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Vision & Planning Agents

This document provides a comprehensive overview of Vision & Planning agents in the ConnectSoft AI Software Factory. It is written for product managers, architects, and stakeholders who need to understand how the Factory transforms product ideas into actionable plans.

Vision & Planning agents operate early in the development lifecycle, transforming vague ideas into defined product visions, scopes, epics, and feature sets. They ensure alignment with business goals and technical feasibility before detailed architecture and coding begin.

Note

Vision & Planning agents work with product managers and stakeholders to refine requirements. They don't generate final code—they create the foundation that Architect and Engineering agents build upon.

Agent Cluster Composition

The Vision and Product Planning cluster consists of 4 specialized agents that work together to transform unstructured business ideas into structured, execution-ready product plans:

Agent Core Function Primary Output
Vision Architect Agent Converts business ideas into structured software vision documents Vision Document (vision.md, vision.json)
Product Manager Agent Builds product roadmap, MVP plan, personas, and release phases Product Plan (product-plan.md, features.json)
Product Owner Agent Translates plan into backlog-ready user stories and acceptance criteria User Stories (user-stories.md, acceptance-criteria.md)
Business Analyst Agent Extracts structured business requirements, rules, and processes Business Requirements (requirements.md, rules.md)

Each agent builds upon the outputs of previous agents, forming a composable, semantic planning pipeline.

Mission and Scope

Vision & Planning agents are responsible for:

  • Transforming Ideas into Visions - Converting high-level concepts into clear product visions
  • Scoping and Slicing - Breaking down large ideas into manageable epics and features
  • Requirements Refinement - Clarifying ambiguous requirements into actionable specifications
  • Risk and Complexity Assessment - Identifying risks and complexity early in the process
  • Business Rule Extraction - Formalizing business rules and processes
  • Product Roadmap Creation - Planning phased delivery and MVP definition

What They Do:

  • Refine product ideas into detailed requirements
  • Create epics, user stories, and feature breakdowns
  • Align requirements with business goals
  • Assess technical feasibility and risks
  • Create product roadmaps and release plans
  • Extract and formalize business rules
  • Define personas and user needs

What They Do NOT Do:

  • Generate final code or architecture
  • Make detailed technical decisions
  • Design bounded contexts or APIs
  • Implement features

Inputs and Outputs

Inputs

Input Source Description
High-Level Business Goals Product managers, stakeholders What problem are we solving?
Problem Statements Business requirements User needs and pain points
Constraints Business context Budget, timelines, tech stack preferences
Existing System Context Knowledge system Current systems and integrations
Market Research External sources Competitive analysis, market trends

Outputs

Output Consumer Description
Product/Feature Briefs Architect Agents High-level product vision and goals
Epic & Feature Outlines Architect Agents, Engineering Agents Detailed feature breakdowns
User Stories Engineering Agents Actionable user stories with acceptance criteria
Product Roadmaps Product managers, stakeholders Phased delivery plans
Risk & Complexity Tags Architect Agents Early risk identification

Core Capabilities

Market and Solution Framing

  • Problem-Solution Fit - Analyze if the solution fits the problem
  • Market Positioning - Understand competitive landscape
  • Value Proposition - Define clear value proposition
  • User Personas - Identify target users and their needs

High-Level Scoping and Slicing

  • Epic Decomposition - Break large features into epics
  • Feature Prioritization - Prioritize features by business value
  • MVP Definition - Identify minimum viable product scope
  • Release Planning - Plan phased releases

Risk and Complexity Tagging

  • Technical Risk Assessment - Identify technical risks early
  • Complexity Estimation - Estimate feature complexity
  • Dependency Identification - Identify dependencies between features
  • Feasibility Analysis - Assess if features are feasible

Mapping to Bounded Contexts

  • Domain Boundary Identification - Suggest initial bounded context boundaries
  • Context Relationships - Identify relationships between contexts
  • Integration Points - Identify integration needs

Typical Workflows

Workflow: New SaaS Product Idea

  1. Receive Input - Product manager provides high-level idea
  2. Refine Vision - Vision agent refines idea into product vision
  3. Define Scope - Planning agent breaks down into epics and features
  4. Assess Risks - Identify risks and complexity
  5. Create Roadmap - Plan phased delivery
  6. Hand Off to Architect - Pass refined requirements to Architect agents

Workflow: Feature Addition to Existing Product

  1. Receive Feature Request - New feature request for existing product
  2. Analyze Context - Review existing system and domain
  3. Refine Requirements - Clarify feature requirements
  4. Break Down - Create user stories and acceptance criteria
  5. Assess Impact - Identify impact on existing features
  6. Plan Integration - Plan integration with existing system

