"On Hold" issues and WIP limit

Question

Many times an issue requires feedback from the customer or from a developer of another project. In these cases, the issue is in progress but none of the developers of the current project are actually working on it (they are waiting for an answer). So the assigned developer starts solving another issue.

I'm using Kanban with a WIP limit and I think that issues that are "on hold" should not be counted as WIP. Is there a way to do so?

Creating a new column is kinda weird since the "on hold" state comes neither before nor after the "in progress" state. It comes every time you need to wait for an answer.

Thank you!

John Funk · Answer

I would say yes it applies, but your WIP limit should not be a one to one limit per Developer. I like to use a ratio of 1.5 to every developer working in that column. 3 developers? Then the WIP is 4.5 and you round any decimal up to the next level. So you would record 5 as the WIP limit. So it one or even two are blocked, all of the developers have a task to work on.

Paul Charpie · Answer

But then we're back to the original question:  Should it count towards the WIP limit? It's being worked on, but does that mean a person ends up doing nothing while they try to get some response because all their tasks are blocked?

John Funk · Answer

I would rather refer to it as Blocked - because it really is. And then work to remove the block. To me, it has been started and should stay In Progress until the block is removed and the issue can move forward. Otherwise, you might just be masking the issue