM team lead via Slack
4. Long-term (30+ min): Use manual estimation override (see below)

Manual Estimation Override

Who can approve: PM Team Lead or designated backup

Required evidence for override:

• Similar historical task with actual time data
• Expert estimation from technical lead (with rationale)
• Decomposed scope with per-component estimates
• Documentation of estimation method used

How to record:

**Effort Estimate:**
- AI Estimate: [FAILED - API unavailable]
- Manual Override: X hours (approved by: [Name], date: YYYY-MM-DD)
- Estimation Method: Historical comparison with Task T-XXX
- Confidence: Medium (manual estimation, subject to higher variance)
- Evidence: [Link to similar task or rationale document]

Temporary Capacity Adjustments

When manual estimation is used:

• Apply 1.3x multiplier to manual estimates (30% buffer for estimation uncertainty)
• Mark task with "Estimation Pending" flag in roadmap
• Schedule re-estimation when AI service restored
• Track variance post-completion to calibrate manual estimates

Example:

Manual estimate: 6 hours
Adjusted estimate: 6h × 1.3 = 7.8 hours
Confidence: Medium → Low (due to estimation method)
Re-estimation scheduled: [Date when AI available]

Confidence Flag Requirements

Align with rationalization table:

• ✅ Manual estimates MUST be marked with confidence level
• ✅ Include rationale for estimation method
• ✅ Link to historical data or expert judgment
• ✅ Document who approved and when
• ❌ NEVER mark manual estimates as "High" confidence
• ❌ NEVER skip variance tracking for manual estimates

Common Violations

Delivery Sequencing

Optimize task order by sprint/phase with goals, critical path identification, and parallel work opportunities.

Confidence Scoring

Action: 80+ autonomous | 50-79 present options | <50 ask about velocity

Output & After Approval

Output to (depends on topology.structure):

1. ✅ Tasks become sprint backlog
2. 🎯 Use as input for subtasks (ring:pre-dev-subtask-creation)
3. 📊 Track progress per task (not per subtask)
4. 🚫 No implementation yet - that's in subtasks

The Bottom Line

If you created tasks that don't deliver working software, rewrite them.

Tasks are not technical activities. Tasks are working increments.

"Setup database" is not a task. "User data persists correctly" is a task. "Implement OAuth" is not a task. "Users can log in with Google" is a task. "Write tests" is not a task. Tests are part of Definition of Done for other tasks.

Every task must answer: "What working software can I demo to users?"

If you can't demo it, it's not a task. It's subtask implementation detail.

Deliver value. Ship working software. Make tasks demoable.

Standards Loading (MANDATORY)

This skill is a task decomposition skill and does NOT require WebFetch of language-specific standards.

Purpose: Task Breakdown defines WHAT value increments to deliver, not HOW to implement them. Language-specific standards apply during subtask creation and implementation.

However, MUST load PRD (Gate 1), TRD (Gate 3), and research.md to ensure tasks align with requirements and architecture.

Blocker Criteria - STOP and Report

Cannot Be Overridden

These requirements are NON-NEGOTIABLE:

• MUST NOT create tasks exceeding 2 weeks (break them down)
• MUST include measurable success criteria for every task
• MUST include user value OR technical value for every task
• MUST include task dependencies (blocks, requires, optional)
• MUST run AI estimation for all tasks (no manual guesses)
• MUST include Definition of Done checklist for every task
• MUST include Business Deliverables View in summary section
• MUST initialize Status column as ⏸️ Pending for every task row
• CANNOT set Status to any value other than ⏸️ Pending at task creation
• CANNOT use technical-only tasks without value connection

Severity Calibration

Pressure Resistance

Anti-Rationalization

When This Skill Is Not Needed

• PRD or TRD not validated (complete earlier gates first)
• Tasks already exist and are validated
• Trivial change that can be implemented directly
• Bug fix with known solution (no decomposition needed)
• Documentation-only updates
• Configuration changes with no implementation work

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