Skip to content

feat(instructions): shared story-quality conventions #781

@chaosdinosaur

Description

@chaosdinosaur

Summary

Extract shared story quality conventions into a standalone story-quality.instructions.md that both the Agile Coach agent and ADO sprint planning (gap analysis work item generation) can reference when creating or evaluating work items.

Currently, story quality patterns are distributed across three files:

  • Agile Coach (agile-coach.agent.md) — title patterns, acceptance criteria format, Definition of Done notes, open questions template
  • ADO Interaction Templates (ado-interaction-templates.instructions.md) — work item description templates with acceptance criteria formatting
  • Product Manager Advisor (product-manager-advisor.agent.md) — story quality assurance checklist (scope, sizing, evidence source, completeness dimensions)

These patterns overlap but are not consistent. A shared instructions file would establish a single source of truth for story quality conventions referenceable by any agent that creates or evaluates work items.

Part of #774. Follow-up from review comment.

Changes

New Files

  • .github/instructions/shared/story-quality.instructions.md
    • Title conventions (action-oriented, verb-first, concise)
    • Description format guidance (who, what, why, evidence source)
    • Acceptance criteria quality rules (binary, testable, checklist-style, 5-10 items typical)
    • Definition of Done checklist conventions (tests, docs, observability, migration)
    • Scope and sizing guidance (single concern, one-week boundary, explicit exclusions)
    • Open questions / risks / dependencies section conventions

Modified Files

  • .github/agents/project-planning/agile-coach.agent.md — reference shared conventions via #file: instead of inline definitions
  • .github/instructions/ado/ado-backlog-sprint.instructions.md — reference shared conventions for gap analysis work item generation
  • collections/project-planning.collection.yml — add story-quality.instructions.md entry

Acceptance Criteria

  • story-quality.instructions.md created with conventions extracted from Agile Coach, Interaction Templates, and Product Manager Advisor
  • Agile Coach references shared file; inline duplication removed
  • Sprint planning gap analysis references shared conventions when proposing new work items
  • Collection manifest updated
  • No regression in Agile Coach output format (same template structure)
  • Markdown linting passes

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

Labels

featureNew feature triggering minor version bumpinstructionsCopilot instruction files (.instructions.md)

Type

Projects

No projects

Milestone

Relationships

None yet

Development

No branches or pull requests

Issue actions