Issues around change

New solutions present new problems

Sometimes it is discovered that newly developed software or websites do not properly match the actual requirements. This can be because:

• the requirements were not properly communicated, not prioritised or not considered in sufficient detail in enough time by the commissioning organisation
• the delivering company promised something it could not deliver or was unclear about what could be delivered within the agreed budget/timescale

Needs change, but processes are not updated

This can happen when exceptional reporting requirements are misinterpreted as ongoing regular requirements.  We regularly find duplicated or unnecessary procedures being painstakingly maintained. 

For example: Stepping through direct debit (DD) processing we found that staff were not only entering key details into the computer system, but also fiiling a special DD pink form which had all the same information plus some more really important things.  The bookkeeper was ignoring the computer system and had set up their own spreadsheet taking all information from the pink forms.  At the end of each month the computer system, spreadsheet and pink forms were all painstakingly reconciled.

Old processes are transferred unthinkingly into new situations

Sometimes we find that website launches have failed to meet expectations because everyone had unrealistic expectations of what was achievable. Or old processes, which worked well as a manual solution, do not work well at all during a web ticketing experience.