Common Use Cases - jpicklyk/task-orchestrator GitHub Wiki

Common Use Cases

This page documents the most common ways teams and individuals use MCP Task Orchestrator, with specific examples and recommended approaches.

Software Development

Feature Development Lifecycle

Scenario: Building a new user authentication system

Workflow:

  1. Project Setup: Create project "User Management System"
  2. Feature Creation: Use create_feature_workflow for "User Authentication"
  3. Task Breakdown: Use task_breakdown_workflow to split into:
    • Database schema design
    • API endpoint implementation
    • Frontend integration
    • Security testing
    • Documentation

Templates Applied:

  • context-background for business requirements
  • technical-approach for architecture decisions
  • testing-strategy for quality assurance

Example Commands:

"Create a project for our user management system"
"Use create_feature_workflow to set up user authentication"
"Break down the API implementation task using task_breakdown_workflow"
"Apply technical approach and testing strategy templates to the database task"

Bug Triage and Resolution

Scenario: Managing incoming bug reports and systematic resolution

Workflow:

  1. Triage: Use bug_triage_workflow for each new bug
  2. Investigation: Apply bug-investigation-workflow template
  3. Classification: Tag with severity and component
  4. Resolution: Create fix tasks with dependencies

Tagging Strategy:

  • Severity: severity-critical, severity-high, severity-medium, severity-low
  • Component: component-frontend, component-backend, component-database
  • Type: bug-type-regression, bug-type-performance, bug-type-security

Example Commands:

"Use bug_triage_workflow for the login timeout issue"
"Create a task to investigate the payment processing failure"
"Show me all high-severity bugs in the frontend component"
"Update the database connection bug to completed status"

Code Review and Quality Assurance

Scenario: Ensuring code quality through structured review processes

Workflow:

  1. PR Preparation: Use github-pr-workflow template
  2. Review Tasks: Create tasks for code review activities
  3. Quality Gates: Use definition-of-done template
  4. Follow-up: Track and resolve review feedback

Custom Templates:

  • "Code Review Checklist" with security, performance, and style checks
  • "QA Testing Plan" with test case definitions and coverage requirements

Project Management

Sprint Planning

Scenario: 2-week development sprints with mixed feature and maintenance work

Workflow:

  1. Backlog Review: Use search_tasks to analyze pending work
  2. Sprint Planning: Apply sprint_planning_workflow
  3. Capacity Planning: Balance complexity across team members
  4. Daily Tracking: Monitor progress with status queries

Sprint Setup Example:

"Use sprint_planning_workflow to organize our next 2-week sprint"
"Show me all pending tasks with high priority"
"Create dependencies between the database migration and API updates"
"Tag all selected tasks with sprint-24 and assign team members"

Daily Standup Queries:

"Show me all in-progress tasks for sprint-24"
"List any tasks blocked by dependencies"
"What tasks were completed yesterday?"

Release Management

Scenario: Coordinating feature releases across multiple teams

Workflow:

  1. Release Planning: Create features for each release component
  2. Cross-team Dependencies: Model dependencies between teams
  3. Quality Gates: Ensure all features meet release criteria
  4. Release Tracking: Monitor progress toward release goals

Release Organization:

  • Project: "Q2 2024 Release"
  • Features: "Mobile App Updates", "API v2.0", "Infrastructure Scaling"
  • Dependencies: API changes BLOCK mobile app integration

Research and Development

Technical Research Projects

Scenario: Evaluating new technologies or approaches

Workflow:

  1. Research Planning: Create project with research objectives
  2. Investigation Tasks: Break down research into specific areas
  3. Proof of Concept: Create implementation tasks
  4. Documentation: Capture findings and recommendations

Research Template Sections:

  • Background and objectives
  • Methodology and approach
  • Findings and analysis
  • Recommendations and next steps

Example Commands:

"Create a project to evaluate microservices architecture"
"Break down the container orchestration research into specific tasks"
"Apply the technical approach template to the proof of concept task"
"Document our findings on database performance in the research sections"

Experimental Features

Scenario: Building and testing experimental functionality

Workflow:

  1. Hypothesis Definition: Clear problem statement and expected outcomes
  2. Experiment Design: Structured approach to testing
  3. Implementation: Incremental development with checkpoints
  4. Analysis: Data collection and evaluation

Experiment Tracking:

  • Tag experiments with experiment-[name]
  • Use complexity ratings to estimate effort
  • Create dependencies for sequential experiments
  • Apply testing-strategy template for validation

Personal Productivity

Individual Task Management

Scenario: Solo developer managing multiple personal projects

Workflow:

  1. Project Organization: Separate projects for different initiatives
  2. Priority Management: Use priority levels to focus effort
  3. Progress Tracking: Regular reviews of completed work
  4. Context Switching: Organized task resumption

Personal Productivity Tips:

  • Use get_overview daily to review current state
  • Tag tasks by energy level: energy-high, energy-medium, energy-low
  • Create dependencies to sequence work logically
  • Apply templates consistently for knowledge retention

Example Daily Workflow:

