pm-skills

SKILL.md

Project Management — Domain Orchestrator & Delivery Loop

This orchestrator does two jobs. Routing: fork context, classify a PM inquiry with
scripts/pm_goal_router.py, run exactly one of the 8 sub-skills, return a digest.
Looping: turn a delivery goal into a bounded agentic loop — pull live Jira data via the
bundled Atlassian MCP, bridge it into the domain's deterministic analytics tools, verify
every step with machine-run gates, and refuse to close until everything is verified or a
human waives it. The bundled .mcp.json wires the Atlassian Remote MCP
(https://mcp.atlassian.com/v1/sse, OAuth handled by Claude Code).

When to invoke

Symptom
Sub-skill

"Project/portfolio health, risk EMV, capacity"
senior-pm

"Sprint velocity, retro follow-through, ceremony health, when-will-it-be-done"
scrum-master

"JQL, Jira workflows, boards, automation"
jira-expert

"Confluence spaces, page trees, content audits"
confluence-expert

"Users, groups, permissions, SSO"
atlassian-admin

"Reusable Jira/Confluence templates"
atlassian-templates

"Meeting transcripts, talk time, action items"
meeting-analyzer

"Status updates, 3P updates, stakeholder comms"
team-communications

Routing logic (deterministic)

Run the router — do not eyeball the table when a script can decide:

python3 scripts/pm_goal_router.py --text "<the goal>" --output json

Exit 0 → route_to names the sub-skill: load its SKILL.md and follow its workflow.
Exit 2 → ask ONE clarifying question naming the listed candidates, with a recommended
answer. Exit 3 → no signal: ask the user to restate the goal with the deliverable named.
Never guess silently; never silently chain a second sub-skill — digest first, confirm, then
chain.

The delivery loop (agentic)

For goals (not questions) — "get sprint 14 to a verified close", "produce a portfolio
health report from live Jira", "make our flow metrics visible weekly" — run the
loop-library contract (Observe → Choose → Act → Verify → Record → Repeat-or-stop):

Observe — pull fresh state: mcp__atlassian__searchJiraIssuesUsingJql (get
cloudId via getAccessibleAtlassianResources first), save the result JSON, then
bridge it:
python3 scripts/jira_snapshot_bridge.py --input snapshot.json --to flow            # WIP, throughput, cycle time p50/85/95, work-item age, SLE, aging alerts
python3 scripts/jira_snapshot_bridge.py --input snapshot.json --to sprint > s.json # scrum-master schema
python3 ../scrum-master/scripts/velocity_analyzer.py s.json                        # velocity + volatility + forecast

Add --forecast N for a seeded Monte Carlo "when will N items be done" answer
(refuses on < 10 completed items — thin history forecasts are lies).

Choose — route the next task with pm_goal_router.py; one task at a time.

Act — execute with the routed sub-skill's own tools per its SKILL.md.

Verify — gate the plan and every close with:
python3 scripts/delivery_loop_gate.py --plan plan.json --mode plan    # exit 2 = blocked
python3 scripts/delivery_loop_gate.py --plan plan.json --mode close   # exit 4 = close refused

Plus each sub-skill's own gates (scrum-master's ≥ 3-sprints rule, atlassian-admin's
VERIFY steps). Never adjudicate your own verification.

Record / Repeat-or-stop — for multi-task goals, run the state through the repo-wide
harness (it enforces attempt caps, iteration budgets, and evidence logging):
python3 engineering/agent-harness/skills/agent-harness/scripts/goal_compiler.py \
  --goal "<goal>" --manifest engineering/agent-harness/skills/agent-harness/assets/harnesses/project-management.json \
  --out .agent-harness/plan.json
python3 engineering/agent-harness/skills/agent-harness/scripts/loop_controller.py init|next|record|verify|close ...

Terminal states: success, clean no-op, blocked, approval-required, exhausted,
stagnated. An exhausted budget is an escalation — never a success report.

Hard rules (agentic delegation governance)

Agents are contributors, never owners (Linear model): every loop task carries a
named human owner; agent-executed tasks also carry a named human reviewer.
delivery_loop_gate.py enforces this (G1/G2).

Acceptance must be machine-checkable — a command, or a criterion with a threshold.
"Looks good" is not a gate (G3).

