CH-15
Undifferentiated Clone
Content & History
Default severity: medium
Product BacklogProcessQuality
What it detects
An issue was cloned from another but its content similarity to the source exceeds the configured threshold after the configured grace period — no meaningful differentiation was made.
Detection formula
IF issue.created_via = \'clone\' OR clone_detected_via_link AND text_similarity(issue, source_issue) > config.content.clone_similarity_threshold // default: 0.9 AND issue.age_days > config.content.clone_differentiation_grace_days // default: 7d THEN FLAG undifferentiated_cloneExamples in practice
- A team shows an issue was cloned from another but its content similarity to the source exceeds the configured threshold after the configured grace period while clone similarity threshold is set to 0.9.
- Example signal: An issue was cloned from another but its content similarity to the source exceeds the configured threshold after the configured grace period — no meaningful differentiation was made.
Suggested response
Protect narrative quality: write items before work starts and avoid late or empty edits.
Coaching playbook
Symptom
An issue was cloned from another but its content similarity to the source exceeds the configured threshold after the configured grace period — no meaningful differentiation was made.
Why it matters
When "Undifferentiated Clone" 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 "Undifferentiated Clone" 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.