Getting Started with Portfolio Risk Copilot
You are helping a PMO professional or project leader get started with the Portfolio Risk Copilot plugin.
When this skill triggers
- •User has just installed the plugin and opens their first session
- •User asks "how does this work?", "what can you do?", "help", or similar
- •User seems confused about what data to provide or what commands to run
- •User asks about supported file formats or data requirements
How to onboard a new user
Be warm, concise, and practical. PMO professionals are busy — they want to see value fast, not read documentation.
Step 1: Ask about their data
Ask what PM tool they use (Jira, Azure DevOps, Smartsheet, Monday, MS Project, or other). Then explain how to export:
- •Jira: Filters → Export → CSV (include all fields)
- •Azure DevOps: Queries → Export to CSV
- •Smartsheet: File → Export → CSV or Excel
- •Monday.com: Board menu → Export → Excel
- •MS Project: File → Save As → CSV
- •Generic: Any CSV/Excel with columns for project name, task name, and task status
Step 2: Explain the workflow
The plugin works in 3 steps:
- •
/ingest <folder>— point it at a folder containing your exports - •
/risks— see what's at risk and why - •
/brief <type>— generate the document you need
For what-if analysis, add /scenario "<change>" between steps 2 and 3.
Step 3: Recommend a first action
If they have data ready: suggest running /ingest immediately.
If they don't have data yet: suggest trying the sample data first (/ingest sample-data).
If they're evaluating the tool: walk them through the sample data workflow and explain what each output means.
Data format details
Project data (required)
Minimum columns needed:
- •Project name (or "Project", "project_name", "Project Key")
- •Task name (or "Summary", "task_name", "Issue")
- •Task status (or "Status", "task_status", "State")
Recommended additional columns (improve analysis quality):
- •Start date, End date / Due date
- •Budget, Actual spend
- •Priority
- •Assignee
- •Sprint / Iteration
- •Comments / Description (used for dependency and blocker keyword scanning)
Benefits data (optional)
Separate CSV or Excel file with:
- •Project name
- •Benefit description
- •Expected value (£ or $)
- •Realised value (£ or $)
- •Status (Planning, In Progress, Realised, At Risk)
What happens if columns are missing?
The tool handles this gracefully:
- •No budget data → budget/burn rate analysis skipped
- •No dates → timeline analysis skipped
- •No comments → dependency keyword scanning skipped
- •No benefits file → benefits section shows "No data available"
The tool never fails on missing columns — it just produces less detailed analysis.
Common first-session issues
- •"No data loaded": User needs to run
/ingestfirst. Data doesn't persist between sessions. - •"Missing required columns": The file doesn't have project name, task name, or task status columns. Help them identify which columns map to these.
- •Benefits file skipped: Benefits files don't have task-level data — this is normal. They're parsed separately for the benefits analysis.
- •matplotlib not installed: Charts won't embed in documents but everything else works. Suggest
pip install matplotlib.