Business practice efficiency · Executive worksheet
Workflow baseline worksheet
Make one workflow visible. Separate active work, waiting and repeat work, then choose a practical experiment to improve the next handoff.
Make the work visible
Start with one item. Follow it all the way through.
A process can feel busy while an individual request spends most of its time waiting. This worksheet makes that distinction visible before you decide what to change.
Choose a narrow boundary
Follow one request, order, approval or service case from a clearly defined starting event to a clearly defined ending event. Choose a case that represents a recurring problem. Record unusual conditions rather than treating the case as an average.
Use one clock
Record minutes consistently. Calendar time includes nights and weekends; working time counts only your defined operating hours. Keep original processing, waiting and repeat work separate. Record a wait against the stage it precedes, once.
What this measures: the recorded sequence for one item. It does not establish average cycle time, financial savings or labor capacity. Parallel stages need a separate timeline; adding overlapping durations would overstate elapsed time.
Illustrative example
A small approval is waiting for a large window.
In this invented example, a complete order request waits for a daily approval window. The times demonstrate the worksheet; they are not Assuras client results or an industry benchmark.
| Stage | Original work | Waiting before stage | Repeat work |
|---|---|---|---|
| Validate request | 10 min | 0 min | 0 min |
| Check credit terms | 15 min | 120 min | 10 min |
| Approve exception | 5 min | 1,440 min | 0 min |
| Communicate decision | 8 min | 30 min | 0 min |
The sequence contains 48 minutes of work and repeat work and 1,590 minutes of waiting: 27 hours and 18 minutes in total. The largest recorded wait precedes exception approval. That is a place to investigate, not proof that the approver is the cause.
A useful next experiment: test an earlier exception-review window for a small set of comparable requests. Compare waiting time, returned requests and decision quality. Keep a named owner and a stop condition if the change introduces risk.
Your working baseline
Record the sequence you can support.
Use up to four stages. Combine only consecutive activities that share an owner and a clear handoff. Leave an unused stage completely blank. The worksheet starts empty; use the illustrative example button to explore it.
Your recorded sequence
A baseline for the next conversation
Add a stage to begin. Unknown times will remain unknown.
The worksheet will identify the largest recorded wait and any gaps in the timing record. It does not assign a performance grade.
Durations are additive only for consecutive, non-overlapping periods within the boundary you defined. Work minutes are elapsed processing time for the item, not person-hours. More than one person may be involved. A single case is a starting observation, not an estimate of typical performance.
Turn observation into a decision
Investigate the handoff before redesigning the process.
Review the record with the people who do and receive the work. Reconcile missing timestamps, distinguish necessary checks from avoidable waiting, and test one change on comparable cases.
If the largest delay is waiting
Inspect the queue, release rules, decision availability and information required at the handoff. The longest wait may sit downstream of the real constraint.
If the largest issue is repeat work
Examine what a complete request looks like, where acceptance criteria are unclear, and who can resolve an exception. Faster repetition is not the same as a better outcome.
If several improvements compete for the same people, use the initiative-capacity comparison. If a technology change is proposed, define the work it must support in the software evaluation worksheet before considering features.
Keep the working record
Take it into the conversation.
Your branded PDF includes the entries, working assumptions and current result, ready to share or print. Use it to agree an owner and the evidence needed for the next decision.
From the worksheet to the work
Find the constraint worth working on.
Bring one workflow and the evidence you have. A focused review can help clarify the boundary, surface unresolved handoffs and define a practical improvement experiment.
ASSURAS / EXECUTIVE RESOURCES
Workflow baseline worksheet
A discussion aid based on the entries supplied. Illustrative examples are not client results.