Practical tools for Technical Program Managers: templates, trackers, and scripts built from real program work.
The goal is to spend less time on the mechanical parts of program management and more time on the judgment parts.
This repo is the things that run. The documents they produce - charters, RAID guides, RACI matrices, close-out reports - are in tpm-templates.
The trackers and templates below need nothing but a spreadsheet or a text editor. The two Slack tools are different: both require Claude Code and a working Slack MCP connection, which most people will not have set up. Better to say that here than three clicks in.
| Tool | What It Is |
|---|---|
| RAID Log Template - Excel | A clean, ready-to-use Excel RAID log with tabs for Risks, Assumptions, Issues, and Dependencies. Color-coded, auto-calculating, zero setup required. The better choice for actually running a busy program. |
| RAID Log Template - Markdown | The same log in a format you can read before downloading anything, paste into Confluence or Notion, diff in a pull request, or open on a phone. Same fields, with a worked example in every section. |
| Program Kickoff Checklist | Pre-kickoff checklist, recommended agenda with timing, section-by-section facilitation guide, and post-kickoff follow-up checklist. |
| Meeting Notes + Action Item Tracker | Template for capturing decisions, actions, open questions, and risks in a meeting. Includes a running tracker for recurring meetings. |
| Tool | What It Is |
|---|---|
| Slack Crawler | Claude Code skill I built and open-sourced here. Reads all channels in a named Slack sidebar section and produces a structured two-week intelligence brief, with hot callouts for the last 24 hours and three days at the top. Runs on demand. Optionally writes the brief to a Slack canvas. |
| Slack Canvas Status Synthesis | Two-script workflow that reads a Slack canvas to extract a reusable status template, then uses that template to generate a draft status report from your Slack channels and canvases. Draft output only. Review before posting. |
| Tool | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Program Kickoff Checklist | Ready | Good for getting scope, stakeholders, risks, dependencies, and operating rhythm aligned before kickoff. |
| Meeting Notes + Action Item Tracker | Ready | Useful for recurring execution hygiene and follow-through. |
| RAID Log Template (Excel and Markdown) | Ready | Solid base tracker, same fields either way. Pair it with the RAID Log Guide in tpm-templates. |
| Slack Crawler | Working | Strong signal-gathering workflow. Requires Claude Code and Slack MCP setup. |
| Slack Canvas Status Synthesis | Working | Strong draft-generation workflow. Requires review before publishing. |
The two Slack tools are designed to work together. Run them in sequence to go from raw channel noise to a polished draft status report.
/slack-crawler <section-name> --canvas new # first run, creates the canvas
/slack-crawler <section-name> --canvas F0XXXXXXX # subsequent runs, updates in place
The crawler reads all channels in a named sidebar section and produces a structured brief covering the last 14 days. It writes the brief to a canvas and keeps updating that same canvas each time you run it.
By the time you need to write a status report, you've a current, organized picture of what happened across all your channels, not your memory of it.
./canvas_generator_from_template.py
The synthesis tool reads your program channels and the canvas the crawler just updated, applies a template extracted from one of your existing status canvases, and produces a draft in your usual format.
It will not be perfect. It will get you most of the way there: the structure, the populated sections, the signal pulled from Slack, and the first draft of the report. You still own the final call.
The crawler does the ongoing intelligence work throughout the week. The synthesis tool does the assembly work when you need to report. Keeping them separate means you can run the crawler on whatever cadence makes sense for your program without tying it to your reporting schedule.
These tools break when they're treated as the source of truth.
A crawler can collect signal. It can't know whether a Slack message is confirmed, political, stale, or already superseded.
A status synthesis tool can draft. It cannot decide whether the program is Green, Yellow, or Red. It cannot own the risk call. It cannot make the escalation decision.
Use the tools to reduce mechanical work. Do not use them to avoid judgment.
Before using any automation with real program data:
- Confirm the tool is approved for the data you're using.
- Don't paste secrets, credentials, private keys, customer-sensitive data, restricted incident details, unreleased roadmap commitments, or regulated personal data into unapproved tools.
- Sanitize inputs when possible.
- Review all generated drafts before sharing.
- Keep the system of record updated after the draft is finalized.
A polished draft is not the system of record.
These tools are designed to work alongside the templates in tpm-templates.
The RAID log here is the working file. The RAID Log Guide explains how to run it.
The status synthesis tool produces drafts in whatever format your existing status canvas already uses, which means it works with the reporting structure in program-reporting-frameworks.
They're separate repos because templates and tools serve different purposes, but they're designed to be used together.
If you've a tool, script, or template that saves TPMs real time, open a PR or file an issue describing it.
The bar:
- It has to work.
- It has to be generic enough to apply outside one company or team.
- It has to be documented well enough that someone can pick it up without asking you questions.
- It has to make the work clearer, safer, faster, or less fragile.
These tools exist because the mechanical parts of program management - gathering signal, drafting reports, tracking status - are solvable. The judgment parts are not. The goal is to spend less time on the former so you've more for the latter.
Maintained by Eric White | ChefPlex
Copyright (c) 2026 Eric White. Licensed under CC BY 4.0: use it, adapt it, put it to work in your own program. Credit is the only condition.
The Python in slack-canvas-status-synthesis/ stays under its
own MIT license.