The old apps still had owners when I killed the restart

I combined three healthcare apps so a patient could finish in one session. The tickets on the apps I was about to shut down did not stop. They looked like progress.

The job had moved. One session. One finish. On the old surfaces the boards were still full. Owners were still taking work. The next sprint still had a name. From inside those rooms the work looked alive.

Velocity on a dead surface is noise

A zombie bet is a surface that still has a roadmap and a team after the finished job has moved. Velocity on that surface is noise. The patient already left.

The tickets were real. Completions were real. None of that meant the patient still started there. The restart is what we were killing. Polish on a restart the patient no longer takes is not progress. It is a leftover board doing what leftover boards do.

Name the death in the release plan

I had to name which apps died. Not in a strategy deck. In the release plan. Until that was named, engineering kept polishing the restart.

A deck can say the experience is one session and still leave three backlogs funded. Engineering will do what the board asks. If the board still belongs to a dead app, the restart gets another week of care. The line that stopped it was a release plan that said this surface is gone, this job finishes here, do not take tickets on the old start.

Alive means the job still depends on it

I will not call a bet alive because it still has tickets. I call it alive when the finished job still depends on it.

If the patient can finish without that surface, the surface is a zombie. Move the team. Close the roadmap. Do not let a full board talk you into one more sprint.

Tickets are a cheap proof of life. The job is the only one I trust.