Tip #28 - Plan less and deliver more using WIP limit in Zoho Sprints

Tip #28 - Plan less and deliver more using WIP limit in Zoho Sprints



Hello,

It's been a while since we met with a quick, interesting tip. As the saying goes, "Too much of anything is good for nothing", today the focus is on delivering your outcomes with the right amount of planning. Your plan should be practical, calculative, and achievable for driving a qualitative success. 
 
Laura's plan
 
Laura has a habit of planning her project deliverables before assigning work to her team-mates. Once the plan is finalized, she schedules a general meeting with her team and assigns every member with a list of work items to accomplish. These work items run across different sprints. However, the team fails to accomplish a few of the work items as planned and the project runs overdue. Here, the problem lies in the ‘Planning’ stage where Laura predefined a plan without a proper analysis of her team’s capacity. 

Laura's plan becomes a problem
 
Replanning the same process over and over is cumbersome and your outcome would stand nowhere. Laura's problem is neither related to the work items nor her team members. The problem falls in the  PLAN and not the  DELIVERABLE. 
 
Laura's problem analysis phase

Laura's plan requires an intensive analysis before meeting with her team. She can streamline her analysis with:
  • Release notes: Analyze the total number of resolved and unresolved items in the completed sprints using release notes.
  • Team velocity: Track the average velocity of the team that determines the capacity of the sprint team to accomplish the assigned tasks. 
    • User based velocity: Track the individual user's velocity and determine the number of work items they can accomplish in a sprint. 
  • Cumulative flow diagram: Monitor the status based on the number of work items assigned in each status using the CFD chart. 
Post-analysis - Laura implements the Work In Progres limit (WIP)
 
Each status on the scrum board determines the sprint's success. You cannot add 100 work items in your 'To Do' status and later run them across different statuses. A proper planning of each status is crucial when it comes to delivering a sprint. WIP limit solves Laura's problem.



Using WIP limit
 
Each status can be set with a maximum and minimum value. This will help the team to stay organized. All the status will have a defined amount of work items without getting overloaded. It can also help:
  • If a single user is assigned with more work items in a particular status, the sprint manager can reassign it to the user with minimum work items.
  • If a status is overloaded, you can move items to the least occupied status to keep the balance. (For example, if you've 50 work items in 'In progress' status, you can move a few work items to the 'To do' status to maintain the balance.)
    • Number of work items
    • Number of work items including sub items
    • Number of work items including assignees
    • Number of work items including subitems and assignees 
Laura doesn't have to spend hours of planning, instead she can set WIP limit and deliver a better outcome. If you're a team struggling to organize a predefined plan and run your sprints, use WIP limit and make your work easier than before. 

Before we wind up, we are happy to appreciate the contributor for our previous spotlight. 



PS: Your feedback will help us for the betterment. Please comment your suggestions or queries below, we will get in touch with you. 

    • Sticky Posts

    • Tip #28 - Plan less and deliver more using WIP limit in Zoho Sprints

      Hello, It's been a while since we met with a quick, interesting tip. As the saying goes, "Too much of anything is good for nothing", today the focus is on delivering your outcomes with the right amount of planning. Your plan should be practical, calculative, and achievable for driving a qualitative success.    Laura's plan   Laura has a habit of planning her project deliverables before assigning work to her team-mates. Once the plan is finalized, she schedules a general meeting with her team and

    • Tip # 3- Working on the Scrum board

      Continuing from our Tip #2 on leading to a sprint, let's see how to manage the work items on the Scrum board.  Once you start the sprint your work items are automatically displayed on the Scrum board where you will actually manage the work items. It is a snapshot of the backlog items identified for the current sprint.    The layout of the Scrum board Simply put, the scrum board is just like a physical board with sticky notes on which the work items of the active sprint are displayed.  The scrum board

    • Tip#2- Leading you to a Sprint

      Product Backlog After the user stories are written and finalized, they are sorted to create the Product Backlog for the project during the Backlog Grooming meeting. This is a master list of all the work items that have been identified for the project and sorted by priority. Requirements are not constant during this period.The Product Backlog is dynamic and is an ongoing process. Every user story in the Product Backlog is customer centric. The Product Backlog includes: User centric stories based on

    • Tip #1- Why swimlanes?

      Lanes define a clear path to reach your destination. In Agile, swimlane is one such concept that sets a simple and clear process of the work that you do.   The concept of swimlane can be related to the pool, where the swimmers gather in their respective lanes to start off. Similar to the pool, work items are grouped in different categories. Each category is referred as a lane and is displayed in horizontal format. Swimlanes are effective in categorizing the work items with respective to specific

    • Recent Topics

    • issue with image thumbnails not showing in Image Selector

      We have been using Zoho Campaigns for over a year, maybe close to two years, and this issue just started happening in the last month. I wanted to wait to see if it would resolve on it's own, and it doesn't seem to be. The thumbnail images for all new

    • Deluge Script for adding tag

      Trying to create a custom function where a tag is added to a record - but for the life of me, I cannot figure out how. Help please! Moderation Update: Adding the help doc and sample to add Tags to records via deluge here for everyone's benefit. tag1 =

    • Unlock your Zoho Vault with OneAuth, Windows Hello, TouchID, YubiKey, and many more!

