Calibration
Under, just right, over.
| Situation | Under | Just Right | Over |
|---|---|---|---|
| Covering work before time off | Leaves without a handoff. Open threads sit until they get back. | Writes what is in flight, who can decide what, and the one case worth a ping. The team can move, and they actually rest. | Stays in the threads all week and redoes the backup's calls. The backup never owns it, and they return already tired. |
| Closing the ticket | Marks it done when the code is merged. Does not check whether the person who needed it can finish the job. | Confirms the outcome landed. If something remains, they name an owner for it before they close. | Leaves it open to chase extras that were never in the ask. Work behind it waits. |
| A workaround that will stick | Ships the patch and walks away. The next person hits the same hole with no note. | Ships the patch so the week is unblocked, then either schedules the real fix or writes why the patch is the answer. | Holds the release for a full rewrite. People wait on a problem that already had a safe patch. |
| A stalled decision thread | Watches the thread and adds nothing. The week slips while people wait for a more senior voice. | Posts a recommendation, who is hurt if they wait, and a time they will proceed if no one objects. | Calls it alone on something that binds other teams. The next days are spent undoing it. |
| Leftovers after a launch | Treats launch day as the finish line. Docs, known bugs, and follow-ups have no name on them. | Before the team scatters, they list what is left, what can wait, and who takes each piece. | Will not call it launched until every leftover is gone. The next start date moves. |
| Two teams started the same work | Notices the overlap and keeps building their version. Two answers land and one gets thrown out. | Stops, compares scope, and picks which team finishes. The other team's time goes back to their plan. | Takes both piles and rebuilds a combined version so they can be the owner. Both teams lose the week they already spent. |
| Changing a shared interface | Changes it for their case and ships. Other teams find out when their work breaks. | Names who consumes it, gives them a window, and keeps a path for old callers through this week. | Waits until every consumer has moved, including teams not using the field. A small fix sits while their own users stay blocked. |
| A promise someone else made | Tells the customer it is not their promise. The customer is left with no next step. | Owns the next conversation. They confirm what was promised, what can actually ship, and who will say so. | Honors a promise the team cannot keep so they look like the owner. Planned work for the week gets dropped. |