Delayed WIP? From Time Waste to Time Saved

Delayed WIP refers to the work that was “in progress” at one point. However, no one is currently working on it. It can be due to multiple reasons:

1. The team found the task uninteresting, so they switched to another task, thinking, “We will figure it out later.”

2. The work got complex, and the team decided to “complete the easier tasks first.”

3. The work got stuck due to a dependency, and no one is following up on it to resolve the dependency.

4. The person, once working on a work item, left the team.

5. The managers and senior leaders “pushed” another task to the team because they believed the new task had a higher priority than the ones the team was currently working on.

6. And many more such reasons.

And this is how we handle these:

1. Initially, the team will discuss these “Delayed WIP” work items during the Daily Standup and commit to taking action on them within the next few days.

2. After a few days (or maybe a week), the team tries to ignore them under the guise of “let’s discuss the other priority work first.” And then commit to reviewing them within the next two weeks.

3. After 3–4 weeks, it goes into the syndrome — “Oh yeah, those work items. We know we will pick them up.

4. After three months, these work items either get discarded or deleted.

There is a better way to handle these “Delayed WIP” work items.

A. ISOLATION

Create the following columns/stages/sections (whichever you may call) in your board: Hold, Blocked, Waiting. Segregate these “Delayed WIP” work items into any of these columns by following the below-mentioned rules:

1. HOLD: Anything that you do not want to work on right now.

2. BLOCKED: Anything that you do not want to work on right now because it is dependent on other work that is not yet complete.

3. WAITING: Anything waiting for clarification or the right people to get free?

B. EXPLICIT POLICIES

Define and follow Explicit Policies. Create some constraints in the system to handle these columns using these guidelines:

1. Limit the number of items that can be moved to any of these queues. (Limiting the “Delayed WIP”).

2. What will you do if you reach the maximum limit in these sections?

3. Discard them?

4. Delete them?

5. Start working on them?

6. Push them to the backlog?

7. Any other?

C. REVIEW:

Do some analysis and review.

1. In what circumstances can the above actions be taken earlier?

2. What was the root cause/reason for sending these “Delayed WIP” work items to these queues — Hold, Blocked, or Waiting? Can any of these reasons form part of the “Definition of Ready” / “Replenishment Policy?”

3. Why is this reason not part of DOR? What will improve if you include it now?

D. MEASURE:

Because quantification always makes sense.

1. Measure the time spent by each of these work items in the queue. Is every “Delayed WIP” work item spending maximum time (till the limit, as defined in Step 1, is reached)? Do you want to trigger the decision (as described in Step 2) based on the ageing of the “Delayed WIP” work items rather than their “aggregation” in the specific section?

2. Create a scatter plot by work type using “time spent in queue” as one of the chart axis. Do you find any pattern? Do you see more density for any specific kind of work? Or is it a batch pattern?

3. Dig deeper and analyze the data in detail.

E. IMPROVEMENT PLAN

Utilize proven techniques to create an improvement plan.

1. Experimental Hypothesis.

2. Pareto Analysis.

3. Fishbone Diagram.

4. 5-Why analysis.

5. Cluster and resolve.

6. Or any other option that is suitable for your team and organization.

To Sum Up

The above is the application of the six general practices of Kanban. These practices are: Visualize, Limit WIP, Manage Flow, Make Policies Explicit, Implement Feedback Loops, and Improve Collaboratively and Evolve Experimentally. Anyone can apply these practices to any problem they face, regardless of the methodology or framework. “Delayed WIP” is one of the several anti-patterns that create waste in the system and defy the lean principles. Most of the time, we ignore the items on which we have worked actively, but now we no longer want to continue working on them. We consider them a “waste of time,” but we do not measure the “time wasted” in making them half-complete. Isolating and measuring the “Delayed WIP” work items provides us with an opportunity to improve our processes. Reducing “Delayed WIP” items helps us regain focus on generating value for our customers and reducing waste. Proper handling of the “Delayed WIP” work items brings us one step closer to being more predictable and agile.