initiative

name	initiative
description	Initiative planning, status reporting, and KPI-based performance reports with trend analysis
user-invocable	true
help	{"purpose":"Initiative planning, status reporting, and KPI-based performance reports with trend analysis.","use_cases":["Plan a new initiative for [topic]","What's the status of [initiative]?","Generate a performance report"],"scope":"initiatives,planning,status,kpis,performance"}

Initiative skill: planning, status, and performance

Comprehensive initiative management with three distinct modes: planning new initiatives, tracking status, and generating performance reports with KPI analysis.

Vault reads/writes use mcp__tars_vault__* tools (see skills/core/SKILL.md). Ticketing/roadmap data resolves via mcp__tars_vault__resolve_capability(capability="project-tracker"); KPI data via resolve_capability(capability="data-warehouse"); analytics via resolve_capability(capability="analytics") — skills never hard-code provider server names. Form every wikilink in initiative notes via mcp__tars_vault__format_wikilink — see core → "Wikilink discipline". Hand-formed [[...]] is rejected at the MCP and hook layers.

---

Explicitly excludes

This does NOT provide: hour estimates, sprint planning, developer task breakdowns, ticket creation, complexity points.

---

Planning mode

Scope new initiatives, build business cases, and assess project feasibility from a product management perspective.

1. Skill sets required

Identify competencies needed:

Category	Examples
Technical	Data Science, ML Engineering, Backend, Frontend
Domain	Industry expertise, Compliance, Data Governance, UX Research
Operational	Project Management, Vendor Relations

For each skill note:

• Proficiency level (Basic / Intermediate / Expert)
• Coverage (Covered / Gap / Partial)

2. Milestone breakdown

Outcome-oriented milestones, not tasks:

Phase	Example
Discovery	"User research complete with pain points validated"
Design	"Technical architecture approved"
Build	"MVP deployed to staging"
Launch	"Soft launch with beta customers"
Scale	"GA release with target adoption"

3. Dependencies, risks, assumptions

• Dependencies: Internal teams, external vendors, data sources
• Risks: Technical, resource, timeline, market
• Assumptions: What must be true for success?

4. Complexity and effort (qualitative)

Dimension	Low	Medium	High
Technical	Known patterns	Some unknowns	Novel
Coordination	Single team	2-3 teams	Org-wide
Timeline	Flexible	Target date	Hard deadline

Effort profile: Light / Medium / Heavy / Major Door type: One-Way (irreversible) / Two-Way (reversible)

---

Status mode

When invoked for initiative status (not planning):

1. Read initiative from memory/initiatives/{name}.md
2. Query project tracker for current sprint status:
   • Open items with initiative label
   • Blocked items
   • Completion metrics
3. Query recent journal entries for meeting notes mentioning the initiative
4. Compile health report:
   • Status: On Track / At Risk / Blocked
   • Progress: Stories done vs total
   • Blockers: Open blocked items
   • Recent decisions: From memory/decisions/
   • Upcoming milestones: From initiative memory file
   • Recommendations: Based on data

---

Performance mode

Generate KPI-based performance reports with trend analysis, separate from initiative-status (which gives holistic project health). This mode focuses on operational metrics and trends.

Step 1: Read KPI definitions

Read reference/kpis.md to determine:

• Which teams/initiatives to report on
• Which metrics to pull
• Data sources for each metric

Step 2: Query data sources

Project tracker

Common query patterns per metric:

Metric	Query intent
Velocity	Completed items in recent sprints
Cycle time	Average time from start to done
Bug count	Open bugs by severity
Blocked items	Items in blocked status
Sprint completion	Open sprint progress
Deployment frequency	Releases in recent period

Time tracking (when configured)

• Time and utilization data
• Billable hours by team member

Monitoring (when configured)

• Pipeline reliability, uptime
• Infrastructure cost trends

Step 3: Calculate trends

For each metric:

