---

name: pm-requirements:planning source_bundle: pm-requirements description: Standards for creating and maintaining project planning documentation with task tracking, status indicators, and traceability to requirements version: 0.1-BETA allowed-tools: [Read]

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:

CopyRead: 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:

CopyRead: 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:

CopyRead: 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:

CopyRead: 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:

CopyRead: 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:

CopyRead: 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