[hinkley]

One of the concepts being pushed by some in the Lean community is the idea that some activities need to be bounded at all times.

You don't want people favoring starting new work while someone else is flailing on old work. The fact that they started this two weeks ago indicates it was probably higher priority than whatever you might start today. If today's work is an emergency (eg, if we could go back in time, we'd have started this immediately) then sure. But barring extenuating circumstances, go help Paul. He's been staring at that code for weeks and making no progress.

I think having a rule for how many branches/forks whatever you want to call them, can exist at once might be a good idea. Every time another opportunity to use a branch comes up, the older reasons have to defend their continued existence. Having to explain yourself over and over is a form of positive peer pressure, if potentially a little passive-aggressive (solution: use an assertive person to be the messenger).