Phase 2: Product Engineer Creates Epics & Stories

Pat (Product Engineer) defines what needs to be built, and AI breaks it into actionable stories.

Table of contents

  1. 2.1 — Pat Defines the Problem
  2. 2.2 — AI-Assisted Story Breakdown

2.1 — Pat Defines the Problem

Task Manager App: Task Manager

Pat opens the Task Manager and creates a new Epic:

Epic: Build the buildbarn-forms React Component Library

Problem: Platform engineers at Acme configure Buildbarn (a remote build execution system) by hand-editing JSONNET and YAML files based on complex protobuf schemas. Configuration covers workers, storage, schedulers, and browsers — each defined by deeply nested proto messages. This is error-prone, undocumented, and requires deep proto knowledge.

Success Criteria:

  • Form components for all major Buildbarn config sections (worker, storage, scheduler, browser)
  • Type-safe validation against proto constraints
  • JSON/YAML export for deployment
  • Published as @acme/buildbarn-forms npm package

Repos: buildbarn-forms, buildbarn-forms-proto

2.2 — AI-Assisted Story Breakdown

Pat clicks “AI Breakdown” on the epic. The AI agent reads the epic description, the repo structure, the proto definitions, and existing Buildbarn config examples.

AI generates a complete story breakdown:

# Story Priority Points
BBF-1 Proto schema parser — read .proto files and extract message/field definitions High 5
BBF-2 Form renderer engine — generate React form components from parsed proto schema High 8
BBF-3 Worker config form — bb_worker proto with platform/concurrency fields High 5
BBF-4 Storage config form — bb_storage blobstore/AC/CAS sections High 5
BBF-5 Scheduler config form — bb_scheduler platform queues and drain configs Medium 5
BBF-6 Browser config form — bb_browser instance name and CAS settings Medium 3
BBF-7 Validation engine — proto constraint validation (required fields, enums, ranges) High 8
BBF-8 JSON/YAML export — serialize form state to deployable config High 5
BBF-9 Storybook documentation — interactive component gallery Low 3
BBF-10 npm package publishing — CI/CD for versioned releases Medium 5

Pat reviews the breakdown, adjusts priorities, and confirms. The stories are created in Jira (via bidirectional sync) and appear in every team member’s RobOS dashboard.

Jordan assigns reviewers: Jordan is the reviewer for all PRs in this project.