Feature Orchestration

Feature Orchestration

Coordinate multi-story features with consistent directory structure, progress tracking, and validation.

What This Skill Provides

• Story initialization: Auto-create standardized directory structure
• Story tracker template: Track acceptance criteria, tasks, and progress
• Validation: Verify story tracker completeness before implementation
• AI-guided workflow: Fill story tracker with acceptance criteria and task breakdown

When to Use

• Starting a new user story within a feature
• Tracking story progress and status
• Coordinating multi-story features
• Validating story readiness before implementation

Quick Start

1. Initialize Story

# From project root
./​scripts/​init-story.sh us-001

Creates:

specs/​{feature}/​stories/​us-001/
├── story-tracker.md          ← Track progress
├── delegation/               ← Delegation briefs
├── checklists/               ← Quality gates
└── retro/                    ← Post-merge retro

2. Fill Story Tracker

Use AI-guided prompt:

/​fill-story-tracker

Guides you through:

• Story overview
• Acceptance criteria (specific, testable)
• Task breakdown (1-4 hour tasks)
• Dependencies
• Implementation status

3. Validate Completeness

./​scripts/​validate-story-tracker.sh us-001

Checks:

• All required sections present
• No [Fill] placeholders remaining
• Tasks defined with checkboxes
• Status fields initialized

Exit code 0 = passed, 1 = failed (for automated gates).

Directory Structure Convention

All process artifacts live in:

specs/​{feature}/​stories/​{story-id}/
├── delegation/                    # Delegation briefs
│   ├── {agent-name}.delegation.md
│   └── completion-reports/
│       └── {agent-name}.report.md
├── checklists/                    # Quality gate checklists
│   ├── tdd-compliance.md
│   ├── claude-audit.md
│   └── e2e-test-plan.md
└── retro/                         # Post-merge retrospective
    ├── retro.md
    └── handoff.yml

Integration with Other Skills

• Spec-driven-development: Story tracker references spec.md, plan.md, tasks.md
• Task-delegation: Delegation briefs stored in delegation/
• TDD-workflow: TDD compliance checklist in checklists/
• Retrospective-workflow: Post-merge retro in retro/

Configuration

Requires .apm-workflow.yml in project root:

current_feature: feature-id

Scripts auto-load this configuration to determine directory paths.

Validation Criteria

Story tracker must have:

• Story Overview (user value, context)
• Acceptance Criteria (specific, testable, no vague statements)
• Tasks (atomic, 1-4 hours each, with checkboxes)
• Dependencies (upstream/​downstream stories)
• Implementation Status (status, assigned to, dates)

Scripts

• init-story.sh <story-id> - Initialize story directory structure
• validate-story-tracker.sh <story-id> - Verify completeness (exit 0/​1)

Prompts

• fill-story-tracker - AI-guided story tracker completion

Templates

• story-tracker.template.md - Progress tracking template

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Legacy Core Responsibilities (Reference)

1. Feature Context Management

Maintain the big picture across all user stories

Validation Checklist:

## Cross-Story Consistency Check

### Constitution Alignment
- [ ] All stories follow [Constitution Principle I]
- [ ] Test coverage meets constitution standards (e.g., 80%+)
- [ ] Security requirements applied across all stories

### Specification Consistency
- [ ] API contracts match across stories (no breaking changes)
- [ ] Data models consistent (no schema conflicts)
- [ ] User flows connect properly (Story A output → Story B input)
- [ ] Performance targets met across all stories

### Technical Debt
- [ ] No duplicate code across story branches
- [ ] Shared utilities extracted (not copied)
- [ ] Consistent error handling patterns

Commands:

• /​feature.validate.consistency: Check for cross-story conflicts
• /​feature.validate.spec: Verify feature completeness against spec
• /​feature.validate.constitution: Audit constitution compliance

Anti-Patterns to Detect:

