MI-18
Parent Terminal While Children Remain in Earlier PI
Metric Integrity
Default severity: medium
MetricsQualityRisk
What it detects
terminal parent with non-terminal child on a different PI label; tests; catalogue.
Detection formula
No published identification formula is available yet for this rule.Examples in practice
- Bulk admin transitions or resolution anomalies distort cycle time and velocity metrics.
- Closure timestamps or fields suggest data repair rather than organic delivery.
- A team shows terminal parent with non-terminal child on a different pi label; tests; catalogue during analysis.
Suggested response
Audit closure and field patterns so metrics reflect real completion, not bulk admin updates.
Coaching playbook
Symptom
The "Parent Terminal While Children Remain in Earlier PI" signal shows a repeatable delivery anti-pattern on the cited issues.
Why it matters
When "Parent Terminal While Children Remain in Earlier PI" 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
Audit closure and field patterns so metrics reflect real completion, not bulk admin updates.
Facilitation questions
- What system change would stop "Parent Terminal While Children Remain in Earlier PI" 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.