| name | openup-phase-review |
| description | Run the phase milestone go/no-go — prepare derived evidence, pause for the human decision via an input-request, and record the milestone (never advance the phase itself) |
| model | inherit |
| fit | {"great":["end-of-phase milestone go/no-go","the loop's milestone-review pause","recording a stakeholder LCO/LCA/IOC/PR decision"],"ok":["a human mid-phase sanity check on completion criteria"],"poor":["within-iteration progress checks","single-task decisions","planning the next iteration (use /openup-start-iteration)"]} |
| arguments | [{"name":"phase","description":"The phase to review (optional — derived from openup-lifecycle.py when omitted)","required":false}] |
Phase Review (milestone go/no-go)
Ceremony authority (T-091): under the reference-driver cycle engine, the
milestone-review path is zero-LLM — the engine prepares the evidence and
raises the go/no-go input-request itself, suspending (exit 5) without advancing
the phase (see reference-driver.md → milestone). This
procedure is the human-readable description of that pause + the go/no-go
content. In the Claude Code harness the model performs it in-context below.
The project-lifecycle gate: at a phase boundary OpenUP pauses for a human
go/no-go (LCO → LCA → IOC → PR) before advancing. This skill prepares the
derived evidence, pauses for that human decision via the T-074 input-request
machinery, and — once answered — records the milestone. It is the loop's
milestone-review path.
It never advances a phase itself. The source of truth for "phase advanced"
is the milestone decision record in docs/product/milestones/<phase>-<cycle>.md
(T-075); openup-lifecycle.py status derives the current phase from that
record. This skill only prepares evidence, pauses, and writes the record the
human decided — it does not set phase in state.
When NOT to Use
- Just starting a phase → the phase skill (
/openup-inception …).
- A lane finished / iteration to assess →
/openup-complete-task /
/openup-assess-iteration (assess-iteration is what precedes and triggers
this at a phase boundary).
- The phase is clearly not done → keep delivering;
resolve returns
plan-iteration, not milestone-review, until the roadmap is drained and the
exit criteria are met.
Success Criteria
Process
1. Derive the phase, cycle, and criteria
python3 scripts/openup-lifecycle.py status --json
Use $ARGUMENTS[phase] only to override the derived phase for a human-run
review. Each criterion's state is met / unmet / human-judgment; the
milestone this skill gates is exactly the human-judgment decision. If any
criterion is still unmet, say so — the phase is not actually ready and the loop
should keep delivering (this skill still records nothing).
2. Find (or create) the milestone input-request
Look for a milestone input-request for this phase+cycle under
docs/input-requests/ (topic milestone-<phase>-<cycle>). Branch on its status:
-
None exists → prepare the go/no-go evidence and raise it. Compose
/openup-request-input with:
title: Milestone go/no-go — <phase> (cycle <cycle>)context: the derived criteria states (step 1), plus the iteration's
Assessment (the ## Assessment section /openup-assess-iteration wrote:
what was demoed, criteria met/unmet, work fed back) — the evidence the human
needs to decide.questions: one multiple-choice — GO (advance the phase) / NO-GO (not
yet — resume this phase in the next cycle) / CONDITIONAL (advance once named
conditions are met).- No
related_task — a milestone is a phase-level decision, not a lane, so
it suspends no change folder. The loop's DONE sentinel is what stops it.
Then stop: the loop exits DONE — milestone-review pending human input. The
next cycle re-reaches milestone-review (no record yet) and re-runs this skill,
which now finds the request.
-
Pending (created, not yet answered) → nothing to do; stop with the same
DONE — pending human input. Do not write a record.
-
Answered → go to step 3.
3. Record the answered decision (the only place a milestone record is written)
Read the human's answer. Write docs/product/milestones/<phase>-<cycle>.md with
frontmatter exactly as openup-lifecycle.py reads it — phase, cycle (int),
milestone (the phase's milestone name), decision (GO | NO-GO |
CONDITIONAL), date, decided-by (the respondent) — and the evidence/rationale
in the body:
---
phase: <phase>
cycle: <cycle>
milestone: <e.g. Lifecycle Architecture Milestone>
decision: <GO | NO-GO | CONDITIONAL>
date: <YYYY-MM-DD>
decided-by: <respondent>
---
<one-paragraph rationale + link to the iteration Assessment and criteria states>
- GO → the record exists →
openup-lifecycle.py status now derives the
next phase. Nothing else to set.
- NO-GO → record it, and re-queue the phase's remaining work for
cycle+1 (enqueue pending roadmap items / a /openup-plan-feature for the gap)
so Construction resumes next cycle without pretending the product shipped. The
derived phase stays put (only a GO advances it).
- CONDITIONAL → record it, and enqueue the named conditions as pending items;
treat as not-yet-advanced until they are met and a GO is recorded.
Then archive the request (status: processed → docs/input-requests/archive/).
4. Report
State the decision recorded, the record path, the resulting derived phase
(unchanged on NO-GO/CONDITIONAL; advanced on GO), and any re-queued follow-on
work.
Phase milestones (reference)
The KB milestone each phase gates — the derived criteria in step 1 evaluate
these mechanically; the human decision covers the human-judgment ones:
| Phase | Milestone | Human judgment covers |
|---|
| Inception | Lifecycle Objectives (LCO) | scope/vision agreed, business case viable |
| Elaboration | Lifecycle Architecture (LCA) | architecture validated by a tested skeleton |
| Construction | Initial Operational Capability (IOC) | stable enough for beta; alpha results accepted |
| Transition | Product Release (PR) | ready to release; stakeholder sign-off |
References
- Milestone records + derived phase:
scripts/openup-lifecycle.py (T-075)
- Phase Milestones concept:
docs-eng-process/openup-knowledge-base/practice-management/risk_value_lifecycle/guidances/concepts/phase-milestones.md
See Also
