Plan Plus

Plan Plus — Brainstorming-Enhanced PDCA Planning

Combines brainstorming's intent discovery with bkit PDCA's structured planning to produce higher-quality Plan documents through collaborative dialogue.

Overview

Plan Plus enhances the standard /pdca plan by adding 4 brainstorming phases before document generation. This ensures that user intent is fully understood, alternatives are explored, and unnecessary features are removed before any implementation begins.

When to use Plan Plus instead of /pdca plan:

• The feature has ambiguous or complex requirements
• Multiple implementation approaches are possible
• You want to ensure YAGNI compliance from the start
• The feature involves significant architectural decisions

HARD-GATE

<HARD-GATE>
Do NOT write any code, scaffold any project, or invoke any implementation skill
until this entire process is complete and the user has approved the Plan document.
This applies to EVERY feature regardless of perceived simplicity.
A "simple" feature still goes through this process — the design can be short,
but you MUST present it and get approval.
</HARD-GATE>

Process Flow

Phase 0: Context Exploration (automatic)
    ↓
Phase 1: Intent Discovery (1 question at a time)
    ↓
Phase 1.5: Premise Challenge (forcing questions, agreed premises)
    ↓
Phase 2: Alternatives Exploration (2-3 approaches, incl. "do nothing")
    ↓
Phase 3: Scope Mode + YAGNI Review (multiSelect verification)
    ↓
Phase 4: Incremental Design Validation (section-by-section, failure map)
    ↓
Phase 5: Plan Document Generation (plan-plus.template.md)
    ↓
Phase 6: Next Steps → /pdca design {feature}

Phase Details

Phase 0: Project Context Exploration (Automatic)

Before asking any questions, explore the current project state:

1. Read CLAUDE.md, package.json, pom.xml, etc. for project information
2. Check recent 5 git commits (understand current work direction)
3. Check existing docs/01-plan/ documents (prevent duplication)
4. Check ongoing PDCA status — getPdcaStatusView() in lib/pdca/status.js. It reads .bkit/state/pdca-status.json and fills in any feature whose phase is only evidenced by its documents. .bkit-memory.json is NOT this store: after migration it is .bkit/state/memory.json, which holds the 9-phase pipeline status and nothing about PDCA phase.

Share exploration results briefly: "I've reviewed the current project state: ..."

Phase 1: Intent Discovery (Brainstorming Style)

Principle: One question at a time, prefer multiple choice

Use AskUserQuestion tool to discover the following in order:

Q1. Core Purpose

"What is the core problem this feature solves?"

• Provide 3-4 choices (inferred from project context)
• Always include a custom input option

Q2. Target Users

"Who will primarily use this feature?"

• Admin / End user / Developer / External system

Q3. Success Criteria

"What criteria would indicate this feature is successful?"

• Derive specific, measurable criteria

Q4. Constraints (only when needed)

Conflicts with existing systems, performance requirements, technical constraints, etc.

Important: Minimize questions. Clear features need only Q1-Q2. Only proceed to Q3-Q4 for ambiguous features.

Phase 1.5: Premise Challenge

Phase 1 records what the user wants. This phase tests whether it is worth building in that shape. Ask one forcing question at a time with AskUserQuestion, and push on vague answers once before moving on.

Routing — ask only what the feature needs:

• New product or user-facing capability: F1-F4
• Internal tool or refactor: F2, F4
• Bug fix or small change: skip this phase and say so

Stance rules

• Take a position on every answer and state what evidence would change it. Do not reply with neutral filler ("That could work", "Interesting approach").
• Enthusiasm is not evidence of demand; a workaround the user already pays for is.
• If the user wants to move on, ask the single most important remaining question, then proceed. Do not ask a third time.

Close the phase by printing the agreed premises as a numbered list and asking the user to confirm them:

PREMISES
1. {who needs this, and why now}
2. {what they do today}
3. {the smallest useful version}

If the user rejects a premise, revise it before Phase 2 — alternatives built on a rejected premise are wasted work. Record the confirmed premises in the Plan document's "Premise Challenge" section.

Phase 2: Alternatives Exploration (Brainstorming Core)

Always propose 2-3 approaches with trade-offs for each. When Phase 1.5 ran, one of them may be "do nothing / use the existing workaround" if F4 showed the cost of inaction is low.

Format:

### Approach A: {name} — Recommended
- Pros: ...
- Cons: ...
- Best for: ...

### Approach B: {name}
- Pros: ...
- Cons: ...
- Best for: ...

### Approach C: {name} (optional)
- Pros: ...
- Cons: ...

Present the recommended approach first with clear reasoning. Use AskUserQuestion to let the user choose.

Phase 3: Scope Mode + YAGNI Review (Brainstorming Core)

First pick a scope mode for the selected approach. Recommend one, then let the user confirm with AskUserQuestion:

Every proposed addition gets its own decision: add now, defer (record in 3.2 Deferred), or drop. Record the mode in the Plan document.

Then perform a YAGNI (You Ain't Gonna Need It) review on the selected approach:

Use AskUserQuestion with multiSelect: true: "Select only what is essential for the first version:"

List all features and move unselected items to Out of Scope.

Principle: Don't abstract what can be done in 3 lines. Don't design for hypothetical future requirements.