Pm Requirements:planning

Planning Documentation Standards

Standards for creating, structuring, and maintaining project planning documents that track implementation tasks while maintaining traceability to requirements and specifications.

What This Skill Provides

Format Note

Important: This skill's standards files are in Markdown (.md) format as required for marketplace bundles. However, the standards themselves describe how to create AsciiDoc (.adoc) planning documents in target projects.

• Transport format (marketplace): Markdown (.md) - these standards files
• Target format (projects): AsciiDoc (.adoc) - TODO.adoc, ROADMAP.adoc, etc.

Code examples within the standards show AsciiDoc syntax because they demonstrate what users should write in their project's planning documents.

Comprehensive Planning Standards

This skill provides complete standards for:

• Document structure - Location, naming, header format, and core sections
• Task organization - Hierarchical structure and grouping strategies
• Status tracking - Status indicators, task details, and lifecycle management
• Traceability - Linking tasks to requirements and specifications
• Maintenance - Keeping planning documents current and high-quality
• Examples - Complete working examples demonstrating all patterns

Core Principles

Planning Document Purpose

Planning documents bridge requirements and specifications with actual implementation work by:

• Breaking down high-level requirements into actionable tasks
• Tracking implementation progress
• Maintaining traceability from tasks to requirements
• Providing visibility into project status

Separation of Concerns

Planning documents focus on task lists, status tracking, and traceability - not implementation details or rationale. See standards/document-structure.md for complete separation of concerns guidance.

Living Documentation

Planning documents are dynamic and updated frequently as work progresses - they reflect current project state rather than being archived. See standards/maintenance.md for complete living documentation guidance and update frequency recommendations.

When to Activate This Skill

Activate this skill when:

• Creating new planning documents - Setting up TODO.adoc for a new project
• Organizing tasks - Structuring implementation work hierarchically
• Tracking progress - Marking task status and maintaining current state
• Maintaining traceability - Linking tasks to requirements and specifications
• Reviewing planning quality - Ensuring planning documents follow standards

Workflow

Step 1: Load Document Structure Standards

When creating or reviewing planning document structure:

Read: standards/document-structure.md

This standard covers:

• Document location and naming conventions
• Header format with proper AsciiDoc configuration
• Core sections every planning document needs
• Separation of concerns between planning, requirements, and specifications

Step 2: Load Task Organization Standards

When organizing tasks hierarchically:

Read: standards/task-organization.md

This standard covers:

• Hierarchical task structure using AsciiDoc headings
• Grouping strategies (by component, feature, layer, or phase)
• Testing task organization
• Choosing the right grouping strategy for your project

Step 3: Load Status Tracking Standards

When tracking task status and lifecycle:

Read: standards/status-tracking.md

This standard covers:

• Status indicator syntax and meaning
• Status usage examples for all states
• Implementation note patterns
• Task lifecycle (adding, completing, refactoring)

Step 4: Load Traceability Standards

When linking tasks to requirements:

Read: standards/traceability.md

This standard covers:

• Linking task groups to requirements
• Linking task groups to specifications
• Handling multiple requirement references
• Traceability benefits for impact analysis and verification

Step 5: Load Maintenance Standards

When maintaining planning documents:

Read: standards/maintenance.md

This standard covers:

• Keeping documents current with update frequency guidance
• Archive strategy (don't archive, leave completed tasks)
• Quality standards (clarity, completeness, traceability, maintainability)
• Common anti-patterns to avoid

Step 6: Load Examples (Optional)

When you need concrete examples:

Read: standards/examples.md

This standard provides:

• Complete example planning document
• All patterns demonstrated in context
• Key pattern highlights and explanations

Standards Organization

All planning standards are organized in the standards/ directory:

• document-structure.md - Document location, header, and core sections
• task-organization.md - Hierarchical structure and grouping strategies
• status-tracking.md - Status indicators, notes, and task lifecycle
• traceability.md - Linking to requirements and specifications
• maintenance.md - Keeping planning documents current and high-quality
• examples.md - Complete working example demonstrating all patterns

Tool Access

This skill requires:

• Read: To load standards files

Related Skills

Related Skills in Bundle

• pm-requirements:requirements-authoring - Standards for requirements and specification documentation that planning tasks trace to
• pm-requirements:setup - Standards for creating initial TODO structure during project setup
• pm-requirements:traceability - Standards for linking planning tasks to implementation code

External Standards

• AsciiDoc formatting standards - For document structure and formatting
• Git commit standards - For tracking task completion in commits
• Project management best practices - For effective task organization and tracking