ADR 019 Retained Successors and Carried Obligations - joeroberts/release-radar GitHub Wiki

  • ID: ADR-019
  • Status: Accepted
  • Date: 2026-09-10
  • Date meaning: Original dated decision/source section; extraction recorded 2026-10-02.
  • Implementation: No implementation information was recorded in the source status; tickets own progress.
  • Approval qualification: Recorded owner-approved Phase 5 scope; slice-specific exclusions and later dependencies remain as stated.

Context

Withdrawal, replacement and splitting retain original history and cannot erase outstanding obligations or transfer completion credit.

Retirement and successor authority

Ticket retirement is distinct from lane and retains original identity/history. Replacement/split links name newly created incomplete successors; Accepted originals remain immutable. Retirement grants no external-run cancellation authority. Retired work is protected across affected writers and association rehoming. Only validated owner-approved proposal application grants narrow detachment/drop exceptions; ordinary caller fields and revisions cannot assert that authority.

Goal obligations

Goal-owned obligations persist separately from current membership and assignment history. Every membership-loss path preserves uncovered debt or exact approved reconciliation; reassignment, goal edits or supersession cannot erase scope. Cross-phase carry uses explicit obligation lineage, retaining same-phase membership and one current goal per ticket. Split coverage requires every required descendant. Reasoned owner-approved drop is removed scope, never delivery or acceptance.

A shared store-owned coverage assessment informs readiness, goal acceptance and dependency eligibility. Carried/already-delivered coverage can be structurally ready without local upcoming members; uncovered/unassessed debt cannot. Acceptance remains non-vacuous, requires actual Accepted work and explicit owner action. Phase5E alone adds full phase lifecycle and consumes these facts without inferring completion.

Task history

Retired originals retain task definitions, completion and history but cannot receive new task execution or definition changes. Successor tasks use new identities and Active/Pending state; inherited evidence is provenance and supplies no completion credit. An approved successor proposal preserves original acceptance/history and does not stop external execution.