Every Jira/Confluence write is auditable and reversible-first (Rovo discipline):
never transitionJiraIssue to Done without verify evidence; destructive/irreversible
actions (deletes, permission changes, org-wide admin) are approval-required terminal
states, not loop steps.

Never modify a gate you are judged by — same locked-evaluator invariant as
autoresearch-agent.

Forecasts are ranges with confidence, never dates — Monte Carlo percentiles
(p50/p70/p85/p95), per Vacanti. Single-date promises are the anti-pattern.

Max 3 attempts per task, 12 loop iterations per goal — then escalate to the named
human with the evidence log.

Forcing-question library (grill-with-docs pattern)

One per turn, recommended answer, canon citation. Never run a sub-skill or start a loop
until the lane-defining decision is locked:

SPRINT lane: "Do you want to measure flow (cycle time, WIP, throughput, age) or
forecast delivery? Recommended: measure first — a forecast off unmeasured flow is
noise. Canon: Kanban Guide (May 2025) four mandatory flow measures; Vacanti,
Actionable Agile Metrics."

HEALTH lane: "Is your project status self-reported RAG or derived from signals?
Recommended: derive it (schedule variance, aging WIP, scope churn) and diff against the
self-report — that diff finds watermelon projects. Canon: Kanban Guide 2025;
DORA 2025 (AI amplifies, doesn't fix, weak signals)."

JIRA lane: "Is this configuration change deployable to a test project first?
Recommended: always stage in a test project; jira-expert's workflow validator must exit
0 before production. Canon: jira-expert validation workflow."

ADMIN lane: "Is this action reversible, and who approves it? Recommended: name the
approver before touching permissions — admin actions are approval-required terminal
states in any loop. Canon: atlassian-admin VERIFY discipline; loop-library stop states."

LOOP intake: "What single observable outcome means DONE, and which command proves
it? Recommended: a named artifact + a command that exits 0 against it. Canon:
agent-harness verifier's law; Anthropic, Building Effective Agents (evaluator needs
clear criteria)."

MEETINGS/COMMS lanes: "Could this meeting be an async written update? Recommended:
status-broadcast meetings convert to async 3P updates; decision meetings keep sync.
Canon: GitLab async-first handbook."

Assumptions

The user has (or is preparing analysis for someone with) delivery authority.

Jira/Confluence access goes through the bundled MCP; capabilities NOT in
project-management/references/atlassian-mcp-tools.md (project/sprint/board/space
creation, admin config) are done in the web UI — never invent tool names.

Inputs may be partial — every tool ships --sample so the shape is visible first.

Non-goals

Not a replacement for the sub-skills — the orchestrator routes and loops; the
sub-skills do the work.

Not the generic loop engine — that is engineering/agent-harness; this orchestrator is
the PM-domain adapter (data bridge + governance gate + lane router).

Does not decide what to build — that's product-team.

Output artifacts

Mode
Artifact

Route
Sub-skill's own artifact + ≤ 200-word digest with one canon-cited challenge

Flow report
flow_metrics.json (bridge output) with SLE conformance + aging alerts

Delivery loop
.agent-harness/plan.json + state.json + gate verdicts + close handoff

Anti-patterns (do not)

❌ Run all 8 sub-skills "to be thorough" — route to one, digest, chain on confirmation

❌ Report sprint health or forecasts from hand-typed numbers when a Jira snapshot is one
MCP call away — bridge real data

❌ Close a loop with unverified tasks, or report an exhausted budget as success

❌ Let an agent be the assignee of record — humans own, agents contribute

❌ Auto-transition Jira issues or touch permissions inside a loop without the named
approver

References

references/flow_forecasting_canon.md — Kanban
Guide 2025, Vacanti Monte Carlo, DORA 2025, EBM, SPACE

references/agentic_delivery_governance.md —
Linear/Rovo delegation models, Anthropic agent patterns, audit discipline

references/pm_loop_playbook.md — the five reusable PM
loops (sprint, health, retro-action, RAID-hygiene, comms) mapped to the loop contract

Canonical MCP tool list: project-management/references/atlassian-mcp-tools.md

Loop engine: engineering/agent-harness · Loop vocabulary: loop-library