# Work in progress: define the snapshot boundary

Illustrative planning brief; no automatic product import.

Synthetic example: At noon a board has five unstarted items, two active, one blocked, one awaiting review and two accepted items.

## Decision

Under the agreed start-to-acceptance boundary, report four work-in-progress items and preserve their state breakdown.

## Owned work

- Name the snapshot boundary
  - Owner role: Delivery lead
  - Acceptance evidence: Active start and accepted finish are written beside the noon checkpoint.
- Reconcile state counts
  - Owner role: Coordinator
  - Acceptance evidence: 2 active + 1 blocked + 1 in review = 4; backlog and accepted records are excluded.
- Review the control decision
  - Owner role: Work owners
  - Acceptance evidence: Owners inspect the blocked/review inputs before deciding whether to start additional work.

## Workflow

1. Freeze one observation time and the start/finish meanings.
2. Classify started-but-unfinished records, including waits inside the boundary.
3. Use the state breakdown to review new-start decisions, without deriving a delivery rate.

## Judgment

WIP is a count at a checkpoint, not hours, effort or completed throughput. State names alone do not prove your workflow boundary.


## Worked reporting note

Noon snapshot: four started-but-unfinished items, including one blocked and one awaiting review. No finish forecast is made.


## Working artifact

- Observed / Counts and states at noon / Supports a four-item stock snapshot.
- Unknown / Future completed volume / Do not infer a daily completion rate.
- Next check / Verify one started-but-unfinished record per state / Repair inconsistent state meaning before trend comparisons.


## Workflow questions

### Is the backlog part of WIP here?

No. These five items have not crossed the defined active-start boundary.

### Does a blocked record still count?

Yes, when it started and has not reached accepted finish under this policy.

### Does four WIP mean four items will finish today?

No. The count contains no future completion evidence.

## Product connection

Use this manual measurement rule as context when planning or reviewing owned work in TeamBoostAI. Confirm the fields and reports available in your account; the worksheet is not imported automatically.

Confirm account availability before adopting this manual outline.


## Worked measurement study

All example records are synthetic; manual worksheet, no automatic import.

### Inspect the invented records

State | Records | WIP treatment
--- | --- | ---
Unstarted backlog | 5 | Excluded
Active | 2 | Included
Blocked | 1 | Included
Awaiting review | 1 | Included
Accepted | 2 | Excluded

### Derivation

WIP at noon = active 2 + blocked 1 + awaiting review 1 = 4 records. Neither backlog 5 nor accepted 2 is added.

Noon snapshot: four started-but-unfinished items, including one blocked and one awaiting review. No finish forecast is made.

### Evidence boundary

Observed / Counts and states at noon / Supports a four-item stock snapshot.
Unknown / Future completed volume / Do not infer a daily completion rate.
Next check / Verify one started-but-unfinished record per state / Repair inconsistent state meaning before trend comparisons.

### Method references

The Kanban Guide, May 2025: https://kanbanguides.org/the-kanban-guide/2025.5/ — Clock and work-item definitions; examples and local rules are our own.