Reviewing Task Artifacts

Purpose

Find gaps in task artifacts and generate issues that need resolution before proceeding to the next phase. Focus on vertical slice completeness, TDD structure, and traceability. This skill provides phase-specific review criteria for the Devil's Advocate.

Review Focus by Phase

Each phase has specific checks to execute. The checks identify Critical, Important, and Minor issues.

Phase	Focus Area	Key Checks
Mapping	Story coverage	All P1/P2 stories mapped to cycles
Mapping	Slice quality	Cycles are true vertical slices
Mapping	Dependencies	Foundation vs feature correctly identified
Tasks	TDD structure	Test-first task ordering in each cycle
Tasks	Coverage	All cycles have implementation tasks
Tasks	Format	Task IDs, file paths, markers correct
Cross	Traceability	Stories -> Cycles -> Tasks chain complete

See PHASE-CHECKLISTS.md for detailed phase-specific checklists and key questions.

Issue Classification

Issues are classified by severity to determine appropriate action:

Severity	Definition	Action
Critical	Blocks progress; must resolve	Return to Task Architect
Important	Significant gap; should resolve	Flag for this iteration
Minor	Polish item; can defer	Note for later

See ISSUE-TEMPLATES.md for severity classification rules, issue documentation formats, and report templates.

Review Process

Step 1: Gather Context

Read and understand:

• The artifact being reviewed (task-mapping.md or tasks.md)
• The spec requirements (user stories, acceptance criteria)
• Plan artifacts (for consistency checks)
• Previous task artifacts (for cross-phase checks)

Step 2: Execute Checks

For each check in the phase-specific checklist:

1. Ask the question
2. Look for evidence in the artifact
3. If issue found, classify severity
4. Document the issue

Step 3: Cross-Reference

• Check traceability (can trace story -> cycle -> tasks)
• Check consistency (mapping and tasks agree)
• Check completeness (nothing obviously missing)

Step 4: Generate Report

• Classify verdict based on issues found
• Document all issues with evidence
• Provide specific, actionable suggestions
• Acknowledge what was done well

Verdict Criteria

Verdict	Criteria
ready	Zero Critical, zero Important issues
needs-revision	1-3 Important issues, fixable in one iteration
critical-gaps	1+ Critical or 4+ Important issues

Key Principles to Validate

Vertical Slicing

• Cycles should deliver user value, not horizontal layers
• Each cycle should be independently testable
• Foundation cycles contain shared infrastructure
• Feature cycles can parallelize

TDD Structure

• Every cycle starts with a test task
• Implementation follows the test
• Refactor and demo complete the cycle
• No implementation without tests

Traceability

• Every P1/P2 story maps to at least one cycle
• Every cycle has corresponding tasks
• Every task has a specific file path
• Story labels link tasks to requirements

Quality Checklist

Before finalizing review, verify:

• All phase-specific checks executed
• Issues properly classified by severity
• Evidence cited for each issue
• Suggested fixes are actionable
• Verdict matches issue severity
• Cross-artifact concerns noted
• Strengths acknowledged