Project Planning Skill
Comprehensive knowledge for planning software projects from ideation to execution.
Planning Methodology
- Discovery Phase
Questions to Ask:
-
What problem are we solving?
-
Who are the target users?
-
What does success look like?
-
What are the constraints?
-
What's the timeline?
- Requirements Gathering
Requirement Types:
-
Functional: What the system must do
-
Non-Functional: How well it must do it
-
Technical: Implementation constraints
-
Business: Organizational needs
- User Story Format
As a [type of user] I want [goal/desire] So that [benefit/value]
Acceptance Criteria:
- Criterion 1
- Criterion 2
- Criterion 3
Priority: P0/P1/P2 Estimate: S/M/L/XL
- Prioritization Framework
MoSCoW Method:
-
Must Have: Critical for MVP
-
Should Have: Important but not critical
-
Could Have: Nice to have
-
Won't Have: Out of scope (for now)
Priority Levels:
Priority Description Timeline
P0 Critical Immediate
P1 High This sprint
P2 Medium Next sprint
P3 Low Backlog
- Estimation Techniques
T-Shirt Sizing:
Size Complexity Time
XS Trivial < 1 hour
S Simple 1-4 hours
M Medium 4-8 hours
L Complex 1-3 days
XL Very Complex
3 days
Story Points (Fibonacci): 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21
- Scope Management
In Scope:
-
Explicitly defined features
-
Agreed requirements
-
Documented acceptance criteria
Out of Scope:
-
Features deferred to future
-
Explicitly excluded items
-
Nice-to-haves beyond MVP
- Risk Assessment
Risk Likelihood Impact Mitigation
Scope creep High High Strict change control
Technical debt Medium Medium Regular refactoring
Key person dependency Medium High Documentation, pairing
Templates
Project Brief Template
Project: [Name]
Overview
[1-2 sentence description]
Problem Statement
[What problem does this solve?]
Goals
- [Primary goal]
- [Secondary goal]
- [Tertiary goal]
Success Metrics
Scope
In Scope
- [Feature 1]
- [Feature 2]
Out of Scope
- [Excluded 1]
- [Excluded 2]
Timeline
- Phase 1: [Date]
- Phase 2: [Date]
- Launch: [Date]
Epic Template
Epic: [Name]
Description
[What this epic accomplishes]
User Stories
- US-001: [Story]
- US-002: [Story]
Acceptance Criteria
- [Criterion]
Dependencies
- [Dependency 1]