User insists on keeping more than one card in the column in progress

[Sandro Alves]

Hello guys, is there a way to restrict the number of tasks in the column in progress for the same developer?
We understand that for better management a programmer cannot work on more than one activity at the same time.

[Tom Lister]

Hi @Sandro Alves 

It would be complex to enforce this but you can create warnings.

In the board column configuration you can set min and max allowed values, but that would apply to all user tasks in the column.

You can create dashboard gadgets to show issues in status by user.

But I think this is really a user education thing. If you are concerned that agile 'rules' are being broken by multitasking then it is a team/retrospective conversation to be had.

If there are blockers, then maybe a on-hold status for the board.

Personally I don't usually apply highly constrained workflows/rules to agile boards as they can also reduce the ability to flex when needed.

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Sandro Alves 

Yes, and...to Tom's suggestion: starting with a conversation with the person and team is a good place to start...rather than relying on the tool (i.e. Jira) to help change understanding and behavior.

Kind regards,
Bill

[Rafael Costa]

You could put this groovy script as validator in the transition to "In Progress". If user have more than 1 issue in progress, this transition will return an error with message "You can't have more than 1 issue in progress"

import com.atlassian.jira.component.ComponentAccessor
import com.atlassian.jira.web.bean.PagerFilter
import com.atlassian.jira.bc.issue.search.SearchService
import com.opensymphony.workflow.InvalidInputException

def user = ComponentAccessor.jiraAuthenticationContext.loggedInUser
def jql = "assignee = " + '"' + user.name + '"' + "and status = 'In Progress'"
def searchService = ComponentAccessor.getComponentOfType(SearchService)
def search = searchService.parseQuery(user, jql)
def pager = new PagerFilter()
pager.setMax(0)
pager.setStart(0)
def jqlResults = searchService.search(user, search.query, pager)

if (jqlResults.total > 0){
   def error = new InvalidInputException("You can't have more than 1 issue in progress")
   throw error
}