Limit how many tickets an agent can work on at the same time

[asamawi]

Problem

When agents have too many tickets open simultaneously, they constantly switch between tasks. Each switch costs time (re-reading the ticket, remembering where they left off, context-loading). The result: everything takes longer, nothing gets finished, and clients wait more.

There's currently no way to prevent an agent from starting a 6th, 7th, or 10th ticket while their first 5 are still unfinished.

Proposed Solution

Add a configurable limit on how many tickets an agent can have in "active" statuses at the same time.

How it would work:

• Administrator sets a limit (e.g., 3 or 5 tickets per agent)
• The system counts tickets in active statuses (e.g., "Working" or equivalent) assigned to that agent
• When the limit is reached, the agent sees a warning or is blocked from pulling/starting another ticket
• To start new work, the agent must first finish or park an existing ticket

Configuration options:

• Global default limit (e.g., 5 per agent)
• Per-agent override (some agents handle more, some less)
• Choose between soft limit (warning) and hard limit (blocked)

Example

Agent has limit of 3. They currently have:

• Ticket A — Working
• Ticket B — Working (waiting for a reboot to complete)
• Ticket C — Working (waiting for client reply)

Agent tries to start Ticket D → System says: "You have 3 active tickets. Complete or park one before starting new work."

Why This Matters

This is one of the most well-studied productivity principles in operations management. Having fewer things in progress at once leads to:

• Faster completion — focused work finishes sooner than fragmented work
• Less forgetting — fewer open threads means fewer things falling through cracks
• Better client experience — tickets get resolved instead of just "started"