DEV-155.md

id	DEV-155
title	Log a Bottleneck as a Problem and Design It Out
status	active
enforcement	manual
severity	error
depends_on	DEV-150

Problem

When work depends on one person to proceed, that person becomes a bottleneck. The team scales by adding faces rather than a system, and progress stalls when that person is unavailable. Left implicit, the bottleneck is never owned or removed.

Solution

Treat a bottleneck as a barrier to the goal and route it through the same Problem workflow as any other blocker.

1. When a step repeatedly depends on one person to proceed, name it as a barrier per DEV-150.
2. Open it as a Problem per DEV-160, stating what the team cannot do while the dependency stands.
3. The Solution designs the dependency out: a shared framework, delegated bounds, or automation, so the work proceeds without that person in the loop.
4. Scale by building the system, not by adding people to absorb the load.

Acceptance Criteria

• A recurring single-person dependency is recorded as a Problem
• The Problem states what the team cannot do while the dependency stands
• The Solution removes the dependency, not just adds capacity
• Nothing requires that one person once the Problem is resolved