Agent Collaboration Flow

The Vision and Planning agents collaborate through event-driven handoffs:

sequenceDiagram
    participant Human as Human Input
    participant VA as Vision Architect
    participant PM as Product Manager
    participant PO as Product Owner
    participant BA as Business Analyst
    participant Arch as Architect Agents

    Human->>VA: Business Idea/Prompt
    VA->>VA: Create Vision Document
    VA->>PM: Emit VisionDocumentCreated
    VA->>BA: Emit VisionDocumentCreated (parallel)

    PM->>PM: Create Product Plan
    BA->>BA: Extract Requirements
    PM->>PO: Emit ProductPlanCreated
    BA->>PO: Emit BusinessRequirementsReady

    PO->>PO: Generate User Stories
    PO->>Arch: Emit BacklogReady
Hold "Alt" / "Option" to enable pan & zoom

Standard Sequential Flow

flowchart LR
    A[Product Idea] --> B[Vision Architect Agent]
    B -->|VisionDocumentCreated| C[Product Manager Agent]
    C -->|ProductPlanCreated| D[Product Owner Agent]
    D -->|BacklogReady| E[Business Analyst Agent]
    E -->|BusinessRequirementsReady| F[Architect Agents]
    F --> G[Architecture Blueprint]

    style A fill:#e1f5ff
    style B fill:#fff4e1
    style C fill:#e8f5e9
    style D fill:#f3e5f5
    style E fill:#fce4ec
    style G fill:#e0f2f1
Hold "Alt" / "Option" to enable pan & zoom

Alternative: Fork-Join Flow

For complex projects, Product Manager and Business Analyst can work in parallel:

flowchart TD
    Vision[Vision Architect Agent] -->|VisionDocumentCreated| PM[Product Manager Agent]
    Vision -->|VisionDocumentCreated| BA[Business Analyst Agent]
    PM -->|ProductPlanCreated| PO[Product Owner Agent]
    BA -->|BusinessRequirementsReady| PO
    PO -->|BacklogReady| Arch[Architect Agents]
Hold "Alt" / "Option" to enable pan & zoom

Individual Agent Details

Vision Architect Agent

Role: Translates freeform input into structured Vision Document

Inputs: - Human idea, objective prompt, constraints - Use case context, project metadata - Optional: Template info, runtime constraints

Outputs: - vision.md - Human-readable vision document - vision.json - Machine-consumable structured version - Metadata with traceId, software_type, confidence_score - Event: VisionDocumentCreated

Key Responsibilities: - Parse freeform input to extract problem, goals, constraints - Formalize business problem definition - Identify strategic angles and market fit - Draft high-level solution approach - Classify software type (SaaS, mobile app, API, etc.) - Suggest initial feature mapping - Define personas (users, admins, stakeholders) - Formulate success metrics - Generate structured vision artifacts

See: Detailed Vision Architect Agent specification in Factory Documentation

Product Manager Agent

Role: Plans product roadmap, MVP cutline, and release phases

Inputs: - Vision Document from Vision Architect - Business Requirements (if Business Analyst ran early) - Strategic goals, personas - Market research and competitive analysis

Outputs: - product-plan.md - Product roadmap and strategy - features.json - Feature breakdown - epics.yaml - Epic definitions - MVP scope definition - Release phases and milestones - Event: ProductPlanCreated

Key Responsibilities: - Build product roadmap with phased delivery - Define MVP scope and cutline - Prioritize features by business value - Plan release phases and milestones - Align product strategy with business goals - Create feature breakdowns and epics - Define success metrics and KPIs

See: Detailed Product Manager Agent specification in Factory Documentation

Product Owner Agent

Role: Generates backlog-ready user stories and acceptance criteria

Inputs: - Product Plan from Product Manager - Business Requirements from Business Analyst - Personas and user needs - Constraints and technical limitations

Outputs: - user-stories.md - Detailed user stories - acceptance-criteria.md - Acceptance criteria for each story - story-map.json - Story mapping and prioritization - Backlog ready for development - Event: BacklogReady

Key Responsibilities: - Translate product plan into actionable user stories - Define acceptance criteria for each story - Create story maps and prioritization - Ensure stories are INVEST-compliant (Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, Testable) - Link stories to epics and features - Prepare backlog for Architect and Engineering agents

See: Detailed Product Owner Agent specification in Factory Documentation

Business Analyst Agent

Role: Extracts structured business requirements, rules, and processes

Inputs: - Vision Document from Vision Architect - Product Plan (if available) - Domain constraints and regulations - Existing business processes

