When the board stops telling the truth
A board is only useful while it matches what is actually happening. Most stop doing that within a month.
Setting up a board is easy and everyone does it well. Keeping it true is the hard part, and it fails in four predictable ways.
The column that swallows everything
"In progress" fills with eleven items and nobody is working on eleven things. What actually happened is that people move a card in when they start and forget to move it out when they stall.
The fix is a number, not a rule about discipline. Decide how many things one person can genuinely have in flight — two is realistic, three is generous — and treat anything above that as a signal to finish something before starting something. When the column is over the limit, the question is not "who is slacking" but "what is stuck".
Tasks with no name on them
An unassigned task is a task that will still be there in March. Not because nobody cares, but because seeing it costs nothing: it is not on anyone's list, so nobody's day is worse for ignoring it.
Either give it an owner or delete it. A backlog of unowned work looks like planning and functions like a graveyard. If you cannot name who would do it, you have not decided to do it.
"Done" that means four different things
One person means the code is written, another means it is reviewed, a third means the client has seen it. So the board says done and the work is not shipped, and nobody is lying.
Write down what done means for your team, once, in one sentence, and put it somewhere visible. It usually reduces to a handover: done means the next person can start. Everything before that is in progress, whatever it feels like.
Tasks that are too big to move
A card that has not moved in three weeks is almost never a lazy person. It is a card that describes a project, not a task.
When something sits still, do not chase it — split it. "Redesign onboarding" never moves; "write the new welcome copy" does. The rule of thumb: if you cannot picture finishing it in a day or two, it is a container and needs opening.
Questions people actually ask
Why does our in-progress column keep filling up?
Because people move cards in when they start and not out when they stall. Set a limit of two or three per person and treat anything above it as a signal to finish something, not as a discipline problem.
What should we do with unassigned tasks?
Give them an owner or delete them. An unowned task costs nobody anything to ignore, so it survives forever. If you cannot name who would do it, you have not actually decided to do it.
A task has not moved in weeks — what now?
Split it rather than chase it. A card that sits still usually describes a project, not a task. If you cannot picture finishing it in a day or two, it is a container that needs opening.
