Blockers & Issues
Before your team starts building, you want to make sure the plan is solid. ProdE's blocker system acts as a quality gate — surfacing contradictions, gaps, and risks in your requirements so they can be resolved before development begins.
Running Blocker Analysis
As a PM, you can trigger an AI-powered analysis at different scopes:
- Entire project — comprehensive review of all requirements
- Specific workstream — focused analysis of one area
- Single requirement — targeted review of a particular item
The AI examines your PRD and requirements, then creates blockers for any issues it finds. Each blocker gets a unique ID (e.g., BLK-1, BLK-2) for easy reference in discussions.
What the AI Looks For
Blockers are categorized by the type of problem they represent:
| Category | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Wrong Assumption | A requirement is based on an incorrect assumption |
| Unclear | A requirement is ambiguous or poorly defined |
| Contradiction | Two or more requirements conflict with each other |
| Missing Context | Essential background information is absent |
| Infeasible | A requirement is not technically or practically achievable |
| Risk | An implementation warning or potential future problem |
| Gap | A required topic or feature area is completely missing |
| Impacted Area Not Addressed | The PRD fails to consider an affected part of the system |
Each blocker is also assigned a severity:
| Severity | Meaning |
|---|---|
| High | Must be resolved before proceeding |
| Medium | Should be resolved before implementation |
| Low | Minor issue or suggestion — can be clarified later |
Blockers can optionally be linked to a specific workstream (WS-1) or requirement (REQ-5) for traceability.
Resolving Blockers Through Chat
Blockers follow a simple workflow:
Open → Answered → Resolved
- Open — The AI creates the blocker and it's awaiting your review
- Answered — You review the blocker and provide a response or clarification through chat
- Resolved — The answer is sufficient and the blocker is closed
Moving a blocker to "Answered" or "Resolved" requires providing a response, ensuring every issue is formally addressed.
Tracking Blocker Health
The system provides aggregated statistics:
- Total number of blockers
- Breakdown by status (open, answered, resolved)
- Breakdown by severity (high, medium, low)
These metrics give stakeholders a clear picture of requirement quality and whether the plan is ready for development.
Next: Learn about Documents, Artefacts & Bugs for managing your project's content.