      Hello everyone, We are thrilled to introduce one of the most highly requested features – the ability to unlock your Zoho Vault using various authenticators. The primary purpose of a password manager is to remember just one master password and securely

    • Creator roadmap for the rest of 2022

      Hi everyone, Hope you're all good! Thanks for continuing to make this community engaging and informative. Today we'd like to share with you our plans for the near future of Creator. We always strive to strike a good balance of features and enhancements

    • How can I get base64 string from filecontent in widget

      Hi, I have a react js widget which has the signature pad. Now, I am saving the signature in signature field in zoho creator form. If I open the edit report record in widget then I want to display the Signature back in signature field. I am using readFile

    • Add Setting Values to the Rules

      Hi, It would be great to use the rules to set values in fields for submission, such as if a Type is X then set the Field Y to 10. Thanks Dan

    • So we ran with it for the week

      In our company i bit the bullet and ran with FSM for a whole week. Service calls, deliveries and surveys. Covering about 30-120 miles a day to domestic properties. Loved the appointment list and satnav integration. Loved the timer to measure the appointments.

    • Is there a way to set Document Owner/Sender via the API

      When sending requests for zoho sign, it would seem zoho uses the id of the person that created the zoho api cred to determine the owner_id, is there a way to set a default for this?

    • What's New - September 2025 | Zoho Backstage

      September has been a different month for Zoho Backstage. Instead of rolling out a long list of new features, we focused on something just as important: Performance, reliability, and stability The event season is in full swing, and organizers are running

    • Prevent stripping of custom CSS when creating an email template?

      Anyone have a workaround for this? Zoho really needs to hire new designers - templates are terrible. A custom template has been created, but every time we try to use it, it strips out all the CSS from the head.  IE, we'll define the styles right in the <head> (simple example below) and everything gets stripped (initially, it saves fine, but when you browse away and come back to the template, all the custom css is removed). <style type="text/css"> .footerContent a{display:block !important;} </style>

    • Stock Quotes/Spreadsheet

      It would be nice if we could download security and mutual fund prices from Yahoo Finance (or?) in order to maintain an up to date investment portfolio on Zoho. Any chance?

    • link to any Belgian bookkeeping software?

      Hello, Does anyone on this Forum can help me with the question whether the ZOHO CRM (Invoices) or ZOHO Book can be linked to software that is used for Belgian Bookkeeping/accountancy? By linking, I mean either with the help of a middleware program or either by the ability to export the custom made reports as CSV-files... If someone has an experience with online CRM-Accountancy in Belgium, with ZOHO (or other), it would be great to read it... Thank you

    • marketing automation

      wants to know about the zoho marketing automation

    • Problems with email templates (HTML - Outlook)

      Hi there, I've been trying to create a newsletter from the template "Business 4". Everything looks great in the preview, but when I send it to my Outlook inbox, the layout doesn't seems to stick. More particularly: - The line-height is way more reduced, even though I used the line-height tool from the template - Columns but they are sometimes misaligned - Font size is not always the one I've selected. Could you help? Thanks!

    • How to create a drop down menu in Zoho Sheets

      I am trying to find out, how do I create a drop down option in Zoho sheet. I tried Data--> Data Validation --> Criteria --> Text  --> Contains. But that is not working, is there any other way to do it.  Thanks in Advance.

    • Introducing Keyboard Shortcuts for Zoho CRM

      Dear Customers, We're happy to introduce keyboard shortcuts for Zoho CRM features! Until now, you might have been navigating to modules manually using the mouse, and at times, it could be tedious, especially when you had to search for specific modules

    • Zoho CRM's custom views are now deployable from sandboxes

      This feature is now available for users in the AU, JP, and CN DCs. This feature is now available for users in CA and SA DCs. New update: This feature is now available for users in all DCs. Hello everyone, We're excited to announce that you can now deploy

    • Zoho One - Syncing Merchants and Vendors Between Zoho Expense and Zoho Books

      Hi, I'm exploring the features of Zoho One under the trial subscription and have encountered an issue with syncing Merchant information between Zoho Expense and Zoho Books. While utilizing Zoho Expense to capture receipts, I noticed that when I submit

    • Limit in number of records for subforms and multi-select lookup fields

      It is my understanding that a maximum of 100 items can be selected in a multi-select lookup field, and that a total of 200 items can be selected in total between both subforms in a given module.  Are there any ways to work around this limitation if we

    • Kaizen #136 - Zoho CRM Widgets using ReactJS

      Hey there! Welcome back to yet another insightful post in our Kaizen series! In this post, let's explore how to use ReactJS for Zoho CRM widgets. We will utilize the sample widget from one of our previous posts - Geocoding Leads' Addresses in ZOHO CRM

    • Getting Permission denied to access this portal.

