align-backlog

Skill: Align Backlog

Purpose

Align the product or work backlog with the current strategy, goals, and roadmap. Analyze existing backlog items against strategy sources, identify misaligned or orphaned work, and generate a backlog alignment report with specific change recommendations (add, cut, merge, reprioritize) so the backlog clearly supports strategic outcomes.

Core Objective

Primary Objective: Generate an actionable backlog alignment report that maps backlog items to strategy/goals/roadmap, classifies alignment status, and recommends specific backlog changes.

Success Criteria(all requirements must be met):

✅ Find backlog items and strategy sources: Identify and parse backlog and strategy-layer documents (goals, roadmap, milestones)
✅ Generate mapping: Each backlog item (or representative sample) is mapped to at least one strategic anchor (goal, milestone, roadmap theme) or marked as orphaned/unmapped
✅ Misalignment classification: Items are classified by rationale (aligned, partial, misaligned, orphan); impact and root cause are explained based on findings
✅ Listed change recommendations: Provide specific recommendations (add, remove, merge, reprioritize) with priority and strategy traceability
✅ Report persistence: Backlog Alignment Report is written to the agreed path
✅ Avoid unsafe writes: If the backlog location is uncertain or the recommended edits are destructive, request user confirmation before applying changes

**Acceptance Test: Can the product or delivery lead read the report and immediately understand which backlog items support the strategy, which do not support the strategy, and what to add, remove, or reorder?

Scope Boundaries (Scope Boundaries)

This skill is responsible for：

Backlog and strategy-layer discovery
Mapping backlog items to goals, milestones, and roadmap
Classifying alignment (aligned, partial, misaligned, orphan)
Proposing specific backlog changes (add, cut, merge, reprioritize)
Preserving the backlog alignment report

This skill is not responsible for：

Post-task traceability and planning drift (use "align-planning")
Architecture and code compliance (use "align-architecture")
Defining or rewriting strategy (usedefine-mission、设计-strategic-goals、define-routetu, etc.)
Creating new backlog items from scratch (use "capture-work-items" or "analyze-requirements")
Running full governance cycle routing (use plan-next）

Handoff point: After the report is generated, hand off to the appropriate skill as needed - for example "align-planning" for execution traceability, or the product/backlog tool for applying changes.

Use Cases (Use Cases)

Backlog health check: Regularly ensure the backlog tracks the current strategy
After a strategy refresh: Realign the backlog when goals, roadmap, or milestones change
Sprint or release preparation: Use strategy as the source of truth to prioritize and prune backlog items
Orphan cleanup: Identify and suggest deletion or repurposing of work that no longer supports the strategy

Orchestration Guidance

Scenario	Recommended Use
Strategy document has been updated	`align-待办` Remap the backlog to the new goals/roadmap
The backlog feels overloaded or misaligned with the strategy	First`align-待办`; if traceback is also needed, then`align-planning`
Milestone or release gate	Run for the relevant backlog slice `align-待办`

Behavior (Behavior)

Phase 0: Norms Resolution (new in v1.1)

Implement per §8.2 / §8.3 / §8.5 of specs/artifact-contract.md §8 Runtime Norms Resolution Protocol : read the project specification; if it declares backlog-alignment for artifact_type path_pattern, then use the project value; otherwise fall through to the skill default (docs/calibration/backlog-alignment.md). This skill isfixed-path governance output, using only the path_pattern override mechanism.

Agent Immediate Contract

You are responsible for backlog alignment with strategy.

Analyze the product or work backlog against the current strategy, goals, and roadmap.
Map items to strategic anchors, classify alignment, and produce a Backlog Alignment Report
with concrete change proposals (adds, cuts, reprioritization).

Interaction (Interaction) Policy

Default: backlog items from the project specification or common paths ("docs/backlog/", "*.md" in the backlog directory, or project conventions); strategy documents from "docs/project-overview/", "docs/process-management/"; scope = full backlog
Select Option: explicit backlog path and strategy document root when non-default; scope = a subset when the backlog is large (e.g., by epic or label)
Confirm: before proposing edits to backlog files; before major cut/merge proposals

Phase 0: Resolve Backlog and Strategy Sources

Resolve backlog location (project specification,docs/ARTIFACT_NORMS.md, or default:docs/待办/, repo backlog convention)
Resolve strategy sources: goals, roadmap, milestones (e.g.,docs/project-overview/、docs/process-management/）
If there are no strategy documents, report blocked and suggest defining the strategy first (设计-策略-目标、定义-路线图, etc.)
If no backlog items are found, report blocked and suggest a backlog location or "capture-work-items" to seed one

Phase 1: Map Backlog to Strategy

List backlog items (or a sampled set if the backlog is very large)
For each item, determine traceability: which goal, milestone, or roadmap theme it supports (or mark as orphaned)
Record mappings and evidence (e.g., labels, descriptions, links)

Phase 2: Classify Alignment

For each item (or aggregate by theme):

Aligned: clearly supports current goals/roadmap/milestones; priority is consistent
Partial: supports the strategy, but priority or scope may need adjustment
Misaligned: no longer fits the current strategy or duplicates/conflicts with higher-priority work
Orphaned: no traceable strategic link; candidate for cutting or repurposing

Include the impact scope and root cause of each finding.

