Engineering Delivery Bottleneck Diagnostic
Find where engineering work waits using PR, ticket, and deploy data: cycle time by stage, WIP, DORA, then one fix.
Before & after
Same prompt, same agent — the only difference is the skill.
A VP of Engineering advisory role has several dimensions. You'd typically need to think about throughput metrics, team structure, hiring strategies, and deployment practices. There are different frameworks you could use depending on your stage. Creating regular sync cadences with leadership would help. Documenting your approach would make it more repeatable. You might want to focus on a few key areas first. What are the biggest engineering challenges your company is facing?
SKILLS VPE ADVISOR WORKFLOW INSTALLED 337-skill collection includes VPE Advisor with structured instructions REPEATABLE PROCESS Weekly engagement: 1-hour sync with leadership Trigger: new hiring plan, deployment bottleneck, or quarterly review Output format: memo with diagnostics + recommendations + metrics DIAGNOSTIC CHECKLIST Throughput indicators: → Sprint velocity trend (4-week moving average) → Cycle time for features end-to-end → Deployment frequency per week → On-call incident response time Team structure: → Spans of control (engineers per tech lead) → Skill distribution vs roadmap needs → Hiring pipeline and conversion rates → Attrition and exit interviews Culture signals: → Code review turnaround time → Test coverage by team → Technical debt backlog size → Promotion calibration rigor OUTPUT TEMPLATE MEMO TO: Engineering Leadership Throughput Assessment Cycle time: 14 days average (industry 8-12 for your stage) Deployments: 3x per week (target 5x) Recommendation: Invest in CI/CD automation; reduce deploy approval layers Team Structure Assessment Tech lead spans: 6-8 engineers (optimal 4-6) Junior ratio: 40% (should decrease to 25%) Recommendation: Hire 2 senior engineers to mentor and reduce span Hiring Recommendation Role 1: Senior Backend Engineer (priority) Role 2: DevOps Engineer (deploy bottleneck) Expected impact: reduce cycle time to 10 days within 8 weeks Metrics to track: cycle time, deployment frequency, incident response time Workflow chains with 30+ other VPE-focused commands in collection.
About this skill
Before you add headcount or change process, find out where work actually waits. This diagnostic breaks cycle time into stages from your own PR, ticket, and deploy data and names the one constraint worth fixing.
What it does
- Pulls PR, ticket status, deploy, and incident data (with ready-to-run commands) and says what is missing
- Breaks cycle time into stages with medians and 85th percentiles to expose waiting, not just working
- Checks WIP against throughput, PR size, review concentration, unplanned work, and DORA speed and stability together
- Names one constraint and one intervention with its tradeoff, a metric to watch, and a revisit trigger
- Tells you whether headcount would help or just add WIP
What you get
A one-page delivery diagnostic: cycle time by stage, the constraint and evidence, the intervention, secondary signals, and a headcount note.
Best for
VPs of Engineering, engineering managers, and CTOs facing missed commitments or slowing delivery.
SKILL.md preview
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name: delivery-bottleneck-diagnostic
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