• ❌ API Drift: Story A defines /​api/​birds, Story B expects /​api/​v1/​birds
• ❌ Data Model Conflicts: Story A uses userId, Story B uses user_id
• ❌ Duplicate Code: Same utility function in 3 different branches
• ❌ Test Gaps: Story A has 90% coverage, Story B has 20%

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3. Progress Tracking

Monitor WIP limits and story completion

Progress Dashboard:

## Feature Progress

**WIP Limit**: 3 stories (ENFORCED)
**Completed**: 5/​12 stories
**In Progress**: 3 stories (AT LIMIT)
**Blocked**: 1 story (waiting on Story 3)

| Story | Status | Branch | Assignee | Blockers | ETA |
|-------|--------|--------|----------|----------|-----|
| US1   | ✅ Done | merged | - | - | - |
| US2   | ✅ Done | merged | - | - | - |
| US3   | 🔄 WIP | feat/​us3 | Agent-A | None | Today |
| US4   | 🔄 WIP | feat/​us4 | Agent-B | None | Tomorrow |
| US5   | 🔄 WIP | feat/​us5 | Agent-C | None | Tomorrow |
| US6   | ⏸️ Blocked | - | - | Needs US3 API | TBD |
| US7   | 📋 Ready | - | - | None | - |

Commands:

• /​feature.progress.status: Show current progress dashboard
• /​feature.progress.next: Determine next story to start (respecting WIP limit)
• /​feature.progress.blockers: Identify and resolve blockers

WIP Limit Enforcement:

## WIP Limit Protocol

1. **Before starting new story**:
   - Check: `current_wip < wip_limit` (default: 3)
   - If at limit: STOP. Wait for story completion.
   - If under limit: Proceed with task delegation

2. **When story completes**:
   - Update progress tracker
   - Merge story branch
   - Check for unblocked stories
   - Start next story if under WIP limit

3. **If story is blocked**:
   - Mark as blocked with reason
   - Does NOT count against WIP limit
   - Re-evaluate after each story completion

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Integration with Spec-Driven Development

Feature orchestration operates at the feature level, above individual stories:

Constitution (spec-kit)
    ↓
Feature Spec (spec-kit: /​speckit.specify)
    ↓
Feature Plan (spec-kit: /​speckit.plan)
    ↓
📍 FEATURE ORCHESTRATION STARTS HERE
    ↓
Story Breakdown (spec-kit: /​speckit.tasks → user stories)
    ↓
Story 1 Branch ← Fullstack Engineer (TDD, claude-framework)
Story 2 Branch ← Fullstack Engineer (TDD, claude-framework)
Story 3 Branch ← Fullstack Engineer (TDD, claude-framework)
    ↓
📍 FEATURE ORCHESTRATION: Merge & Validate
    ↓
Feature Complete (spec-kit: /​speckit.analyze)

Handoff Points:

1. From Spec-Kit to Feature Orchestration: Tasks broken down into parallelizable user stories
2. From Feature Orchestration to Engineers: Story context + branch + acceptance criteria
3. From Engineers to Feature Orchestration: Completed story + tests + merge request
4. From Feature Orchestration to Spec-Kit: Feature completion validation

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Commands Reference

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Best Practices

✅ Do This

• Maintain living context: Update after every story completion
• Enforce WIP limits strictly: No exceptions to 3-story limit
• Validate early and often: Run consistency checks before merging
• Document handoffs explicitly: Make dependencies crystal clear
• Use git worktree: Keep story branches isolated

❌ Don't Do This

• Skip context updates: Leads to merge conflicts and confusion
• Exceed WIP limits: Reduces throughput and increases context switching
• Validate only at end: Catch conflicts early, not at merge time
• Assume implicit dependencies: Document everything
• Mix stories in one branch: Keep stories isolated for parallel work

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Success Metrics

• ✅ WIP limit respected: Never exceed 3 concurrent stories
• ✅ No merge conflicts: Cross-story consistency maintained
• ✅ Constitution compliance: All stories pass validation
• ✅ Spec completeness: All requirements implemented
• ✅ Handoffs smooth: Dependencies clearly documented and met