AAOM Handbook

INTERNAL

AI.10 Further Investigation Justified? Context

It is the natural tendency of people to focus on events and issues that are recent, and hence fresh in their mind. Consequently, an issue that has just occurred will often distract us from a more significant unsolved issue that is less recent. Not effectively controlling this tendency will mean a lot of time and effort will be wasted trying to pursue too many, constantly changing, priorities. The result is that many significant process issues will not be resolved or not resolved as soon as possible. To help avoid this tendency, a quantitative measure of the relative ranking of each issue is produced. If the ranking of a new issue indicates that resources should not be diverted from current activities to further investigate it, then it should be parked for consideration at a future time. If ranking indicates resources should be diverted it may be beneficial to identify a team with the combined characteristics necessary to maximise the probability of a successful outcome. Purpose To select the process issues to which resources will be allocated. Quantity One decision whether to allocate resources to a process issue. Quality Resources should be allocated to the issues with the highest relative ranking. The decision to proceed with or stop the investigation should be recorded with the Investigation Work Order. Resources This task is completed by the manager responsible for the process. Time After the issue ranking has been determined.