SDD Propose Skill

Generate and evaluate solution options before committing to a design. This skill produces a tradeoff table that the team can use to choose the best approach.

Steps

1. Review the exploration report: Understand constraints and context.
   • What must not change (API contracts, data formats)?
   • What are the performance/security requirements?
   • What areas of the codebase will be affected?
2. Generate 2-4 solution options: Propose meaningfully different approaches.
   • Option 1: Minimal change (least disruption, may be limited)
   • Option 2: Standard approach (industry-standard pattern)
   • Option 3: Clean-slate (ideal design, higher effort)
   • Option 4 (optional): Hybrid or incremental migration
3. Evaluate each option: Analyze tradeoffs honestly. For each option, assess:
   • Effort: person-hours or story points
   • Risk: probability and severity of breaking changes
   • Reversibility: how hard is it to undo if it goes wrong?
   • Testability: how easily can this be tested?
   • Maintainability: how easy to extend or modify in future?
   • Alignment with constraints: does it fit all requirements?
4. Produce a recommendation: Choose one option with reasoning.
   • State which option you recommend and why
   • Acknowledge the main tradeoff you are accepting
   • Note any blocking assumptions that must be validated first
5. List open questions: Flag anything that must be decided externally.
   • Questions for the product owner (scope/priority)
   • Technical unknowns requiring a spike
   • Dependencies on other teams or systems

Output Format

## Proposals: <feature/change>

### Option 1: <name>
**Summary**: <one sentence description>
**Effort**: <estimate>
**Risk**: <low|medium|high> (<reason>)
**Reversibility**: <easy|hard|irreversible>
**Testability**: <easy|medium|hard>
**Pros**: <bullet list>
**Cons**: <bullet list>

### Option 2: <name>
...

### Tradeoff Table

| Option | Effort | Risk | Reversible | Testable |
|--------|--------|------|------------|---------|
| Option 1 | | | | |
| Option 2 | | | | |

### Recommendation
**Recommended**: Option <N>. <rationale in 2-3 sentences>

### Open Questions
1. <question>