Phase 3: Propose Changes

Cut: items to delete or archive (orphaned, superseded, or out of scope)
Merge: duplicate items to merge or delete
Reprioritize: The order has changed, so the highest strategic value is obvious
Add: The to-do strategy implies gaps that have not yet been worked on (optional; listed only as suggestions)

Each proposal must reference the strategy (goal/roadmap/milestone) and the project ID or title.

Phase 4: Persist the report

Write the report to:

Project specification or default path:docs/calibration/待办-alignment.md
Or a user-specified path

The report must contain a machine-readable block (YAML or JSON) for alignment status and change proposals.

Input & Output

Input (Input)

Optional to-do path or convention
Optional strategy docs root
Optional scope (full and subset of epics/labels/time windows)

Output (Output)

To-do adjustment report template

# Backlog Alignment Report

**Date:** YYYY-MM-DD
**Backlog source:**
**Strategy sources:**
**Status:** aligned | partial | misaligned | blocked
**Confidence:** high | medium | low

## Summary
- Total items reviewed:
- Aligned:
- Partial:
- Misaligned:
- Orphan:

## Mapping (sample or full)
| Item | Strategic anchor | Status |
| --- | --- | --- |
| ... | ... | ... |

## Misalignment and Orphans
- Item / theme:
  Impact:
  Root cause:
  Recommendation: cut | merge | reprioritize | add

## Change Proposals
1. [Cut] ...
2. [Reprioritize] ...
3. [Merge] ...
4. [Add] ...

## Recommended Next Actions
1.
2.

## Machine-Readable Block

    alignment:
      summary: { aligned: N, partial: N, misaligned: N, orphan: N }
      items: []
    proposals:
      cut: []
      merge: []
      reprioritize: []
      add: []

Appendix: Output Contract

When this skill generates a to-do adjustment report, in addition to the above format, it must ensure that the Machine-Readable Block complies with the following structure:

Field	Type	Description
`alignment.summary`	Object	Contains `aligned`, `partial`, `misaligned`, `orphan` summary of the quantity
`alignment.items`	Array	Evaluated to-do list, each item containing ID/name and the corresponding adjustment status
`proposals.cut`	Array	List of items recommended for removal/archiving
`proposals.merge`	Array	List of items recommended for merging
`proposals.reprioritize`	Array	List of items recommended for reordering
`proposals.add`	Array	List of gap work recommended for addition

Limits (Limits)

Hard Boundaries

Do not invent a strategy when the document is missing; the report is blocked and a strategy definition skill is suggested
Do not silently edit the to-do product without explicit user approval
Do not perform planning-layer backtracking (i.e., "align-planning") or architecture compliance (i.e., "align-architecture")

Skill Boundaries (avoid overlap)

Do not do these (other skills can handle them)：

Post-task planning alignment and deviation detection → align-planning
Architecture and code compliance → align-architecture
Define mission, goals, roadmap→定义-使命、设计-战略目标、定义-路线图
Create new work items from free form→"Capture Work Items", "Analyze Requirements"
Comprehensive governance checkpoints at milestones or release gates→"Run Checkpoint"

When to stop and hand off：

Strategy document is missing or stale→suggest "design-strategy-goals", "define-roadmap", etc.
The user needs to perform post-task backtracking → hand off to align-planning
The user needs design and code checks→hand off to "align-architecture"

Self-Check

Core success criteria (all criteria must be met)

Identify and resolve to-do and strategy sources
To-do items are mapped to strategic anchors (or marked as orphans)
Alignment classification (aligned, partial, unaligned, orphan) and their rationale
List traceable change proposals (cut, merge, reprioritize, add)
The report adheres to the agreed path
Request user confirmation in cases of edits or uncertain scope

Process quality check

Default path and scope recorded when used
Each proposal cites the strategy source and project
The report contains a machine-readable block
Recommend handoff to other skills where applicable

Acceptance Test

Can the product or delivery lead act on the top 3-5 change proposals without additional explanation?

If no: refine the mapping and proposal rationale.

If yes: the report is complete; proceed with handoff or backlog update.

Examples (Examples)

Example 1: Backlog after strategy refresh

Context: Updated strategic goals and roadmap; the backlog has more than 50 items.

Action：

From docs/project-overview/, docs/process-management/ Load goals and roadmap
Fromdocs/待办/(or project convention) load the backlog
Map each item to a goal/roadmap theme or flag orphan items 4. Categorize: 30 aligned, 10 partial, 5 unaligned, 5 orphaned
Recommendation: cut 5 orphan themes, reprioritize 10 partial themes, merge 2 duplicate themes
Save the report to docs/calibration/待办-alignment.md

Example 2: No strategy document

Context: The project has no goals or roadmap document.

Output：

Status: Blocked
Message: No strategy document found. First define the goals and roadmap (e.g.设计-策略-目标，定义-路线图), then rerun align-backlog.
Confidence: Not applicable

Example 3: Large backlog, subset scope

Context: The backlog has 200 items; the user only wants to align the "Q2 theme".