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backlog-grooming

Testing & quality

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Updated 10-15 21:43

About this skill

Backlog grooming

Triage pass over open GUS work items + epics. Every finding is a proposal — never auto-write. Output: one report file, then confirm-and-execute.

CLI mechanics (queries, statuses, IDs, create/update, Duplicate handling, aggregate-query limits, 15-vs-18-char Ids) live in gus-cli — this skill never restates them.

Scale is real: ~900+ open WIs across ~45 epics. Two tiers:

  • Team-wide aggregates (counts, GROUP BY) — run once, cover everything. Cheap.
  • Per-WI checks (readiness, done-but-open, wrong-epic, dup, dead-link, sequencing) — too many for one whole-team pass. Scope to one epic per run, or a user-chosen subset.

Steps

1. Preflight + scope

  • Resolve gus alias + runner identity per gus-cli.
  • Ask the scope: (a) team-wide aggregates only (epics + bulk counts — fast), or (b) also deep-groom one epic (per-WI checks). Default (a); offer the epic list if (b).

Done when: alias resolves, scope chosen.

2. Team-wide pass (always — runs under both scope a and b)

Aggregates over the whole team — one query each, no per-WI memory. Mind the gus-cli ## CLI tips aggregate-paginate cap (200 rows, needs LIMIT) + 15-vs-18-char Id rule.

  • Open WI count + orphan + unpointed: scope by Scrum_Team__c = <team> (the authoritative "team backlog" set; see gus-cli ## Work items "Team's open"). Use the whitelist Status__c IN (<open list>) from gus-cli ## Open queries — NOT a NOT IN exclusion (legacy statuses like Closed-U/Ftest/Tested leak through a blacklist). orphan = + Epic__c=null, unpointed = + Story_Points__c=null. For bulk-point cleanup, also filter RecordType.Name IN ('User Story','Bug').
  • Open epics + Description__c, Development_Lead__c, Scheduled_Build__c. Drop separator epics (names like ===== below the line =====) — board dividers, not real.
  • Per-epic counts: GROUP BY Epic__c for open-WIs (whitelist Status__c IN (<open list>), same as above) and for total-WIs (any status), each scoped Epic__c IN (<the open-epic Ids>) LIMIT 200. Join GROUP-BY keys to the epic list on first 15 chars (truncate both sides). Note: GROUP BY only returns epics that HAVE WIs — derive empty-epic by set difference (open-epic list MINUS total-WI keys), not from the query rows. Then epic-complete = in total-keys, not in open-keys; epic-ownerless = Development_Lead__c null. See checks.md.

(Scope by Scrum_Team__c and by epic-membership can diverge — an orphan WI belongs to the team but no epic; per-epic sums won't equal the team total. Both are intended: team count for headline, epic-IN for per-epic.)

Done when: every team-wide check in checks.md has a count or list. High-volume counts (orphans, unpointed, ownerless) reported as a number + sample, not a per-item list.

3. Per-epic deep pass (scope b only)

For the chosen epic, pull its open WIs (whitelist Status__c IN (<open list>); SELECT Id, Name, Subject__c, Status__c, Story_Points__c, RecordType.Name, Details__c, Details_and_Steps_to_Reproduce__c (Bug-type body — see checks.md Readiness), Assignee__c). Run the per-WI checks in checks.md: readiness (grill / ai-auto), wrong-epic, open-vs-open dup, dead-link, merged-not-Completed, sequencing-health. Then the gated done-but-open investigation (step 4).

Done when: every open WI in the epic evaluated by every per-WI check; each emits a list (possibly empty) of {WI, evidence, proposed action}.

4. Gated code investigation (done-but-open, scope b)

  1. Filter the epic's open WIs to plausible done-but-open candidates — has a PR/issue link, names a greppable feature/file, or has shipped siblings. Skip pure-design / coordination WIs.
  2. Log the drop count: "investigating N of M; skipped M−N (reason)." Never silently truncate.
  3. Fan out one investigator subagent per candidate (caveman:cavecrew-investigator or Explore). Note: WIs may reference PRs in other repos (e.g. forcedotcom/apex-language-support) — the investigator follows those via gh. Each: blame the cited/likely area → introducing commit → PR → owning WI name. Returns {tier, citation, causingPR, relatedWI}. See checks.md for tier bar + subagent prompt.

Done when: every filtered candidate has a verdict; drop count logged.

5. Write the report

Write .claude/backlog-grooming-<YYYY-MM-DD>.md (gitignored). Section per check; each finding = WI/Epic Name + link + evidence/citation + proposed action + tier (done-but-open only). Order high-confidence → low. Top summary: counts per check, scope, investigation drop count.

Done when: file written, every finding present with its citation, chat shows the summary table.

6. Confirm and execute

(Dry-run mode: if the user asked for read-only / validation, stop here — list what would be proposed, perform no writes.)

Walk findings with the user. Per gus-cli ## Safety: present each write, act only on explicit yes. High-volume buckets (orphans, unpointed) → offer bulk action or top-N, not one-by-one. Execute approved writes (Close/Duplicate+Related_Work__c, epic close, [ai-auto] tag, epic move, dev-lead tag, point=2). Grill candidates not executed here — user later runs grill-me on ones they pick.

Done when: every approved write succeeded (verify per gus-cli), report annotated with actioned vs deferred.