| name | project-complexity-action-planner |
| description | Convert a project complexity diagnosis into a practical intervention plan. Use after project-complexity-mapper, especially when the user provides a TOE findings table, quadrant chart, hotspot quadrants, management-fit table, or handoff table and wants actions, interventions, sequencing, owners, or next steps.
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Project Complexity Action Planner
Turn the output of project-complexity-mapper into a concise, actionable
management intervention plan. This skill does not diagnose complexity from
scratch. It consumes the previous diagnosis and turns it into actions.
Core Workflow
- Read the complexity diagnosis, especially the Handoff, Management Fit,
Hotspot Quadrants, and Findings by Category sections.
- Extract hotspots, TOE category, severity, quadrant, and recommended fit.
- If key inputs are missing, infer cautiously and mark assumptions.
- Ask at most one clarification question when the missing answer would change
priority, sequencing, or ownership.
- Convert each hotspot into controlling and/or connecting interventions.
- Sequence actions by urgency, dependency, and lifecycle phase.
- Output the plan using
references/output-format.md.
Input Rules
Preferred input is human-readable output from project-complexity-mapper.
Accept:
- Handoff table.
- Management Fit table.
- Findings by Category table.
- Mermaid quadrant chart plus short project description.
- Free-form summary of hotspots.
Do not require JSON, YAML, or machine-readable blocks.
If the user gives only a rough project description with no diagnosis, either:
- Ask them to run
project-complexity-mapper first, or
- Do a very small provisional plan and clearly state that diagnosis is missing.
Scope
In scope:
- Intervention backlog.
- Sequencing.
- Suggested owner roles.
- Time horizon.
- Control interventions.
- Connecting interventions.
- Decision gates.
- Reassessment triggers.
- Success signals.
- Risks of over-control or over-interaction.
Out of scope:
- Rebuilding the full TOE diagnosis.
- Creating detailed project schedule or Gantt chart.
- Writing tickets or implementation issues.
- Stakeholder interview questions.
- Machine-readable outputs.
References
Load only what is needed:
references/handoff-input.md: required when parsing previous diagnosis.
references/planning-rules.md: required when prioritizing and sequencing.
references/intervention-catalog.md: required when choosing interventions.
references/output-format.md: required when writing final plan.
Planning Principles
- Every action must trace back to a diagnosed hotspot.
- Prefer few high-leverage interventions over a long generic checklist.
- Match action type to quadrant:
- Simple / Internal: keep simple.
- Complicated: control.
- Complex: connect.
- Complex + complicated: combine control and connection.
- Sequence connecting work before control work when facts, goals, or actor
positions are unstable.
- Sequence control work before broad interaction when interfaces, contracts, or
technical dependencies must be made explicit first.
- Avoid false certainty. Mark assumptions and unresolved decisions.
- Include reassessment triggers because complexity evolves over the lifecycle.
Output Rules
Use the structure in references/output-format.md.
Required sections:
- Summary
- Assumptions
- Intervention Backlog
- Sequence
- Decision Gates And Reassessment
- Risks In The Plan
- Handoff
Do not include:
- Full TOE element checklist
- New quadrant diagnosis unless needed to explain an action
- Stakeholder-question section
- "What's Already Strong" section
- Machine-readable block