home / skills / alienfast / claude / cycle-plan

cycle-plan skill

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This skill helps plan software development cycles by analyzing velocity, capacity, and dependencies to balance workload and minimize blockers.

npx playbooks add skill alienfast/claude --skill cycle-plan

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SKILL.md

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---
name: cycle-plan
description: Plan Linear cycles using velocity analytics. Suggests scope based on historical capacity, identifies dependency risks, balances workload.
---

# Cycle Plan Skill - Sprint Planning

You are an expert at planning software development cycles based on team velocity.

## When to Use

Use this skill when:
- Planning the next sprint/cycle
- Deciding what to include in a cycle
- Balancing workload across team members

## Process

1. **Analyze Historical Velocity**
   ```bash
   linear cycles analyze --team ENG --count 5
   ```

2. **Review Available Capacity**
   - Check team size
   - Account for PTO/holidays
   - Consider focus time needs

3. **Select Issues for Cycle**
   - Start with P1/P2 issues
   - Respect dependencies
   - Balance across team members

4. **Validate Plan**
   - Total estimates <= capacity
   - No cross-cycle blockers
   - Even distribution

## Velocity Analysis

The `linear cycles analyze` command provides:

```
VELOCITY ANALYSIS: Team ENG (5 cycles)
════════════════════════════════════════
Average Velocity: 34 points/cycle
Completion Rate: 85%
Scope Creep: 12%

CYCLE HISTORY
────────────────────────────────────────
Cycle 23: 38 pts (92% complete)
Cycle 22: 32 pts (88% complete)
Cycle 21: 35 pts (82% complete)
Cycle 20: 28 pts (78% complete)
Cycle 19: 37 pts (90% complete)

RECOMMENDATION
────────────────────────────────────────
Target: 32-36 points for next cycle
Buffer: Reserve 10% for unplanned work
```

## Planning Output

```
CYCLE PLAN: Sprint 24
════════════════════════════════════════
Capacity: 40 points (4 engineers)
Target: 36 points (90% capacity)
Buffer: 4 points for unplanned work

PLANNED ISSUES
────────────────────────────────────────
ENG-201 [P1] Auth refactor      8pts @alice
ENG-202 [P1] Payment fix        5pts @bob
ENG-203 [P2] Dashboard update   8pts @carol
ENG-204 [P2] API optimization   5pts @dave
ENG-205 [P3] Docs update        3pts @alice
ENG-206 [P3] Test coverage      5pts @bob
────────────────────────────────────────
Total: 34 points

WORKLOAD BALANCE
────────────────────────────────────────
@alice: 11 pts (28%)
@bob:   10 pts (25%)
@carol: 8 pts (20%)
@dave:  5 pts (13%)
Unassigned: 0 pts

DEPENDENCY RISKS
────────────────────────────────────────
ENG-203 blocked by ENG-201 (same cycle - OK)
```

## Commands Used

```bash
# Analyze velocity
linear cycles analyze --team ENG --count 5

# List upcoming issues
linear issues list --team ENG

# Check dependencies
linear deps --team ENG

# Assign to cycle
linear issues update ENG-201 --cycle current
linear issues update ENG-202 --cycle next
```

## Best Practices

1. **Leave buffer** - Plan to 80-90% capacity
2. **Front-load blockers** - Schedule blocking issues early
3. **Balance workload** - Distribute evenly across team
4. **Avoid cross-cycle deps** - Don't plan work blocked by next cycle

Overview

This skill plans Linear cycles using historical velocity and capacity analytics to recommend a realistic scope. It suggests target points, reserves buffer for unplanned work, highlights dependency risks, and balances assignments across the team. Use it to turn velocity data into an actionable cycle plan quickly.

How this skill works

The skill analyzes recent cycle history to compute average velocity, completion rate, and scope creep. It combines that with current team capacity (headcount, PTO, focus time) to recommend a target range and buffer. It then selects and assigns issues by priority, checks dependencies, and produces a balanced cycle plan with workload breakdown and risk notes.

When to use it

Planning the next sprint or development cycle
Deciding which issues to include given team capacity
Balancing workload across engineers and roles
Validating a draft cycle for blockers and overcommitment
Setting a realistic target after a period of volatility

Best practices

Plan to 80–90% of measured capacity and reserve ~10% buffer for unplanned work
Schedule blocking or dependency-heavy tasks early in the cycle
Prioritize P1/P2 items and avoid pulling work that is blocked by future cycles
Distribute points across team members to avoid single-person bottlenecks
Re-run velocity analysis every few cycles to capture trend shifts

Example use cases

Generate a target range (e.g., 32–36 points) from five-cycle velocity history
Assemble a cycle plan that maps P1/P2 issues to engineers and shows point distribution
Detect and flag cross-cycle dependencies before finalizing scope
Adjust planned scope after accounting for PTO, holidays, and availability changes
Produce a short execution plan listing capacity, target, buffer, planned issues, and workload balance

FAQ

How does the skill decide the target for the next cycle?

It averages recent cycle velocity, factors in completion rate and scope creep, then recommends a target range and applies a 10% buffer for unplanned work.

What if a high-priority issue is blocked by work in another cycle?

The tool flags dependency risks; best practice is to avoid planning work that is blocked by a future cycle or to reschedule the blocker earlier in the same cycle.