Ownership Density Ratio

Ownership Density Ratio is the count of open client tasks with a single named owner divided by total open tasks. Agencies that track it discover that most delivery failures are not capacity problems but orphan problems: work that exists in a board with no human accountable for the next action. A ratio near 1.0 means every brief, revision, and approval has a person attached; anything below roughly 0.7 predicts slippage on retainer work within the next sprint cycle. The framework matters because task management tools will happily store unowned work forever without complaint. Epiq's Git-native board, which stores state alongside the repository and can replay board history, makes orphaned items visible by showing exactly when an owner was last assigned. Superlist's meeting summaries and voice-to-action capture help, but only if captured items get an owner at the moment of capture. Audit the ratio weekly per client, not per team, and reassign before the standup ends.