This is a process problem. Folks create a kanban-board environment which is sort-of good at helping new hires get oriented and become useful, while keeping mana

This is a process problem. Folks create a kanban-board environment which is sort-of good at helping new hires get oriented and become useful, while keeping managers informed of where everything is at. But it gets ossified into "these folks are in charge of creating stories...tasks and no one else" and "these folks are queue-picking migrant farm workers just picking up tasks and doing them and nothing else". You put an Engineering effort through this wire screen and it ends up mush. The Engineering gets lost in the dissection. Let Bob read all the code, create his own tickets and get back to work. This whole question isn't "How to keep Bob busy" but is instead "How to rationalize our system that Bob is so clearly illustrating is broken"