Business analysis & process improvement
A noisy post-go-live backlog, turned into a plan the program can act on
For Business Process Analyst / continuous improvement roles
The months after a big platform go-live. Teams report problems faster than anyone can act on them, and they are a mix of real defects, expensive workarounds, and things that just feel wrong. Here is how I turn that into a ranked list with a number and an owner on every line.
Which ones are real, what they cost, and what to fix first
The job is not to fix every reported item. It is to tell the program which are genuine defects, which are workarounds worth the manual cost, and which just need to be documented and left alone, then rank the rest.
- 5 bucketsevery item classified the same way
- hrs / montheach one costed
- burden × effortthe ranking, not a gut call
First, sort the pile
Reported issues do not arrive categorized. Every one gets read against the same set of buckets before it goes any further.
- 01 Not a workaroundDuplicate, no action, or expected behavior
- 02 Cost-of-quality workaroundA real manual fix filling a system gap
- 03 Design challengeThe process works, it just costs more than it should
- 04 LocalizationA legitimate regional or statutory step
- 05 Needs investigationNot enough information to classify yet
Then, a decision on each one
Classification, monthly cost, root cause, disposition, and where it sits on the fix list. Pick an issue.
- What is happening
- Two teams each pull and reconcile the same figures every week
- Classification
- Not a workaround, duplicated effort
- Monthly cost
- ~4 hours
- Root cause
- Ownership was never assigned after go-live
- Disposition
- One owner, retire the second copy, publish once
- Priority
- Close · no build required
- What is happening
- A team copies records from one system to another by hand each day
- Classification
- Cost-of-quality workaround
- Monthly cost
- ~26 hours
- Root cause
- The interface was descoped at go-live to hit the date
- Disposition
- Build the interface; medium effort, clear payback
- Priority
- Fix first · high burden, contained fix
- What is happening
- Requests wait on a sign-off that has never once been rejected
- Classification
- Design challenge
- Monthly cost
- Cycle time, not hours: 2 to 3 days per request
- Root cause
- A control copied from the old process that the new one already covers
- Disposition
- Remove the step; document why the risk is already handled
- Priority
- Schedule · needs a control sign-off first
- What is happening
- One region does an extra filing step after the standard process
- Classification
- Localization
- Monthly cost
- ~6 hours
- Root cause
- A real statutory requirement, not a defect
- Disposition
- Accept; document as a standard regional variant
- Priority
- Monitor · legitimate, just track it
Illustrative issues on a fictional scenario. The buckets and the decision on each one are how I actually run this.
The result
A ranked improvement pipeline the program can act on, each item with its cost, its cause, its owner, and, once fixed, whether the change actually helped. Progress and benefit go into the leadership reporting.
A generic post-go-live scenario. The triage, the costing, and the benefit tracking are how I actually do this work.
Open to a senior full-time role. Hiring brief →