# Surface Capability Gaps Before They Cause Failures You need to find capability gaps in your team before someone gets set up to fail -- not after a post-mortem reveals them. This guide walks through three complementary views: structural risks, coverage trajectory, and growth alignment. ## Prerequisites Complete [Make Staffing Decisions You Can Defend](/docs/products/team-capability/) first. That guide covers roster setup, role requirements, coverage analysis, and what-if simulations. The steps below build on that foundation. ## Detect structural risks The `risks` command surfaces three categories of structural weakness in your team's composition: ```sh npx fit-summit risks platform --roster ./summit.yaml ``` Expected output: ```text platform team — structural risks Single points of failure: infrastructure — only alice.chen holds practitioner level [low] incident_response — only bob.kumar holds working level [low] Critical gaps: observability — no engineer at working level core skill for software_engineering discipline. capacity_planning — no engineer at working level broad skill for software_engineering discipline. Concentration risks: delivery skills — 3 of 5 engineers at J060 working level ``` Each category tells you something different: - **Single points of failure** name skills where exactly one engineer holds working-level proficiency or higher. If that person is unavailable, the capability disappears. - **Critical gaps** name skills that the team's disciplines and tracks require but no one covers at the working level. These are the gaps that surface in post-mortems. - **Concentration risks** flag groups of engineers clustered at the same level and proficiency in the same capability area, creating a bottleneck where everyone has the same ceiling. When a single point of failure involves a part-time allocation (below 1.0), the severity is elevated. A `[high]` severity means the sole holder is allocated less than half-time to the team. ## Track coverage over time A point-in-time risk snapshot tells you what is fragile now. The `trajectory` command shows how coverage has changed across quarters, revealing whether gaps are forming or closing: ```sh npx fit-summit trajectory platform --roster ./summit.yaml --quarters=4 ``` Expected output: ```text platform team — capability trajectory Roster changes: 2025-Q2: 5 engineers (no changes) 2025-Q1: 5 engineers (dana.wu joined) 2024-Q4: 4 engineers (no changes) 2024-Q3: 4 engineers (eve.park left) Coverage evolution: skill 2024-Q3 2024-Q4 2025-Q1 2025-Q2 trend api_design 3 3 4 4 improving capacity_planning 0 0 0 0 stable incident_response 1 1 1 1 stable infrastructure 1 1 1 1 stable observability 0 0 0 0 stable system_design 2 2 3 3 improving task_decomposition 2 2 3 3 improving Persistent gaps: capacity_planning, observability ``` The **persistent gaps** line names skills that had zero depth across every quarter shown. These are the gaps most likely to cause failures -- they are not new and they are not trending toward resolution. Trajectory requires a version-controlled `summit.yaml` so Summit can read historical roster snapshots from git. ## Compare teams to find relative weaknesses When you lead multiple teams, a gap on one team may be covered by another: ```sh npx fit-summit compare platform delivery --roster ./summit.yaml ``` Expected output: ```text Comparison: Platform vs Delivery Skill Platform depth Delivery depth Delta task_decomposition 3 4 -1 estimation 2 1 +1 incident_response 1 3 -2 system_design 3 1 +2 api_design 4 2 +2 Risks unique to Platform: infrastructure (single point of failure) Risks unique to Delivery: estimation (single point of failure) ``` Unique risks are the ones to address first -- no other team compensates for them. When both teams share the same gap, the problem is organizational, not team-specific. ## Identify growth opportunities that close gaps The `growth` command recommends which team members are best positioned to close the gaps you found: ```sh npx fit-summit growth platform --roster ./summit.yaml ``` ```text platform team — growth opportunities High impact (addresses critical gaps): observability dana.wu (J060, foundational) or carlos.ruiz (J060, foundational) could develop this skill. Medium impact (reduces single points of failure): infrastructure bob.kumar (J060, awareness) or dana.wu (J060, awareness) could develop this skill. Low impact (strengthens existing coverage): incident_response carlos.ruiz (J060, foundational) or dana.wu (J060, foundational) could develop this skill. ``` Recommendations are grouped by impact. High-impact items address critical gaps -- skills nobody covers. Medium-impact items reduce single points of failure. Low-impact items strengthen existing coverage by adding depth. Each recommendation names the team members closest to the target proficiency. Growing someone from `foundational` to `working` is a shorter path than growing from `awareness`. ## Strip names for broader audiences When sharing risk or growth reports beyond the direct team, use the `--audience` flag to control individual-level detail: ```sh npx fit-summit risks platform --roster ./summit.yaml --audience director ``` ```text Single Points of Failure: infrastructure 1 engineer (practitioner) incident_response 1 engineer (working) Critical Gaps: observability No engineer at working+ ``` Names are replaced with aggregate counts. The structural findings remain the same. ## Verify You have completed this guide when you can answer these questions from your Summit output: - **What are the team's structural risks right now?** You have run `npx fit-summit risks` and can name the single points of failure, critical gaps, and concentration risks. - **Are gaps forming or closing?** You have run `npx fit-summit trajectory` and can identify persistent gaps and coverage trends. - **Which gaps are unique to this team?** If you lead multiple teams, you have run `npx fit-summit compare` and can distinguish team-specific risks from organizational ones. - **Who is best positioned to close the gaps?** You have run `npx fit-summit growth` and can name the recommended growth paths for high-impact gaps.