Outputs: - requirements.md - Functional requirements - rules.md - Business rules and policies - bpmn.mmd - Business process models - gap-analysis.md - Gap analysis - Event: BusinessRequirementsReady

Key Responsibilities: - Extract functional requirements from vision - Formalize business rules and policies - Model business processes (BPMN) - Identify gaps and dependencies - Ensure compliance with domain regulations - Validate requirements completeness - Enrich backlog items with business context

Positioning Flexibility: - After Product Owner - Validates and enriches backlog (standard flow) - Before Product Manager - Early requirements decomposition (complex domains) - Parallel with Product Manager - Fork-join model for speed

See: Detailed Business Analyst Agent specification in Factory Documentation

Collaboration with Other Agents

With Architect Agents

Hand Off:

  • Product briefs and feature outlines
  • Initial bounded context suggestions
  • Risk and complexity assessments

Receive Feedback:

  • Feasibility concerns
  • Architecture constraints
  • Technical limitations

With Engineering Agents

Hand Off:

  • User stories with acceptance criteria
  • Feature specifications
  • Business rules and requirements

Receive Feedback:

  • Implementation complexity
  • Technical blockers
  • Estimation adjustments

With QA Agents

Receive Feedback:

  • Testability concerns
  • Quality risks
  • Edge case identification

Example Prompts and Tasks

Example 1: New Product Vision

Task: "Given this high-level requirement: 'We need a subscription billing system for our SaaS product', draft epics and key features."

Output:

  • Epic: Subscription Management
  • Epic: Invoice Generation
  • Epic: Payment Processing
  • Epic: Billing Analytics

Example 2: MVP Scoping

Task: "Refine this backlog to fit a 3-month MVP timeline."

Input: Large feature backlog Output: Prioritized MVP scope with phased delivery plan

Example 3: Feature Refinement

Task: "Clarify this ambiguous requirement: 'Users should be able to manage their subscriptions'."

Output: Detailed user stories with acceptance criteria:

  • As a tenant admin, I want to create subscriptions
  • As a tenant admin, I want to cancel subscriptions
  • As a tenant admin, I want to upgrade/downgrade subscriptions

Example 4: Risk Assessment

Task: "Assess risks and complexity for this feature: 'Real-time payment processing with Stripe'."

Output:

  • Risk: Payment provider downtime
  • Risk: PCI compliance requirements
  • Complexity: High (external integration, error handling)

Example 5: Release Planning

Task: "Create a 6-month release plan for this product roadmap."

Output: Phased release plan with milestones and deliverables

KPIs and Evaluation Criteria

KPI Description How We Measure
Clarity of Epics/Requirements How clear and actionable are the outputs Number of clarification requests from downstream agents
Alignment with Business Goals How well outputs align with business objectives Stakeholder review and approval rate
Reduction in Rework How much rework is needed downstream Changes requested by Architect/Engineering agents
Time to First Blueprint Speed from idea to architecture blueprint Time from Vision input to Architect output
Feature Completeness How complete are the feature specifications Coverage of acceptance criteria and edge cases

Tip

Good Vision & Planning outputs reduce downstream rework significantly. Clear, well-scoped requirements lead to faster architecture and implementation.

Risks and Anti-Patterns

Risk 1: Overdesigning Future Phases

Problem: Planning agents focus too much on future phases instead of MVP.

Solution: Enforce MVP-first thinking. Prioritize immediate needs over future features.

Risk 2: Conflicting Goals or Ambiguous Scope

Problem: Requirements are ambiguous or contain conflicting goals.

Solution: Require clear acceptance criteria. Flag ambiguities for human review.

Risk 3: Ignoring Technical Constraints

Problem: Planning agents ignore technical constraints or feasibility.

Solution: Include technical feasibility checks. Get Architect agent feedback early.

Risk 4: Scope Creep

Problem: Scope expands beyond original intent.

Solution: Enforce scope boundaries. Require explicit approval for scope changes.

Warning

Biggest Risk: Overdesigning future phases instead of focusing on MVP. Vision & Planning agents should prioritize immediate value delivery over comprehensive future planning. Start small, iterate, and learn.

Event-Driven Activation

All Vision and Planning agents communicate via structured events:

Event Emitted By Consumed By Description
VisionDocumentCreated Vision Architect Agent Product Manager, Business Analyst Vision document ready for planning
ProductPlanCreated Product Manager Agent Product Owner Product plan ready for backlog creation
BusinessRequirementsReady Business Analyst Agent Product Owner, Product Manager Business requirements ready
BacklogReady Product Owner Agent Architect Agents, Engineering Agents Backlog ready for architecture and development