A permit-inspection team’s board shows only Doing and Done, so legal-review wait never appears. What change should the SM/TC coach?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
A two-column board is a closed curtain over the waiting room. Legal review is where permits actually stall, so it has to be a real state. If the board does not match the work, it cannot teach flow.
Full Explanation
If permits stall in legal review but the board shows only two columns, the SM/TC should add columns that match the real workflow, including the legal-review queue. A two-column board is a closed curtain over the waiting room. Legal review is where permits actually stall for applicants, so it has to be visible as a state the team and partners can manage.
Keeping two columns and reporting legal wait in a separate email thread fails because side-channel status is not team visualization. Collapsing legal review into Done so the board stays simple fails because marking work Done while it waits on counsel falsifies flow time. Replacing the board with a Gantt of inspector calendars fails because people calendars are not workflow-state visualization.
Exam caveat: boards must reflect reality, including uncomfortable wait states that involve other roles. Operational check: insert an explicit legal-review (or equivalent) column, define entry/exit policies, make WIP in that state visible, and review wait time there in team sync until permit cycle time improves for applicants. Visible legal-review queues also give counsel partners a constructive signal instead of surprise escalations at the deadline.