Comprehensive terminology reference for the BMad Method Module.
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## Navigation
- [Core Concepts](#core-concepts)
- [Scale & Complexity](#scale--complexity)
- [Planning Documents](#planning-documents)
- [Workflow & Phases](#workflow--phases)
- [Agents & Roles](#agents--roles)
- [Status & Tracking](#status--tracking)
- [Project Types](#project-types)
- [Implementation Terms](#implementation-terms)
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## Core Concepts
### BMM (BMad Method Module)
Core orchestration system for AI-driven agile development, providing comprehensive lifecycle management through specialized agents and workflows.
### BMad Method
The complete methodology for AI-assisted software development, encompassing planning, architecture, implementation, and quality assurance workflows that adapt to project complexity.
BMad Method's intelligent workflow orchestration that automatically adjusts planning depth, documentation requirements, and implementation processes based on project needs through three distinct planning tracks (Quick Flow, BMad Method, Enterprise Method).
A specialized AI persona with specific expertise (PM, Architect, SM, DEV, TEA) that guides users through workflows and creates deliverables. Agents have defined capabilities, communication styles, and workflow access.
### Workflow
A multi-step guided process that orchestrates AI agent activities to produce specific deliverables. Workflows are interactive and adapt to user context.
Fast implementation track using tech-spec planning only. Best for bug fixes, small features, and changes with clear scope. Typical range: 1-15 stories. No architecture phase needed. Examples: bug fixes, OAuth login, search features.
Full product planning track using PRD + Architecture + UX. Best for products, platforms, and complex features requiring system design. Typical range: 10-50+ stories. Examples: admin dashboards, e-commerce platforms, SaaS products.
The methodology path (Quick Flow, BMad Method, or Enterprise Method) chosen for a project based on planning needs, complexity, and requirements rather than story count alone.
**Quick Flow track only.** Comprehensive technical plan created upfront that serves as the primary planning document for small changes or features. Contains problem statement, solution approach, file-level changes, stack detection (brownfield), testing strategy, and developer resources.
**BMad Method/Enterprise tracks only.** Detailed technical planning document created during implementation (just-in-time) for each epic. Supplements PRD + Architecture with epic-specific implementation details, code-level design decisions, and integration points.
**Key Difference:** Tech-spec (Quick Flow) is created upfront and is the only planning doc. Epic-tech-spec (BMad Method/Enterprise) is created per epic during implementation and supplements PRD + Architecture.
**Scale-Adaptive:** Architecture complexity scales with track - BMad Method is lightweight to moderate, Enterprise Method is comprehensive with security/devops/test strategies.
High-level feature groupings that contain multiple related stories. Typically span 5-15 stories each and represent cohesive functionality (e.g., "User Authentication Epic").
### Product Brief
Optional strategic planning document created in Phase 1 (Analysis) that captures product vision, market context, user needs, and high-level requirements before detailed planning.
### GDD (Game Design Document)
Game development equivalent of PRD, created by Game Designer agent for game projects.
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## Workflow & Phases
### Phase 0: Documentation (Prerequisite)
**Conditional phase for brownfield projects.** Creates comprehensive codebase documentation before planning. Only required if existing documentation is insufficient for AI agents.
Discovery and research phase including brainstorming, research workflows, and product brief creation. Optional for Quick Flow, recommended for BMad Method, required for Enterprise Method.
**Always required.** Creates formal requirements and work breakdown. Routes to tech-spec (Quick Flow) or PRD (BMad Method/Enterprise) based on selected track.
Sprint-based development through story-by-story iteration. Uses sprint-planning, epic-tech-context, create-story, story-context, dev-story, code-review, and retrospective workflows.
Fast-track workflow system for Quick Flow track projects that goes straight from idea to tech-spec to implementation, bypassing heavy planning. Designed for bug fixes, small features, and rapid prototyping.
Pattern where epic-tech-specs are created during implementation (Phase 4) right before working on each epic, rather than all upfront. Enables learning and adaptation.
### Context Injection
Dynamic technical guidance generated for each story via epic-tech-context and story-context workflows, providing exact expertise when needed without upfront over-planning.
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## Agents & Roles
### PM (Product Manager)
Agent responsible for creating PRDs, tech-specs, and managing product requirements. Primary agent for Phase 2 planning.
### Analyst (Business Analyst)
Agent that initializes workflows, conducts research, creates product briefs, and tracks progress. Often the entry point for new projects.
Agent that designs system architecture, creates architecture documents, performs technical reviews, and validates designs. Primary agent for Phase 3 solutioning.
Agent that implements stories, writes code, runs tests, and performs code reviews. Primary implementer in Phase 4.
### TEA (Test Architect)
Agent responsible for test strategy, quality gates, NFR assessment, and comprehensive quality assurance. Integrates throughout all phases.
