FL-01

WIP Limit Exceeded

Flow

Default severity: high
ProcessOutputRiskEffort

What it detects

Number of in-progress items per assignee or per configured column exceeds the configured WIP limit.

Detection formula

active_statuses = config.workflow.active_statuses // configurable list wip_per_assignee = COUNT(issues WHERE status IN active_statuses AND assignee = X) IF wip_per_assignee > config.flow.wip_limit_per_person // default: 3 THEN WARN

Examples in practice

  • One developer has six In Progress items while the configured per-person WIP limit is three.
  • WIP per assignee exceeds the team policy during an active sprint.
  • Flow slows because too many items are started before earlier work is finished.

Suggested response

Inspect board policy, WIP, and status hygiene so flow matches how work actually progresses.

Coaching playbook

Symptom

Number of in-progress items per assignee or per configured column exceeds the configured WIP limit.

Why it matters

When "WIP Limit Exceeded" 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

Inspect board policy, WIP, and status hygiene so flow matches how work actually progresses.

Facilitation questions

  • What system change would stop "WIP Limit Exceeded" 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.

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FL-01: WIP Limit Exceeded — FlowAnalyzer