Aglet

Triage a mixed-scope work item before splitting

Mixed scope creates false progress when one completed subtask makes a broad item look done. Triage should identify distinct outcomes and their boundaries, preserve shared context, and choose a structure that lets collaborators make honest status and priority decisions. Make each meaningful outcome visible before a single status hides uneven progress across the bundle.

Establish what is happening

  1. Inventory requested outcomes

    List each customer, engineering, investigation, documentation, or cleanup outcome with evidence, owner, dependency, and completion condition. Mark which outcomes share a real prerequisite and which were bundled for convenience. Name the customer or system result for every included scope before comparing implementation tasks.

  2. Check scope coupling

    Test whether outcomes must ship, be investigated, or be approved together. Separate shared context from shared completion, and identify any scope whose risk or authority differs from the rest. Test whether the scopes share a prerequisite or only a convenient deadline.

  3. Choose a work shape

    Split into linked items, sequence bounded tasks, or keep one item with explicit sections and owners. Preserve the originating request and define a coordinator when outcomes remain coupled. Preserve the originating request when linked items become the safer work shape.

What to carry forward

The output is a scope map with distinct outcomes, owners, dependencies, and acceptance boundaries. Stop triage when status can describe each meaningful result honestly; split where bundled work would hide risk or make ownership ambiguous.

Keep the decision with the work.

Use a Work Item in Aglet to record the problem, the evidence you have, and the next decision. Add an owner and priority, then keep updates in the discussion so the next person can follow the reasoning.

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