WD-12
Artifact Placeholder in Advanced Workflow Stages
Work Definition
Default severity: medium
Product BacklogEstimationProcessQuality
What it detects
placeholder keywords while in testing/pre-release/done stages; tests; catalogue.
Detection formula
No published identification formula is available yet for this rule.Examples in practice
- Work items enter active flow without the definition fields the team agreed on.
- Stories or features lack the metadata needed to verify readiness or completion.
- A team shows placeholder keywords while in testing/pre-release/done stages; tests; catalogue during analysis.
Suggested response
Bring acceptance criteria, sizing, and metadata in line with your definition of ready and done.
Coaching playbook
Symptom
The "Artifact Placeholder in Advanced Workflow Stages" signal shows a repeatable delivery anti-pattern on the cited issues.
Why it matters
When "Artifact Placeholder in Advanced Workflow Stages" 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
Bring acceptance criteria, sizing, and metadata in line with your definition of ready and done.
Facilitation questions
- What system change would stop "Artifact Placeholder in Advanced Workflow Stages" 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.