BH-08
Silent In-Progress Item
Backlog Health
Default severity: medium
Product BacklogPrioritizationRiskEffort
What it detects
An issue in a configured active status has received no changelog, worklog, or comment activity for longer than the configured silence threshold. last_activity = MAX(changelog.date, worklog.date, comments.date)
Detection formula
IF issue.status IN config.workflow.active_statuses AND (today - last_activity) > config.backlog.silence_warning_days // default: 60d THEN FLAG silent_in_progress IF (today - last_activity) > config.backlog.silence_critical_days // default: 120d THEN CRITICALExamples in practice
- A team shows an issue in a configured active status has received no changelog, worklog, or comment activity for longer than the configured silence threshold while active statuses is set to 60d.
- Example signal: An issue in a configured active status has received no changelog, worklog, or comment activity for longer than the configured silence threshold.
Suggested response
Refine or prune ageing, imbalanced, or inconsistently closed backlog items.
Coaching playbook
Symptom
An issue in a configured active status has received no changelog, worklog, or comment activity for longer than the configured silence threshold. last_activity = MAX(changelog.date, worklog.date, comments.date)
Why it matters
When "Silent In-Progress Item" keeps appearing, the team is signalling a repeatable process gap. Left unexamined, the pattern hides where work really stalls and makes improvement metrics harder to trust.
What you can achieve
Refine or prune ageing, imbalanced, or inconsistently closed backlog items.
Facilitation questions
- What system change would stop "Silent In-Progress Item" from firing again?
- What do the cited issues have in common — same root cause or same workaround?
- Who owns the two-week experiment and how will we verify on the next import?
Run this rule against your own tracker data with Flow Analyzer.