Senior PM
Enterprise project management for software and digital transformation.
$skillfish add ~skills/senior-pm What This Skill Can Do
Concrete capabilities you get when you install this skill.
Manage complex enterprise projects with multiple workstreams and stakeholders
Apply earned value management (EVM) and critical chain scheduling
Build and maintain risk registers with probability, impact, and mitigation plans
Facilitate stakeholder alignment across conflicting priorities and timelines
Lead project recovery when scope, schedule, or budget is at risk
Design project governance structures including steering committees and RACI
Real Conversations
See how the Senior PM skill responds to actual requests. These are representative examples of what your AI agent will produce.
We're 6 weeks behind on a $2M enterprise software migration for a bank. The client is threatening to invoke the SLA penalty clause. I'm the PM. What do I do right now?
Immediate actions — next 48 hours:
1. Get to ground truth on schedule Convene a 2-hour technical deep-dive with your leads. For each remaining work package:
- % complete (honest estimate)
- Hard dependencies blocking completion
- Minimum viable scope to hit contract deliverables
Output: A revised baseline schedule with confidence intervals, not optimistic dates.
2. Brief your executive sponsor before the client Never let the client hear bad news before your own leadership. 30-minute call today.
3. Prepare three recovery scenarios:
| Option | Description | Cost | Schedule Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Scope reduction — defer non-critical modules | Minimal | Recover 3 weeks |
| B | Resource augmentation — add 2 contractors | +$40K | Recover 4 weeks |
| C | Re-baseline with client — negotiate revised timeline | Relationship cost | Formal 6-week extension |
4. Client meeting agenda (this week):
- Open with accountability: "We are behind. Here is why, and here is what we are doing about it."
- Present options A/B/C — give client agency in the decision
- Negotiate SLA penalty waiver in exchange for a formal change order
5. Recovery cadence: Daily 15-min standup with technical leads. Weekly written status to client. Do not miss another commitment.
Root cause must be documented — not for blame, but to prevent recurrence and protect your team in any dispute.
Get Started
How to install and use this skill in your preferred environment.
Skills are designed for AI coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf) and IDE-based workflows where the agent can read files, run scripts, and act on your codebase. Web-based AI can use the knowledge and frameworks, but won't have tool access.
Models & Context
Which AI models and context windows work best with this skill.
Recommended Models
Larger models produce more detailed, production-ready outputs.
Context Window
This skill's SKILL.md is typically 3–10 KB — fits in any modern context window.
All current frontier models (Claude, GPT, Gemini) support 100K+ context. Use the full window for complex multi-service work.
Pro tips for best results
Be specific
Include numbers — users, budget, RPS — so the skill can size the architecture.
Share constraints
Compliance needs, team size, and existing stack all improve the output.
Iterate
Start with a high-level design, then ask follow-ups for IaC, cost analysis, or security review.
Combine skills
Pair with companion skills below for end-to-end coverage.
Good to Know
Advanced guide and reference material for Senior PM. Background, edge cases, and patterns worth understanding.
Contents
Critical Chain Method
Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) differs from CPM/PERT in one fundamental way: it treats resource constraints as first-class scheduling inputs, not afterthoughts. CPM finds the longest task-dependency path. Critical Chain finds the longest path after resolving resource conflicts — a different and usually longer path.
Identifying the critical chain:
- Build the dependency network as in CPM.
- Assign resources to each task.
- Level resource conflicts (no resource can be in two places at once).
- The resulting longest path through the leveled network is the critical chain.
Buffer placement:
- Project buffer: Placed at the end of the critical chain. Sized at 50% of the critical chain duration (aggressive) or using statistical methods. This is the project's contingency reserve.
- Feeding buffers: Placed where non-critical chains feed into the critical chain. Protects the critical chain from delays on parallel paths.
The key behavioral change: tasks should start as late as possible (to preserve buffer), and PMs monitor buffer consumption rate, not individual task adherence to dates.
Earned Value Management Quick Reference
| Metric | Formula | What It Tells You |
|---|---|---|
| PV (Planned Value) | Budgeted cost of scheduled work | How much work was planned to be done by now |
| EV (Earned Value) | Budgeted cost of work actually performed | How much of the planned work is complete |
| AC (Actual Cost) | Actual cost incurred | What you've actually spent |
| SPI (Schedule Performance Index) | EV ÷ PV | <1.0 = behind schedule; >1.0 = ahead |
| CPI (Cost Performance Index) | EV ÷ AC | <1.0 = over budget; >1.0 = under budget |
| EAC (Estimate at Completion) | BAC ÷ CPI | Projected total cost at current efficiency |
| VAC (Variance at Completion) | BAC − EAC | Projected budget surplus (positive) or overrun (negative) |
Worked example: Budget = $100K (BAC). At the midpoint, PV = $50K, EV = $40K, AC = $48K. SPI = 0.8 (behind), CPI = 0.83 (over budget). EAC = $100K ÷ 0.83 = $120K projected final cost.
Risk Register Structure
Probability × Impact matrix: Score each risk on two axes (1–5 each). Risk Exposure = Probability × Impact × Cost of the risk event. Risks scoring above a defined threshold require active response plans, not just monitoring.
Risk response types:
- Avoid: Change the plan to eliminate the risk entirely (e.g., drop the risky dependency)
- Transfer: Shift the financial impact to a third party (insurance, contract clause, fixed-price vendor contract)
- Mitigate: Reduce probability or impact (e.g., build a prototype to reduce technical uncertainty)
- Accept: Acknowledge and set aside contingency reserve; appropriate for low-exposure risks
When to escalate: Any risk where your mitigation options exceed your authority, where the probability × cost exceeds 10% of project budget, or where the risk affects another project or business unit.
Stakeholder Influence/Interest Matrix
| Quadrant | Influence | Interest | Engagement Approach |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manage closely | High | High | Regular detailed updates, involve in key decisions |
| Keep satisfied | High | Low | High-level briefings; involve when decisions affect their domain |
| Keep informed | Low | High | Status updates, newsletters; easy escalation path if needed |
| Monitor | Low | Low | Periodic awareness; no proactive effort required |
Hidden stakeholders: Always ask your primary contacts: "Who else will be affected by this project?" and "Who has sign-off authority on the outputs we produce?" Procurement, legal, and IT security are frequently hidden stakeholders who surface late and cause delays.
The activated executive: A high-influence, low-interest executive who suddenly becomes engaged usually signals one of three things: a political concern, a budget threat, or a missed communication that has now escalated. Respond immediately with a private briefing, not a status report.
Project Recovery Signals
These are leading indicators — they appear 2–4 weeks before a project is visibly in trouble:
| Signal | Early Warning Form | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Milestone slip trend | Second consecutive milestone that slipped, even by 2–3 days | Reforecast immediately; do not absorb slips silently |
| Issue-to-action ratio | Issues log growing faster than actions being closed | Dedicate a working session specifically to clearing the issue backlog |
| Meeting attendance drop | Key stakeholders or team members missing recurring checkpoints | Investigate 1:1; disengagement usually precedes escalation |
| Scope creep velocity | Change requests arriving weekly with no corresponding timeline adjustment | Enforce formal change control; quantify the cumulative schedule impact |
| Team morale dip | Consistently flat or declining morale scores in standup or retrospectives | Address before productivity drops; morale is a 2-week leading indicator for velocity |
Ready to try Senior PM?
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$skillfish add ~skills/senior-pm