"Show me today's overview of all my projects"
"What high-priority tasks are pending?"
"Update the blog redesign task to in-progress"
"Create a task to review this week's completed work"

Learning and Skill Development

Scenario: Structured approach to learning new technologies

Workflow:

  1. Learning Goals: Create project for skill development
  2. Curriculum Planning: Break learning into specific topics
  3. Practice Projects: Apply knowledge through implementation
  4. Progress Tracking: Monitor learning milestones

Learning Project Structure:

  • Project: "React Native Development"
  • Features: "Core Concepts", "Navigation", "State Management", "API Integration"
  • Tasks: Specific tutorials, exercises, and practice projects

Content Creation

Documentation Projects

Scenario: Creating comprehensive technical documentation

Workflow:

  1. Content Planning: Outline documentation structure
  2. Writing Tasks: Individual sections or topics
  3. Review Process: Structured editing and feedback
  4. Publication: Final review and release

Documentation Templates:

  • "Technical Writing Template" with structure guidelines
  • "Review Checklist Template" for quality assurance
  • "Publication Template" with final steps

Blog and Article Management

Scenario: Managing a technical blog with regular content

Workflow:

  1. Content Calendar: Plan topics and publication schedule
  2. Research Tasks: Information gathering and fact-checking
  3. Writing Process: Structured writing and editing
  4. Promotion: Social media and community sharing

Content Lifecycle:

  • Idea → Research → Outline → Draft → Edit → Publish → Promote

Team Collaboration

Cross-functional Project Teams

Scenario: Product team with designers, developers, and product managers

Workflow:

  1. Unified Project: Single project for entire initiative
  2. Role-based Features: Features aligned with disciplines
  3. Dependency Management: Model handoffs between roles
  4. Communication: Shared understanding through documentation

Role-based Tagging:

  • role-design, role-frontend, role-backend, role-qa, role-product
  • phase-discovery, phase-design, phase-development, phase-testing

Remote Team Coordination

Scenario: Distributed team across multiple time zones

Workflow:

  1. Async Communication: Rich task documentation
  2. Status Transparency: Clear progress indicators
  3. Handoff Procedures: Detailed completion criteria
  4. Time Zone Coordination: Dependencies that respect work schedules

Remote Team Best Practices:

  • Use detailed task summaries for context
  • Apply definition-of-done template consistently
  • Create clear handoff criteria in task sections
  • Tag tasks with time zone considerations

Consulting and Client Work

Client Project Management

Scenario: Managing multiple client projects with different requirements

Workflow:

  1. Client Separation: Separate projects for each client
  2. Billing Tracking: Tags for time tracking and billing
  3. Scope Management: Clear feature boundaries
  4. Communication: Client-friendly status reports

Client Project Organization:

  • Tag structure: client-[name], billable, internal
  • Priority levels aligned with client commitments
  • Dependencies to model client approval gates
  • Templates for consistent deliverable quality

Proposal and Estimation

Scenario: Creating project proposals with accurate estimates

Workflow:

  1. Requirements Gathering: Use requirements templates
  2. Work Breakdown: Detailed task analysis
  3. Effort Estimation: Complexity-based estimation
  4. Proposal Generation: Convert tasks to client proposals

Estimation Process:

  • Break client requirements into detailed tasks
  • Use complexity ratings (1-10) for effort estimation
  • Create dependencies to model project timeline
  • Generate effort summaries from task complexity

Integration Patterns

CI/CD Pipeline Integration

Scenario: Automating task updates based on code changes

Integration Points:

  • PR creation updates task status to "in-progress"
  • PR merge moves task to "completed"
  • Failed builds create bug investigation tasks
  • Deployment success triggers testing tasks

External Tool Synchronization

Scenario: Keeping task orchestrator aligned with other project tools

Common Integrations:

  • JIRA epic and story synchronization
  • GitHub issue and milestone tracking
  • Slack notifications for status changes
  • Calendar integration for deadline tracking

Scaling Patterns

Small Team (2-5 people)

Characteristics:

  • Shared understanding of work
  • Informal communication
  • Flexible processes

Recommended Approach:

  • Single project with features for major work areas
  • Consistent tagging for work type
  • Weekly planning sessions
  • Template usage for knowledge sharing

Medium Team (6-20 people)

Characteristics:

  • Multiple specializations
  • Need for coordination
  • Process standardization

Recommended Approach:

  • Multiple projects for different products/areas
  • Role-based and team-based tagging
  • Dependency management for coordination
  • Custom templates for team-specific needs

Large Team (20+ people)

Characteristics:

  • Complex interdependencies
  • Formal processes
  • Multiple stakeholder groups

Recommended Approach:

  • Hierarchical project organization
  • Standardized templates and workflows
  • Integration with enterprise tools
  • Regular dependency review processes

Contributing Use Cases

To add your use case to this page:

  1. Describe the Scenario: What problem are you solving?
  2. Document the Workflow: Step-by-step process
  3. Include Examples: Specific commands or configurations
  4. Share Lessons Learned: What works well, what to avoid
  5. Provide Context: Team size, industry, project type

Use the existing sections as templates for formatting and level of detail.