Work
Work items are the execution side of the project: they bring the requirements to life. Requirements stay the authority; work links to them and never replaces them.
For: Project lead, Team developer
The two axes
| Axis | Items | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Value tree | Theme → Epic → Story or Task → Subtask | One parent each, one level up; stories and tasks are peers and both can have subtasks |
| Delivery container | Work Package | Epics, stories and tasks are *planned in* one package; packages carry owner, dates and budget and can nest |
Story or task?
| Type | Use it for | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Story | Any work that involves development (code changes) | A new screen, an API change, a migration script, an integration |
| Task | Work without development | Configuring a system, granting access, updating records, a data correction, writing documentation |
Both sit under an epic and both can have subtasks. Coding agents work on stories; if a task turns out to need code, create a story for that part.
Linking work to requirements
- Implements: the requirement the work brings to life (epic → business / stakeholder; story → stakeholder / functional / non-functional / technical; task → functional / non-functional / technical / project).
- Covers: the acceptance criteria a story or task must satisfy. Criteria are not copied into work.
- Serves: the objective a theme or epic contributes to. Delivers: the project requirement a work package delivers.
- Constrained by, Depends on, Conflicts with, Relates to complete the picture.
Keep in mind Retired requirements cannot be implemented. Epics, stories and tasks without a requirement are flagged as scope creep, and work on Draft requirements is flagged too.
Agents on the work
- An item an AI agent is working on shows which agent and since when; other agents see it and are told not to work on it in parallel. If one writes to it anyway, Agent health raises a signal (DRF-21).
- When an agent stops with the item unfinished it leaves a handover note — done, open, next step, anything half-done — shown on the item and to the next agent that opens it.
Status and measures
Each type has its own flow: stories Backlog → Ready → In progress → Code review → Verification → Done; tasks Backlog → Awaiting approval → Ready → In progress → Check → Done; epics Idea → Analysis → Ready → In delivery → Done; subtasks To do → Doing → Done. Coding agents may move stories to In progress and Code review and tasks to In progress and Check; approval, verification, check and Done are people's decisions.
Themes, epics, packages, stories and tasks show two measures: delivery progress (stories and tasks done, or subtasks inside a single story or task) and acceptance (covered criteria verified as met). A large gap means work is reported done faster than it is proven.