      We have one user that can't login to projects even though access has been granted. This user can login to accounts.zoho.com but when login to https://projects.zoho.com/portals.do we get this error: Unauthorized login to this portal Permission denied to access this portal. Check your portal URL again. Sometimes we also get "server too busy". We have tried killing sessions (in accounts.zoho.com) and we have deleted cookies; and tried different computers and still the same problem. All others use can

    • Does Zoho Docs have a Line Number function ?

      Hi, when collaborating with coding tasks, I need an online real time share document that shows line numbers. Does Zoho's docs offer this feature ? If yes, how can I show them ? Regards, Frank

    • Setting Default Views for Custom, List and Detail Views

      Hey, Is it possible to set a default custom view, list view and detail view for a module for every user? We are onboarding a lot of non technical people that struggle with these things. Setting the views as default would really help. Btw: also setting

    • Filter Based API request in Zoho Books using POSTMAN

      How do I GET only specified CONTACTS based on created time or modified time in Zoho Books using POSTMAN. In the api documentation, it is written we can apply filters but I need a sample request.

    • URL validation

      We use an internal intranet site which has a short DNS name which Zoho CRM will not accept.   When attempting to update the field it says "Please enter a valid URL". The URL I am trying to set is http://intranet/pm/ Our intranet is not currently setup with a full DNS name and given the amount of links using the shortname probably isn't a feasible change for us.

    • Has anyone been experiencing slow issues?

      Dear all, I just want to ask if anyone has been experiencing slow issues with Zoho Creator in the past two weeks? I worked with the ISP to improve network quality by changing routes and upgrading bandwidth, but nothing changed. I am in Vietnam.

    • Zoho Projects Roadshows 2025 - USA

      Dear Users, After an amazing response to our roadshows in 2024, we are excited to be back for the second year in a row! Join our team of experts as they walk you through the most-used features in Zoho Projects, explore powerful automation capabilities,

    • Billing Management: #6 Usage Billing in SaaS

      Imagine a customer shuffling across multiple subscriptions, a streaming service, a music app, cloud storage, and a design tool. Each one charges a flat monthly fee, regardless of how much or how little they use. Some months, the customer barely opens

    • Is there anyone who has been experiencing issues regarding the Zoho Creator Certification Website in the past 2 weeks?

      Dear all , I just wanted to ask is there anyone who was planning on taking the Zoho Creator Developer Certification Test in the past 2 weeks and have been facing errors stating that the website is under maintennance and also not allowed to access the

    • Directly Edit, Filter, and Sort Subforms on the Details Page

      Hello everyone, As you know, subforms allow you to associate multiple line items with a single record, greatly enhancing your data organization. For example, a sales order subform neatly lists all products, their quantities, amounts, and other relevant

    • Allow syncing Activities from other applications

      Marketing Automation could be a much more powerful platform if you were able to sync activities into the platform (e.g. purchase, donation, etc) outside of a user doing something on your website. I'd love it if you could sync Custom CRM Modules as activities,

    • Global Sets for Multi-Select pick lists

      When is this feature coming to Zoho CRM? It would be very useful now we have got used to having it for the normal pick lists.

    • Integración Books para cumplir la ley Crea y Crece y Ley Antifraude (VeriFactu)

      Hola: En principio, en julio de 2025, entra en vigor la ley Crea y Crece y Ley Antifraude (VeriFactu). ¿Sabéis si Zoho va a cumplir con la ley para cumplir con la facturación electrónica conectada a Hacienda? Gracias

    • Ask the Experts #1

      Hello everyone! It’s time to transform how you manage projects. Define the processes. Automate the tasks. Streamline the workflows. Let us dive into automation in Zoho Projects — from configuring workflows and custom functions to building triggers, using

    • How to overcome Zoho Deluge's time limit?

      I have built a function according to the following scheme: pages = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10}; for each page in pages { entriesPerPage = zoho.crm.getRecords("Accounts",page,200); for each entry in entriesPerPage { … } } Unfortunately, we have too many entries

    • Checking if Creator has Change History

      Like zForms - whenever an entry was updated there's an option to attached change history to email notif. Trigger -> Successful form submission

    • how to use validation rules in subform

      Is it possible to use validation rules for subforms? I tried the following code: entityMap = crmAPIRequest.toMap().get("record"); sum = 0; direct_billing = entityMap.get("direct_billing_details"); response = Map(); for each i in direct_billing { if(i.get("type")

    • Adding contact role to a specific deal js sdk malfunctioning

      i was trying to add the contact role to a specific deal contact but repeatedly i am getting this error: { "code": "SUCCESS", "details": { "statusMessage": { "code": "INVALID_DATA", "details": { "expected_data_type": "jsonobject" }, "message": "body",

    • Q3 Updates from Bigin!

      Hey Biginners, Hope you’re doing great! As we approach the end of 2025, we truly hope Bigin has been a part of helping you build your dream business this year! We've been busy working behind the scenes to bring you features that make running your business

    • New Series Announcement - Ecommerce Marketing Tips

      Running an online business is more than just having a website. It’s about getting the right customers to discover you, trust you, and keep coming back. To support your growth journey, we’re launching a weekly Marketing Tips series right here on Zoho Commerce

    • Next Page