"On Hold" issues and WIP limit

[Ella10004]

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!

[Jack Brickey]

@Ella10004, yep. you can change the issue category of the "On Hold" status to be "To Do" then configure the board to move "On Hold" to the column that contains "To Do". IMO on hold items should always be equivalent to "To Do". If they are on hold they aren't in progress they are 'previously in progress'. If you want to distinguish "To Do" from "On Hold" then either create a new column on the board or modify the card view using colors or simply include the status.

[Ella10004]

Thanks, nice work around! But I do think these issues are really "In progress" since you have to remind people to answer your questions like twice a day and make sure it's actually happening. You cannot forget about the issue or it will never be done. Making the issue "Selected for development" (Kanban has no "To do") can make you forget about it.

[Jack Brickey]

Then the issue needs to be assigned to the person that is to answer the question. If you leave the 'answerer' out of the Jira workflow then that is a hole in the process. The idea is to always know who has the ball when an issue is underway.

In JSD there is a "Waiting on customer" status which is similar to assigning the issue to them. So if you have individuals that do not have Jira access you may wish to create a unique status that falls under In progress category, separate column, etc. Maybe "NMI". However, the issue of getting the answer falls w/ the assignee.

[John Funk]

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