Artifacts
What each Project Management phase produces and the purpose of each artifact.
Phase Artifacts
| Phase | File | What It Contains |
|---|---|---|
| Initiate | 00-initiate.md | Project charter (purpose, scope, objectives, success criteria), stakeholder map (power/interest grid, communication plan), team setup (roles, skills matrix, gaps), definition of done (story/sprint/release levels), ways of working (ceremonies, tools, norms) |
| Plan | 01-plan.md | Product vision statement, release roadmap with milestones, product backlog (prioritized by MoSCoW/WSJF), user stories (As a/I want/So that + acceptance criteria), story maps (activities, tasks, stories), estimation data (story points, reference stories), sprint plans (selected stories, sprint goal, capacity) |
| Sprint | 02-sprint.md | Daily standup logs (per-person updates, blockers), sprint goal statement, dependency maps (story-to-story, cross-team, external), blocker analysis (root cause, resolution options, escalation), WIP reviews (status counts, burndown comparison) |
| Review | 03-review.md | Sprint review (completed/incomplete stories, goal assessment), demo scripts (flow, talking points, Q&A prep), stakeholder updates (RAG status, progress, risks, asks), release notes (grouped by New/Improved/Fixed), sprint metrics (velocity, burndown, cycle time, commitment ratio) |
| Improve | 04-improve.md | Retrospective notes (format used, findings, action items with owners), process improvement analyses (bottlenecks, value stream, improvement backlog), team health checks (8 dimensions scored 1-5), velocity analysis (trends, predictions, sustainable range), post-mortem records (timeline, root cause, corrective actions) |
A skip-log.md file is also created if any phase prerequisites are bypassed.
Utility Artifacts
| File | What It Contains |
|---|---|
risk-assessment.md | Risk register (likelihood x impact scoring), risk matrix, mitigation strategies, risk owners, review schedule |
decision-log.md | Decisions with context, alternatives considered, rationale, approvers, revisit conditions |
capacity-planning.md | Per-sprint capacity (available days, focus factor, story points), holiday/PTO tracking, capacity risks |
status-report.md | RAG status, milestone progress, key risks, leadership asks |
Artifact Format
All artifacts are Markdown. Sprint data accumulates over time — standup entries and retrospectives are appended to their respective files per sprint. Metrics use tables for historical tracking.
Key Artifact Types
- Project charters — Purpose, scope, objectives, constraints, and success criteria
- Sprint backlogs — Selected stories with task breakdowns and hour estimates
- User stories — As a/I want/So that format with Given/When/Then acceptance criteria and INVEST validation
- Velocity data — Points completed per sprint, trends, sustainable range predictions
- Retrospective action items — Specific improvements with owners and deadlines, tracked across sprints
- Risk registers — Scored risks with mitigation strategies and owners
Cross-Domain References
Project Management artifacts coordinate work across all domains:
- Development reads
01-plan.mdfor sprint backlogs and user stories - Research feeds validated recommendations into
01-plan.mdbacklog items - Leadership reads
03-review.mdfor sprint metrics andstatus-report.mdfor updates - Legal reads
risk-assessment.mdfor compliance-related risks