bmad-story-planning_skill

Overview

This skill transforms high-level epics and architecture decisions into developer-ready stories with clear acceptance criteria, dependencies, and delivery signals. It prepares markdown story files, updates the backlog summary, and recommends the next items to activate for development. The goal is to deliver actionable, prioritized story packages that align with architecture and sprint constraints.

How this skill works

The skill checks prerequisite artifacts and runs a readiness checklist before drafting stories. It prioritizes epics by value, dependencies, and risk, then creates or updates story markdown using a template or a script when structured JSON is available. Each story includes acceptance criteria, prerequisites, test hooks, and citations to upstream requirements and architecture decisions.

When to use it

• You have epics and architecture defined and need developer-ready tasks
• During sprint planning to break an epic into implementable stories
• When preparing a backlog for the next development cycle
• If stakeholders request a clear handoff of scope, acceptance criteria, and dependencies
• To convert product requirements into testable, sequenced work items

Best practices

• Verify checklist and prerequisite artifacts exist before creating stories
• Prioritize by value, dependency, and risk to sequence work effectively
• Include concrete acceptance criteria and test hooks for each story
• Cite architecture decisions and product requirement references in every story
• Use the structured script when JSON is available to ensure consistency

Example use cases

• Break an epic 'User Onboarding' into backend, API, and UI stories with clear handoffs
• Convert architecture-approved features into sprint-ready tasks during planning
• Update backlog sequencing and highlight blockers before a planning meeting
• Generate story markdown files automatically from structured product JSON
• Recommend the next set of stories to start based on current sprint capacity