Mastering Project Management

Capability Manifest: Project Management Mastery

This blueprint provides the procedural truth for orchestrating high-fidelity software delivery. The key is to use the Plane MCP server for all remote operations (Issue creation, label management, state updates) and standardized naming conventions to ensure the project remains high-fidelity and machine-readable.

When to Use

This skill should be used when completing tasks related to project management mastery.

Process

Follow these procedures to implement the capability:

Procedure 1: Backlog Excellence (Refinement)

1. Definition of Ready (DoR): A story is only ready when it has:
   • Persona-based Description: Clear "As a... I want... So that..." or structured # Goal header.
   • 3+ Clear Acceptance Criteria (AC): Explicit validation steps.
   • Link to a parent Epic: Or appropriate Module/Cycle categorization.
   • Estimation (Points/Hours): Every task must have an estimate.
   • Technical Context: Implementation notes to guide the developer agent.
2. MoSCoW Prioritization: Mandatory tags for every story:
   • Must: Essential for the next release.
   • Should: Important but not critical.
   • Could: Nice to have.
   • Won't: Deferred.

Procedure 2: Sprint Orchestration (Flow)

1. Capacity Gate: Before starting a sprint, manually verify the proposed total points against the team's historical velocity (visible in Plane insights).
2. State Transitions: Enforce strict flow: To Do -> In Progress -> In Review -> Verification -> Done.
3. Blocker Management: Any item in In Progress for >40% of sprint length must be flagged as AT_RISK and requires a mitigation comment.

Procedure 3: Reporting & Observability

1. Automated Changelog: Pull all Done stories since the last release tag and generate grouped release notes.
2. Velocity Tracking: Generate a CSV/JSON of points completed per sprint to build the "Historical Truth" for planning.
3. Stakeholder Sync: Weekly automated summary of Must/Should progress and identified risks.

Process (Fail-State & Recovery)

| Symptom | Probable Cause | Recovery Operation | | : | : | : | | Silent Sprint Fail | Scope creep or hidden blockers. | Run a "Sprint Audit" to compare mid-sprint state vs. initial commitment; move non-critical items back to backlog. | | Metric Inaccuracy | Stale status in the PM backend. | Trigger a "Status Refresh" nudge to all active agents; manually audit item statuses in Plane to ensure alignment with reality. | | Story Rejection | Vague ACs leading to incorrect implementation. | Reject the story; conduct a "Hard Refinement" session to redefine ACs with the developer agent. |

Prerequisites

| Action | Tool / Command | | : | : | | Create Work Item | mcp_plane_create_work_item | | List Work Items | mcp_plane_list_work_items | | Retrieve Item | mcp_plane_retrieve_work_item | | Update Item | mcp_plane_update_work_item | | Search Items | mcp_plane_search_work_items |

Label Governance (Source of Truth)

Every work item MUST be tagged with at least one label from this synchronized set. For Remote Plane operations, always use the mcp_plane tools (create_label, update_label, list_labels) to maintain this synchronization. Do NOT use local management scripts for remote label administration.

| Label | Description | UUID | | : | : | : | | BUG | Defect or unexpected behavior. | 86386dc5-0402-4294-983d-5d0a8043a5fe | | CORE | Core system infrastructure and logic. | 5b807a8c-09c4-49d5-ac0d-290568780564 | | DATA | Data models, migrations, and pipelines. | 70f46984-9401-44cd-a489-8aaad7fa8f4a | | DOCU | Documentation and knowledge items. | ffa3d5a6-91dd-4564-991f-77a7566657aa | | FEATURE | New functional capabilities. | 57a1da51-90c6-46db-9340-6c88ac9b1ed0 | | TEST | Testing infrastructure and test cases. | 740d9fb4-20e8-4184-a967-8c9110d97911 | | UI | User interface and experience. | a01878b6-eb15-4ba5-a686-218206d2c0b5 | | ORCHESTRATION | Agent coordination, loops, and supervisor logic. | c1753b7b-68e8-4474-91dd-52e10842f17d | | GROUNDING | RAG patterns, knowledge retrieval, and memory management. | d688fff1-22e0-41be-b7cc-60e4af471016 | | INTEGRATION | MCP server connections and external API logic. | 78c78433-4e9e-4a44-a6ce-4017d3c51b60 | | INFRA | Environment setup, Conda, and shell platform management. | 6ecab990-939b-4353-a608-7d998b1ec8b3 | | SKILL | Development and refinement of agent skills. | 10becfa5-dc59-4ab1-a780-ad9852237c57 |

Best Practices

Before starting a sprint:

• Every item meets the Definition of Ready.
• Total points < 105% of historical velocity.
• Dependencies map is clear (No circular blocks).
• Release target is identified and dated.

Example Library (Recipes)

To ensure excellence, use these copy-pasteable patterns for common scenarios.

1. Creating a Standardized Feature

// Tool: mcp_plane_create_work_item
{
  "project_id": "e71eb003-87d4-4b0c-a765-a044ac5affbe",
  "name": "FEATURE: Implement OIDC Authentication Support",
  "priority": "high",
  "description_html": "<div>Develop and integrate OIDC auth flow...</div>",
  "labels": ["5248c180-2056-495c-859c-82747b5d1d52", "5b807a8c-09c4-49d5-ac0d-290568780564"], // FEATURE, CORE
  "scripts": ["scripts/validation/sync_manifest_versions.py"]
}

Troubleshooting & Fail-State

| Symptom | Probable Cause | Recovery Operation | | : | : | : | | MCP Server Unavailable | Plane MCP server connection lost. | Verify MCP server config in mcp_config.json; check cloud Plane instance status. | | UUID Resolution Failure | Invalid label/state/cycle ID. | Re-query with mcp_plane_list_labels / mcp_plane_list_states to get current UUIDs. | | Duplicate Work Item | Issue with same name already exists. | Use mcp_plane_search_work_items to find existing item before creating. | | Label Governance Violation | Label not in the synchronized set. | Use only labels from the Label Governance table above. Verify with mcp_plane_list_labels. |

Operational maturity is the foundation of high-velocity agency.