RA-03
Overloaded Team Member — WIP Exceeds Capacity
Resource Allocation
Default severity: medium
ProcessOutputRiskEffort
What it detects
A team member has more active In Progress issues assigned to them than the configured per-person WIP limit — they are context-switching across too many simultaneous tasks. The primary cause of cognitive overload and the main reason why individual cycle times are longer than the work content warrants.
Detection formula
FOR each_person P: active_assigned(P) = COUNT(issues WHERE assignee=P AND status IN config.workflow.active_statuses) IF active_assigned(P) > config.ra.person_wip_limit // default: 3 concurrent items THEN FLAG person_overloaded overload_count(P) = active_assigned(P) - config.ra.person_wip_limit IF overload_count(P) >= config.ra.critical_overload_count // default: 3 items over limit THEN CRITICAL FOR each flagged person P: estimated_ct_increase = overload_count(P) * config.ra.ct_increase_per_extra_item // configurable estimate Report: person, active_wip, limit, overload_count, list of active issues with ageExamples in practice
- One person owns a disproportionate share of critical-path or high-WIP work.
- Delivery risk rises when a single expert becomes the throughput bottleneck.
- A team shows a team member has more active in progress issues assigned to them than the configured per-person wip limit while active statuses is set to 3 concurrent items.
Suggested response
Reduce single points of failure—spread critical skills and lighten overloaded contributors.
Coaching playbook
Symptom
A team member has more active In Progress issues assigned to them than the configured per-person WIP limit — they are context-switching across too many simultaneous tasks. The primary cause of cognitive overload and the main reason why individual cycle times are longer than the work content warrants.
Why it matters
When "Overloaded Team Member — WIP Exceeds Capacity" 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
Reduce single points of failure—spread critical skills and lighten overloaded contributors.
Facilitation questions
- What system change would stop "Overloaded Team Member — WIP Exceeds Capacity" 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.