WIP meaning: work in progress

Work in progress, in one word

WIP is short for work in progress: a piece of work that has been started and isn’t finished or ready. American English also says work in process, mostly about goods on a production line. The long form covers anything still changing, so a reorganised department can be called “a work in progress” for several years running.

WIP on a draft

At work, WIP on a file name, a document title or a subject line means don’t review this as final. It invites comments on direction and asks you to ignore the typos. Sharing a WIP early is a good habit, since a plan is easier to change at 30% done than at 95%. The label also works as a shield, since nobody can call a WIP wrong, only early.

WIP online

On social media, WIP marks unfinished artwork or a project still under way, usually in lower case as wip or as the hashtag #wip. Artists post WIPs to show a piece as it builds, and the label asks commenters to go easy on the unfinished parts. The office version makes the same request, with less success.

Sharing a WIP by email

A WIP email works best when it says what kind of feedback it wants and by when: “WIP, comments on structure by Wednesday, ignore the numbers”. That’s the BLUF habit applied to a draft. Without it, reviewers fix the commas and miss the argument.

The risk is the forward. A WIP sent to three teammates and then forwarded to a director arrives without the context, and the placeholder numbers get quoted in a meeting. Mark the draft itself, in the file name or a banner at the top, so the label travels even when the email doesn’t.

WIP on the balance sheet

In accounting, WIP is inventory partway through production: the raw materials, labour and overhead already spent on goods that aren’t finished. It sits inside the inventory figure on the balance sheet. When the goods are done they move to finished goods, and when they sell they move to cost of sales. Some firms say work in process for goods that move through quickly and work in progress for long jobs, though either term usually does.

Billing by stage

Long projects turn WIP into invoices. A construction firm may bill at set stages, when a job is 25% done and again at 50%. That makes “how far along are we” a question about money as well as time, which is why the percentage on a site report gets argued over.

WIP limits on a kanban board

Teams that run a kanban board set WIP limits: the most tasks allowed in each column at once. On one software vendor’s sample board, a column that goes over its limit turns red. Behind it sits one rule: finish work before starting more, because ten half-done tasks deliver nothing. The same guide suggests keeping each task to 16 hours of work or less, so nothing clogs a column for weeks.

The permanent draft

Some documents stay WIP for good. The strategy deck labelled WIP in March is still WIP in November, on version 7, under a file name like “plan_v7_FINAL_WIP”. Each round of comments starts a new version, and none of them is allowed to be the last.

Too many WIPs

The kanban lesson applies to people too. Ten things in progress means ten things not done, and a status update that lists everything as WIP is a list of starts. The useful version names the one item that will be finished this week, and what’s stopping the rest. A desk covered in half-finished work is also the oldest way to look busy at work, and it only fools people who never ask what’s finished.

WIP in a self-review

The yearly review is where WIP gets its biggest workout. Every goal is in progress, several have been in progress since the previous review, and none of them is finished. Writing that up so it sounds like success is a skill, and Self-Review lets you practise it on someone else’s goals. WIP sits beside EOD and ASAP among the time words in the plain-English jargon dictionary.

An email sharing a WIP

Subject: Pricing page copy, WIP not finished

Hi team, sharing the draft before Thursday’s review. The headline and the plan table are close. The FAQ is still placeholder text, so please don’t send it to legal yet.