holiday-property-booking/09-operating-cadence-and-batch-plan.md

09. Operating Cadence and Batch Plan

Purpose

Keep the holiday-property-booking board moving in a predictable rhythm so Neo always has clear implementation work and the project does not stall between batches.

Cadence

Every hour: Neo takes the top Ready ticket

• Neo takes the top ticket in Ready for Dev.
• Neo follows the normal dev procedure for that ticket:
  • move it to In Dev
  • branch from develop
  • implement the work
  • push the branch
  • report blockers or validation-ready evidence
  • merge the feature branch back to develop when the implementation slice is done
  • leave the merge-complete comment and hand the ticket forward for validation or promotion according to the playbook
• When the ticket is finished, post a Discord-ready completion summary with the ticket ID, what changed, branch/merge state, and the next step or blocker.
• Neo works one ticket at a time unless Morpheus explicitly batches related work.

Every hour: Morpheus reviews the lanes

• Review the full board for:
  • stalled In Dev work
  • validation work waiting on Ready for Test, Deploying to Dev, or In QA
  • release work waiting on Ready for QA Promotion, Deploying to QA, QA Deployed, Ready for Production, or Included in Next Release
  • blockers that need triage
  • queue depth in Ready for Dev
• If a ticket is clearly stalled, route it to the correct owner and keep the handoff explicit.
• Morpheus keeps the promotion side of the flow: wait for Neo's merge to develop, check the develop build, then promote develop -> qa when ready.

Batch Rule

• Count the tickets that have not yet been worked on, meaning the tickets still waiting in Backlog or Ready for Dev.
• If that count is less than 5, continue the project by creating the next batch of work.
• The next batch should come from the next unresolved phase in the project plan, in dependency order.
• Keep the batch grouped so the work stays coherent and reviewable.
• Keep refilling the ready queue until there are at least 5 unworked tickets, or until the next phase is exhausted.

Routing Rule

• For each new ready ticket, add a paste-ready comment that states:
  • the current lane
  • the target lane
  • the next responsible agent
  • the next concrete action
• Send Neo the actual handoff directly; the ticket comment is the audit trail, not the delivery channel.
• Keep the ticket comment short and actionable so it makes sense even if someone reads it later without the surrounding chat.
• Keep lane moves and comments aligned with the playbook lane model; do not skip the comment even when the move is automated or obvious.
• Do not leave the queue in a state where no ticket is clearly assigned.

Acceptance Criteria

• Neo always has a top ready ticket to pick up on the 30-minute cadence.
• Neo always has a top ready ticket to pick up on the hourly cadence.
• Neo posts a completion summary to Discord when a ticket finishes.
• Neo still owns merge-back-to-develop for feature work.
• Morpheus still owns develop -> qa promotion after develop is green.
• Ticket moves and comments stay consistent with the playbook lane model.
• Morpheus can see the full lane state on the hourly review.
• The ready queue is replenished before it drops below 5 unworked tickets.
• New batches are created in dependency order instead of ad hoc.
• The board never stalls because the next group of tickets was not prepared.