Sometimes the universe appears multidimensional -- but isn't

Had a knock-down drag-out fight with another architect recently over "status" and "priority".

She claimed that the backlog priority and the status where the same thing. I claimed that you can easily have this.

Priority: 1, Status: Not Started

Priority: 2, Status: In Process

Priority: 3, Status: Completed

See? It's obvious that they're independent dimensions.

She said that it's just as obvious that you're doing something wrong.

Here's her point:

• If you have priority 1 items that aren't in process now, then they're really priority 2. Fix them to honestly say priority 2.
• If you have priority 2 items that "somehow" jumped ahead of priority 1 items, they were really priority 1. Fix them to say priority 1. And don't hand her that "in the real world, you have managers or customers that invert the priorities". Don't invert the priorities, just change them and be honest about it.
• The only items that are done must have been priority 1, passed through an "in-process" state and then got finished. Once they're done, they're not priority 1 any more. They're just done.
• Things that hang around in "in-process, not done" have two parts. The part that's done, and some other part that's in the backlog and not priority 1.

She says that priority and status are one thing with the following values.

• Done.
• Priority 1 = in process right now.
• Priority 2 = will be in process next. Not eventually. Next.
• Priority 3 through ∞ = eventually, in order by priority.

Any more complex scheme is simply misleading (Priority 1 not being done right now? Is it a resource issue? A priority issue? Why aren't you doing it?)

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