planner

name	planner
description	This skill should be used when the user or commander asks to "create a project plan", "define milestones", "assess risks", "plan the delivery", "create a rollout strategy", "estimate effort", "define feature flags strategy", or "create a risk register". It produces a structured project plan with milestones, risk register, delivery strategy, and progressive rollout plan based on approved requirements.
version	1.0.0

Planner — Project Planning & Delivery Strategy

Purpose

This skill performs Phase 2 of the Dev Design SkillSet pipeline. It takes gatekeeper-design-approved requirements (from researcher) and transforms them into a structured project plan with milestones, risk register, delivery strategy, and progressive rollout approach. The output drives downstream phases by establishing scope, sequencing, risk boundaries, and technology decision gates without prematurely finalizing backend or frontend stack overlays.

When to Activate

Activate when commander delegates Phase 2 (Project Planning) after the researcher's requirements document has been approved by gatekeeper-design, or when a user directly requests a delivery plan, milestones, rollout strategy, or risk register for an already understood scope.

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Execution Modes

Pipeline Mode (Commander-Delegated)

In pipeline mode delegated by commander, do NOT submit to gatekeeper-design yourself. Produce the deliverable plus a gatekeeper-ready review packet and return both to commander. Commander owns the review cycle.

Standalone Mode (Direct User Activation)

When activated directly by a user, this skill owns the final review loop for its own deliverable. Produce the project plan, submit it to gatekeeper-design, address any REVISE findings, and return the approved result plus the final review report.

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Workflow

Step 1: Ingest Approved Requirements

Read the gatekeeper-design-approved SRS and domain analysis. Extract:

• Total scope (functional requirements count and complexity)
• Non-functional requirements (performance, security, compliance constraints)
• Domain complexity (number of bounded contexts, integration points)
• Stated constraints (timeline, budget, team size, regulatory deadlines)
• Explicit technology constraints/preferences captured by researcher

Step 2: Define Project Phases

Break the project into logical delivery phases. Each phase MUST be independently deployable and valuable.

## Phase [N]: [Phase Name]
**Duration**: [Estimated weeks/sprints]
**Goal**: [What this phase achieves]
**Deliverables**:
  - [Deliverable 1]
  - [Deliverable 2]
**Requirements covered**: [FR-001, FR-002, ...]
**Dependencies**: [Phase N-1 must be complete / External: API ready]
**Exit criteria**: [What must be true to consider this phase done]

Apply the principle: deliver the most valuable, highest-risk items first. Early phases should prove the architecture and de-risk unknowns.

Step 3: Create Milestone Map

Define milestones with concrete deliverables and acceptance criteria:

Milestone	Target Date	Deliverables	Acceptance Criteria
M1: Foundation	Week N	Project scaffolding, CI/CD, DB schema	Pipeline green, schema migrated
M2: Core MVP	Week N+X	Core features functional	All MUST requirements passing
M3: Integration	Week N+Y	External integrations	Contract tests passing
M4: Hardening	Week N+Z	Security, performance, accessibility	NFRs verified
M5: Launch	Week N+W	Production deployment	SLOs met for 48 hours

Step 4: Build Risk Register

For every identified risk, produce a structured entry:

### RISK-001: [Risk Title]
**Category**: Technical | Schedule | Resource | External | Security
**Probability**: High | Medium | Low
**Impact**: High | Medium | Low
**Risk Score**: [Probability × Impact]
**Description**: [What could go wrong]
**Mitigation**: [Specific, actionable steps to reduce probability or impact]
**Contingency**: [What to do if the risk materializes]
**Owner**: [Who is responsible for monitoring]
**Review cadence**: [How often to reassess]

Consult references/project-plan-template.md for risk assessment matrices and common risk patterns.

Step 5: Define Rollout Strategy

Specify the progressive deployment approach:

1. Deployment model: Blue/green, canary, rolling, or feature-flag-based
2. Feature flag lifecycle: Deploy OFF → internal team → 5% canary → monitor metrics → 25% → 50% → 100% → remove flag and dead code
3. Rollback plan: Conditions that trigger rollback, rollback procedure, maximum rollback time
4. Monitoring gates: Which metrics must be healthy to proceed at each stage
5. Communication plan: Who is notified at each rollout stage

Define rollout prerequisites in terms of approved requirements, architecture readiness, and known technical constraints. Do not assume a finalized backend or frontend stack if it has not yet been locked by later phases.

Step 6: Define Technology Decision Timeline

Map when technology decisions must be finalized:

Decision	Deadline	Impact if Delayed	Decision Owner
Runtime selection	Phase 1 start	Blocks all development	Architect
Database selection	Phase 1 start	Blocks schema design	Architect
Frontend framework	Phase 1	Blocks UI development	Designer
CI/CD platform	Phase 1	Blocks pipeline setup	Engineer
Hosting/deployment	Phase 2	Blocks staging environment	Engineer

Make the distinction explicit:

• The planner defines decision deadlines, rollout prerequisites, and risk impact
• The planner does NOT finalize backend/runtime or frontend overlay selection

Step 7: Prepare Review Handoff

Package the complete project plan with a review packet containing:

• Source skill: planner
• Deliverable produced
• Approved upstream context used
• Explicit tech constraints/preferences carried forward from research
• Decision gates and rollout prerequisites called out in the plan

If operating in pipeline mode, return the deliverable and review packet to commander for gatekeeper submission.

If operating in standalone mode, submit the deliverable and review packet to gatekeeper-design, address any REVISE findings, and resubmit until APPROVED.

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Output Format

The planner produces one consolidated deliverable:

Project Plan containing:

1. Phase breakdown with scope mapping
2. Milestone map with dates and acceptance criteria
3. Risk register with mitigations
4. Dependency graph
5. Rollout strategy with feature flag lifecycle
6. Technology decision timeline
7. Resource assumptions
8. Explicit technology constraints and rollout prerequisites

In pipeline mode, return the deliverable with a gatekeeper-ready review packet.

In standalone mode, return the approved deliverable plus the final gatekeeper-design review report.

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Additional Resources

Reference Files

For detailed templates and risk patterns:

• references/project-plan-template.md — Full project plan template, risk assessment matrix, rollout strategy patterns, and estimation guidance