Diagnose shadow-work types and create evidence plans with interventions.
npx skills add https://github.com/manager-dot-dev/manager-skills --skill shadow-work
Please help me install this Agent Skill. Skill: shadow-work Source: https://github.com/manager-dot-dev/manager-skills/tree/main/skills/shadow-work Command: npx skills add https://github.com/manager-dot-dev/manager-skills --skill shadow-work
Shadow Work helps engineering managers identify, quantify, and reduce hidden capacity drains that cause teams to miss commitments even when everyone seems busy. It targets invisible production support, glue work, and the shadow backlog, providing a diagnostic, an evidence plan, and concrete interventions.
Tag unplanned work in your backlog and track it for 4–6 weeks to surface patterns.
High-intent search queries and answers about installing and using this skill.
Invisible production support is identified by tagging unplanned work in your backlog and tracking lightweight signals over 4–6 weeks to surface hidden capacity drains. This structured diagnosis reveals which shadow-work type is the dominant drain on your engineering team.
Shadow work in engineering teams consists of untracked capacity drains like invisible production support, glue work, and the shadow backlog. It causes teams to miss sprint commitments even when everyone seems busy, because hidden work consumes capacity without visibility in planning.
Redirect off-the-record PM requests into the official backlog by applying concrete interventions with stakeholder scripts that make tradeoffs clear. This aligns PMs, leadership, and engineers by forcing hidden shadow backlog items into visible capacity planning.
Yes, you can track shadow work in remote or on-site engineering teams by tagging unplanned work and monitoring lightweight signals over 4–6 weeks. The diagnosis applies across all three shadow-work types regardless of team location.
The best way to quantify glue work is to run a structured diagnosis across all three shadow-work types, track lightweight signals for 4–6 weeks, and use the resulting evidence plan to measure the exact capacity drain. This surfaces invisible glue work patterns in reviews.
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