Developers on the GIS-parcel viewer context-switch across five priority-one items, and nothing finishes. What flow coaching should the Scrum Master/Team Coach apply?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
Five open parcel maps is like five half-mowed parks: lots of motion, no finished lawn. Stop starting and start finishing. Limit the work in play so people get time-in-the-zone and something actually ships.
Full Explanation
WIP limits protect finish rates and time-in-the-zone. Developers on the GIS-parcel viewer context-switching across five priority-one items experience thrashing: partial parcel maps advance while nothing completes for assessors or the public. The Scrum Master/Team Coach should limit WIP so the team finishes current work, recovers focus time, and restores flow instead of starting more civic GIS items.
Adding a sixth priority-one item fails by concept: more starts deepen multitasking and further starve completion. Celebrating context-switching as cross-training while raising WIP limits fails by concept because it romanticizes fragmentation and undermines flow predictability. Timeboxing each item to fifteen minutes to schedule switching fails by concept: it institutionalizes interruption rather than enabling deep finish cycles on parcel work.
Exam caveat: SAFe flow metrics and Kanban-style WIP limits exist to stop starting and start finishing; cross-training is valuable when intentional, not when every urgent civic ticket is open at once. Priority-one inflation usually signals weak intake discipline, not a need for higher WIP.
Operational check: set an explicit WIP limit on the GIS-parcel board columns, finish or park excess in-progress items with the Product Owner, measure context switches and flow time for a week, and confirm more parcel viewer stories reach Done with less thrashing.