CH-02
Ghost Story — Abandoned In-Progress
Content & History
Default severity: medium
Product BacklogProcessQuality
What it detects
An issue had active transitions and worklog entries, then received no activity for longer than the configured abandonment threshold without reaching a terminal status. last_activity = MAX(changelog.date, worklog.date, comments.date)
Detection formula
IF issue.status NOT IN config.workflow.terminal_statuses AND (today - last_activity) > config.content.abandonment_days // default: 60d AND issue.time_spent > 0 THEN FLAG ghost_abandonedExamples in practice
- A team shows an issue had active transitions and worklog entries, then received no activity for longer than the configured abandonment threshold without reaching a terminal status while terminal statuses is set to 60d.
- Example signal: An issue had active transitions and worklog entries, then received no activity for longer than the configured abandonment threshold without reaching a terminal status.
Suggested response
Protect narrative quality: write items before work starts and avoid late or empty edits.
Coaching playbook
Symptom
An issue had active transitions and worklog entries, then received no activity for longer than the configured abandonment threshold without reaching a terminal status. last_activity = MAX(changelog.date, worklog.date, comments.date)
Why it matters
When "Ghost Story — Abandoned In-Progress" 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
Protect narrative quality: write items before work starts and avoid late or empty edits.
Facilitation questions
- What system change would stop "Ghost Story — Abandoned In-Progress" 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.