Work in progress
Work in progress (WIP) is anything that has entered the active list but has not yet reached done. High WIP is the most common reason teams feel busy while finishing rate stays low.
Reducing WIP is not a productivity trick. It is a structural rule: the active horizon must stay small enough to finish.
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Why high WIP kills finishing
Starting work is easy. Finishing work requires focus. Every active item competes for attention and increases coordination overhead.
- Context switching multiplies. Attention fragments.
- Ownership weakens. If everything is active, nothing has momentum.
- Blockers hide. Work stalls quietly inside the noise.
- Order becomes meaningless. “In progress” no longer tells you what will finish next.
High WIP does not increase throughput. It delays completion.
The WIP rule: protect the active list
In Grunna, only a small number of items should live in “Now”. When a new request appears, the question is not “start it”. The question is:
What must finish first?
If something moves up in the order, something else moves down. That trade-off protects focus.
A practical approach
- Keep “Now” short. A few active items only.
- Make ownership explicit. Every active item has one finish-line owner.
- Unblock or remove. If blocked, resolve or deliberately take it out of “Now”.
- Split to finish. If it cannot finish soon, reduce scope.
WIP and ordered flow
Calm planning works because it respects WIP. The ordered list is the plan. The active portion of that list must stay small enough to finish predictably.
Finishing creates signal. Signal creates confidence. Confidence replaces heavy tracking.
Common WIP traps
- “Everything is urgent.” If everything is urgent, the order has collapsed.
- Starting to show movement. Starting feels productive. Finishing is productive.
- Shared ownership. If everyone owns it, momentum slows.
- Invisible work. Testing, approvals, and rollout must be part of “done”.
Reducing WIP is not about doing less. It is about finishing more.
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