define-milestones

Skill: Define Milestones

Purpose

Decomposestrategic goalsintospecific phase checkpoints (milestones)representing major stages of progress. Generate a milestone document with clear phases and traceability to strategic goals. Does not define mission, vision, north star, or goals; does not write requirements or backlog items.

Core Objective

Primary objective: Generate a user-confirmed milestone document that decomposes strategic goals into phase checkpoints, where each milestone is traceable to at least one goal and adheres to the project's agreed path.

Success criteria(all requirements must be met):

✅ Recorded milestones: A list of milestones, each with a name, brief scope, and success criteria (outcome or deliverable).
✅ Traceability: Each milestone maps to at least one strategic goal; the mapping is explicit in the document.
✅ Specific checkpoints: Each milestone is a phase or checkpoint, not a task list or to-do items.
✅ User confirmation: The user explicitly approves (e.g., "approved", "looks good", "continue", or equivalent).
✅ Document persistence: Write to the agreed path (default "docs/process-management/里程碑.md" or per project specification).
✅ Adherence to scope: There are no requirements, backlog items, or feature specifications in the milestone document.

Acceptance test: Can the reader see which strategic goal each milestone advances and what "done" looks like for each phase, without complete backlog details?

Handoff point: When milestones are approved and retained, hand off to backlog/roadmap planning or "align-planning"/"run-checkpoint" for governance; this skill does not create backlog items.

Scope boundaries (Scope Boundaries)

This skill is responsible for：

Deriving milestones from strategic goals (read from "design-strategy-goals" output or existing documents).
Defining phases/checkpoints (e.g., via outcomes or optional time ranges).
Recording the scope and success criteria of each milestone.
Adhering to the project's agreed path (default "docs/process-management/里程碑.md").
Explicit mapping: each milestone → at least one strategic goal.

This skill is not responsible for：

Defining mission, vision, north star, or strategic goals (use "define-mission", "define-vision", "define-north-star", "design-strategic-goals").
Writing requirements (use "analyze-requirements").
Creating backlog items (use "capture-work-items", project planning).
Building a complete roadmap (project planning; this skill generates only the milestone layer).

Usage scenarios (Use Cases)

After strategic goals: Define phases or major checkpoints to indicate progress on each goal.
Release or planning cycle: Determine "what is done" for the next 1-2 phases.
Governance gate: Provide milestones so that "run-checkpoint" or "align-planning" can assess completion and alignment.
Strategy Chain Layer 5: Follow mission, vision, north star, and strategic goals when building a complete hierarchy.

Behavior (Behavior)

Interaction (Interaction) Policy

Default: The project specification's output path (if it exists); otherwise "docs/process-management/milestones.md". Read strategic goals from "docs/project-overview/strategic-goals.md" or from the user (if any).
Choose Options: If the user wants outcome-based and time-based milestones, provide a structure (e.g., "Phase 1: Outcome X by Date Y") and ask for confirmation.
Confirm: Before overwriting an existing milestones file; before finalizing.

Execution Process

Load Strategic Goals: Read "docs/project-overview/strategic-goals.md" or a user-provided summary.
For Each Goal (or Subset): What are the 1-3 major checkpoints or phases that show clear progress?
For Each Milestone: Name, brief scope, success criteria (outcome or deliverable), optional time frame.
Traceability: Ensure each milestone maps to at least one strategic goal; record the mapping in the document.
Persist: Write to the project's agreed path; if missing, create "docs/process-management/".

Input & Output (Input & Output)

Input：

Required: Strategic goals (document or path); project context.
Optional: Vision/NSM; existing roadmap or phases; time constraints.

Output：

Artifact: Milestones document.
Location：docs/process-management/里程碑.md(or according to the project specification).
Content: Milestone list (name, scope, success criteria, optional time frame); mapped to strategic goals.
Lifecycle: Living (updated as phases are completed or goals change).

Constraints (Constraints)

Hard Boundaries (Hard Boundaries)

Do not define mission, vision, north star, or strategic goals in this skill.
Do not create backlog items, requirements, or feature specifications; milestones are only checkpoints.
Do not overwrite an existing milestones file without explicit user confirmation.

Skill Boundaries (Skill Boundaries) (Avoid Overlap)

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

Mission/Vision/North Star/Goals: Use "Define Mission", "Define Vision", "Define North Star", "Design Strategic Goals".
Requirements: Use "Analyze Requirements".
Backlog Items: Use "Capture Work Items", project planning.
Roadmap Details: Project planning; this skill only produces the milestone layer.

When to Stop and Hand Off：

The user says "approved" or equivalent → milestones are complete; offer to hand off to backlog/roadmap or governance skills.
The user asks about requirements or backlog → hand off to "Analyze Requirements" or "Capture Work Items".

Self-Check (Self-Check)

Core success criteria (all criteria must be met)

Recorded milestones: A list of milestones including name, scope, and success criteria (optional time range).
Traceability: Each milestone maps to at least one strategic objective; the mapping is in the document.
Concrete checkpoints: Milestones are phases/checkpoints, not a task list.
User confirmation: The user says "approved", "looks good", "continue", or similar.
Document persistence: Write to the agreed path (defaultdocs/process-management/里程碑.mdor project specification).
Respect scope: There are no requirements, to-dos, or feature specifications in the document.

Process quality check

Objectives used: Did I read or request the strategic objectives before drafting milestones?
No to-dos: Did I avoid writing individual to-do items or requirements?

Acceptance test

Can the reader see the objective each milestone advances and what "done" looks like for each phase?

If no: The milestones may be too vague or missing objective mapping. Add traceability and success criteria. If yes: The milestones are complete. Continue with handoff or stop.

Examples (examples)

Example 1: Objectives exist, define phases

Context: The strategic objectives document has 4 objectives. The user wants milestones for the next 12 months.

Process: Read the strategic objectives. For each objective, propose 1-2 milestones (e.g. "M1: 50% of teams can deploy in 10 minutes", "M2: rollback available for all services"). Add mappings: M1 → Objective A, M2 → Objective A, etc. Optional: add rough time ranges. The user confirms. Write "docs/process-management/milestones.md".

Result: Milestones persist; hand off to to-do/roadmap or "run-checkpoint" for governance.

Example 2: No strategic objectives yet

Context: The user asks to "define milestones", but no strategic objectives document exists.

Process: Suggest first running "design-strategy-objectives" so that milestones can track objectives. If the user is willing to continue anyway, at least ask for a short list of objectives or outcomes to map to; draft milestones and record the assumed objectives. Confirm with the user; persist. Suggest adding strategic objectives later for full traceability.

Result: Milestones persist through explicit or assumed objective mapping; the user can later run "design-strategy-objectives" to complete the chain.