Planning Patterns
Overview
Structured methodology for comprehensive planning that flows directly into BUILD execution through plan-to-build continuity.
Planning Process
1. Research Phase
- Search for existing solutions and patterns
- Identify relevant libraries and tools
- Find best practices in the domain
- Check for known pitfalls
2. Brainstorming Phase
- Generate at least 3 alternative approaches
- Evaluate trade-offs: complexity, time, risk, scalability
- Consider build-vs-buy decisions
- Rank by feasibility and alignment
3. Plan Creation
- Structure with phases, tasks, and milestones
- Define acceptance criteria per phase
- Map dependencies between tasks
- Include risk assessment with mitigations
- Define TDD strategy per coding phase
- Estimate effort and timeline
4. Review Gate
- Verify completeness against original request
- Validate logical phase ordering
- Check actionability of risk mitigations
- Score plan completeness (>=80 to pass)
Plan-to-Build Continuity
- Save plans to
docs/plans/directory - Reference plan file in session memory
- BUILD workflow reads plan during requirements clarification
- Component-builder follows documented phases
When to Use
- PLAN workflow (primary)
- Any task requiring strategic thinking before execution
Agents Used
planner(primary consumer)github-researcher(research phase)