• Current period: Last 2 weeks (or current sprint)
• Previous period: Prior 2 weeks (or previous sprint)
• Trend: Improving / Declining / Stable
  • Improving: current is better than previous by >10%
  • Declining: current is worse than previous by >10%
  • Stable: within 10% variance

Step 4: Flag issues

Flag metrics that:

• Crossed a negative threshold (e.g., defect rate >15%)
• Show declining trend for 2+ consecutive periods
• Have items blocked >5 days
• Are missing data (MCP query failed or connector not configured)

Step 5: Generate report

# Performance report: YYYY-MM-DD

## [Team/Initiative Name]

| KPI | Current | Previous | Trend |
|-----|---------|----------|-------|
| [Metric] | [Value] | [Value] | [Improving/Declining/Stable] |

### Flagged issues
- [Issue description with specific data]

### Recommended actions
- [Data-driven recommendation]

Repeat for each team/initiative in reference/kpis.md.

Step 6: Save to journal

Save to journal/YYYY-MM/YYYY-MM-DD-performance-report.md

---
date: YYYY-MM-DD
title: Performance Report
type: performance
teams: [Team names]
initiatives: [Initiative names]
---

---

Output format (planning mode)

## Initiative: [Name]

### Executive summary
[2-3 sentences]

### Skill sets required
| Skill | Level | Coverage |
|-------|-------|----------|

### Milestones
1. **[Phase]:** [Outcome] -- Timeline range

### Dependencies
- Internal: [[Team/Person]]
- External: [[Vendor]]

### Risks and assumptions
| Risk | Likelihood | Impact | Mitigation |
|------|------------|--------|------------|

### Effort profile
- Technical complexity: [L/M/H]
- Coordination: [L/M/H]
- Overall: [Light/Medium/Heavy/Major]
- Door type: [One-Way / Two-Way]

---

Output format (status mode)

## Initiative status: [Name]

**Overall health:** [On Track / At Risk / Blocked]

### Progress
| Metric | Value |
|--------|-------|
| Stories completed | X / Y |
| Blocked items | N |
| Sprint velocity | Z pts |

### Blockers
- [Blocker description with owner]

### Recent decisions
- [Decision from memory/decisions/]

### Upcoming milestones
- [Milestone with target date]

### Recommendations
- [Data-driven recommendation]

---

Output format (performance mode)

## Performance report: YYYY-MM-DD

### [Team/Initiative Name]

| KPI | Current | Previous | Trend | Status |
|-----|---------|----------|-------|--------|
| [Metric] | [Value] | [Value] | [Improving/Declining/Stable] | [OK/Warning/Critical] |

### Flagged issues
- [Issue description with specific data and timeline]

### Recommended actions
- [Data-driven recommendation with priority]

### Data source notes
- [Any limitations or gaps in metric collection]

---

Context budget

Planning mode:

• Memory: Read initiative file + up to 3 related files
• Project tracker: Up to 3 queries
• Journal: Search current month + up to 2 relevant entries

Status mode:

• Memory: Read initiative file + up to 3 related files
• Project tracker: Up to 3 queries
• Journal: Search current month + up to 2 relevant entries

Performance mode:

• Reference: reference/kpis.md (mandatory)
• Project tracker: Up to 3 queries per team/initiative
• Memory: Read initiative files for context (up to 3)
• Time tracking: Limited to configured integration
• Monitoring: Limited to configured integration

---

Absolute constraints

Planning mode:

• NEVER provide hour or sprint estimates
• NEVER create tickets (report only)
• NEVER skip dependency analysis in planning mode

Status mode:

• NEVER skip project tracker query in status mode (fall back to memory-only if not configured)

Performance mode:

• NEVER fabricate metric data (if query fails, report the gap)
• NEVER skip trend calculation
• NEVER output without the flagged issues section (even if empty)
• ALWAYS save to journal
• ALWAYS note data source limitations in the report