Marcus UdokangProject Manager| Aivaz ConsultingCalgary, Alberta, Canada
What do you do with tickets you do not have control over, that are currently blocked by an external team. If, for example, your team has completed their work, and are waiting on another team which needs to complete their task of maybe setting up infrastructure or hardware, which will not be completed for 2 weeks. In other words, the current ticket can not progress to the next stages of test and done. Basically you can't fulfill the prescribed WIP limit, because you currently have a blocked column.
Do you remove the stuck ticket from the In Progress column? Do you have a dedicated column for blocked items, especially if you are using an electronic board like Jira? Should the blocked item be in a separate swim lane? Would like to hear what some of you have come up with as an effective solution. Saving Changes...
If the source of blocked work items is temporary, then a separate column for blocked items is fine. However, if it is a chronic blocker, the team would ideally come up with a way to eliminate this blocker in the future or by not being able to push through more work items because of it, management's attention will be drawn to the issue and they can help to unblock the source of delays.
Kiron Saving Changes...
Vladimir LiberzonR&D Director| Spider Project TeamMoscow, Russian Federation
Marcus, if project portfolio leveling was applied and portfolio schedule was optimized everybody knows who shall do what and when. The schedule is regularly updated and so the dates when each activity is planned to be done are always known in advance. So activity statuses can be scheduled at ..., in progress or done. Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
If you are talking about systems like SAFe then forget about WIP, you have a more critical issue in the flow. If you do not fix the flow then forget about to use a flow based system. Saving Changes...