### Paige (Documentation Guide)
Agent specialized in creating and maintaining high-quality technical documentation. Expert in documentation standards, information architecture, and professional technical writing.
### UX Designer
Agent that creates UX design documents, interaction patterns, and visual specifications for UI-heavy projects.
### Game Designer
Specialized agent for game development projects. Creates game design documents (GDD) and game-specific workflows.
### BMad Master
Meta-level orchestrator agent from BMad Core. Facilitates party mode, lists available tasks and workflows, and provides high-level guidance across all modules.
### Party Mode
Multi-agent collaboration feature where all installed agents (19+ from BMM, CIS, BMB, custom modules) discuss challenges together in real-time. BMad Master orchestrates, selecting 2-3 relevant agents per message for natural cross-talk and debate. Best for strategic decisions, creative brainstorming, cross-functional alignment, and complex problem-solving. See [Party Mode Guide](./party-mode.md).
**Phases 1-3.** Tracking file that shows current phase, completed workflows, progress, and next recommended actions. Created by workflow-init, updated automatically.
**Phase 4 only.** Single source of truth for implementation tracking. Contains all epics, stories, and retrospectives with current status for each. Created by sprint-planning, updated by agents.
- **backlog** - Epic exists in planning docs but no context yet
- **contexted** - Epic has technical context via epic-tech-context
### Retrospective
Workflow run after completing each epic to capture learnings, identify improvements, and feed insights into next epic planning. Critical for continuous improvement.
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## Project Types
### Greenfield
New project starting from scratch with no existing codebase. Freedom to establish patterns, choose stack, and design from clean slate.
### Brownfield
Existing project with established codebase, patterns, and constraints. Requires understanding existing architecture, respecting established conventions, and planning integration with current systems.
**Critical:** Brownfield projects should run document-project workflow BEFORE planning to ensure AI agents have adequate context about existing code.
### document-project Workflow
**Brownfield prerequisite.** Analyzes and documents existing codebase, creating comprehensive documentation including project overview, architecture analysis, source tree, API contracts, and data models. Three scan levels: quick, deep, exhaustive.
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## Implementation Terms
### Story
Single unit of implementable work with clear acceptance criteria, typically 2-8 hours of development effort. Stories are grouped into epics and tracked in sprint-status.yaml.
### Story File
Markdown file containing story details: description, acceptance criteria, technical notes, dependencies, implementation guidance, and testing requirements.
### Story Context
Technical guidance document created via story-context workflow that provides implementation-specific context, references existing patterns, suggests approaches, and injects expertise for the specific story.
### Epic Context
Technical planning document created via epic-tech-context workflow before drafting stories within an epic. Provides epic-level technical direction, architecture notes, and implementation strategy.
### Sprint Planning
Workflow that initializes Phase 4 implementation by creating sprint-status.yaml, extracting all epics/stories from planning docs, and setting up tracking infrastructure.
Validation workflow (solutioning-gate-check) run before Phase 4 to ensure PRD, architecture, and UX documents are cohesive with no gaps or contradictions. Required for BMad Method and Enterprise Method tracks.
Criteria that must be met before marking a story as done. Typically includes: implementation complete, tests written and passing, code reviewed, documentation updated, and acceptance criteria validated.
### Shard / Sharding
**For runtime LLM optimization only (NOT human docs).** Splitting large planning documents (PRD, epics, architecture) into smaller section-based files to improve workflow efficiency. Phase 1-3 workflows load entire sharded documents transparently. Phase 4 workflows selectively load only needed sections for massive token savings.
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## Additional Terms
### Workflow Status
Universal entry point workflow that checks for existing status file, displays current phase/progress, and recommends next action based on project state.
Initialization workflow that creates bmm-workflow-status.yaml, detects greenfield vs brownfield, determines planning track, and sets up appropriate workflow path.
Automatic analysis by workflow-init that uses keyword analysis, complexity indicators, and project requirements to suggest appropriate track (Quick Flow, BMad Method, or Enterprise Method). User can override suggested track.
Workflow run during Phase 4 when significant changes or issues arise. Analyzes impact, proposes solutions, and routes to appropriate remediation workflows.
### Migration Strategy
Plan for handling changes to existing data, schemas, APIs, or patterns during brownfield development. Critical for ensuring backward compatibility and smooth rollout.
Implementation technique for brownfield projects that allows gradual rollout of new functionality, easy rollback, and A/B testing. Recommended for BMad Method and Enterprise brownfield changes.
Specific locations where new code connects with existing systems. Must be documented explicitly in brownfield tech-specs and architectures.
### Convention Detection
Quick Spec Flow feature that automatically detects existing code style, naming conventions, patterns, and frameworks from brownfield codebases, then asks user to confirm before proceeding.
