# Business Process Improvement Checklist

## A practical worksheet from Dominic Phan

Use this checklist to assess, redesign, and sustain a business process. Mark each item as you complete it, and capture evidence in the notes column.

**Process being reviewed:** ________________________________________________

**Process owner:** ____________________  **Review date:** ____________________

**Team / department:** _____________________________________________________

---

## 1. Define the opportunity

- [ ] Confirm the business problem or customer outcome to improve.
- [ ] Name the process clearly, including its start and end points.
- [ ] Identify the process owner and accountable decision-maker.
- [ ] Agree on the scope: what is included and what is out of scope?
- [ ] Record why improvement matters now.

**Notes:**

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

## 2. Understand the current state

- [ ] Interview the people who perform and receive the process.
- [ ] Document the current workflow from trigger to outcome.
- [ ] Capture handoffs, approvals, wait states, rework, and exceptions.
- [ ] Identify systems, documents, data, and policies used at each step.
- [ ] Validate the process map with the people closest to the work.

**Notes:**

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

## 3. Measure performance

- [ ] Establish a baseline for cycle time and processing time.
- [ ] Measure volume, backlog, error rate, and first-time-right performance.
- [ ] Estimate cost, effort, and avoidable manual work.
- [ ] Gather customer, employee, or stakeholder satisfaction signals.
- [ ] Define a small set of meaningful KPIs with clear owners and data sources.

**Baseline metrics:**

| Metric | Current baseline | Target | Data source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Cycle time |  |  |  |
| Error / rework rate |  |  |  |
| Cost or effort |  |  |  |
| Customer / stakeholder outcome |  |  |  |

## 4. Find root causes

- [ ] Separate symptoms from the underlying causes.
- [ ] Look for unclear roles, duplicate work, unnecessary approvals, and bottlenecks.
- [ ] Check whether policies, systems, or data quality create friction.
- [ ] Use evidence to test assumptions instead of relying on anecdotes.
- [ ] Prioritize causes by impact, frequency, and ease of addressing them.

**Top root causes:**

1. __________________________________________________________________________
2. __________________________________________________________________________
3. __________________________________________________________________________

## 5. Design the improved process

- [ ] Remove steps that do not create value, control risk, or enable learning.
- [ ] Simplify forms, rules, handoffs, and approval paths.
- [ ] Clarify who does what, by when, and with what information.
- [ ] Design exception paths instead of forcing every case through one route.
- [ ] Identify safe opportunities for standardization, automation, or workflow tools.
- [ ] Review the proposed process with users, risk owners, and customers.

**Improvement ideas:**

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

## 6. Plan implementation

- [ ] Define the future-state process, roles, controls, and supporting technology.
- [ ] Break the change into achievable phases or experiments.
- [ ] Assign an owner, deadline, and success measure for each action.
- [ ] Prepare communication, training, and adoption support.
- [ ] Identify risks, dependencies, and rollback options.
- [ ] Start with a pilot where the team can learn quickly and safely.

| Action | Owner | Due date | Success measure |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|  |  |  |  |
|  |  |  |  |
|  |  |  |  |

## 7. Sustain the gains

- [ ] Monitor the agreed KPIs after launch, not just during the project.
- [ ] Create a regular review cadence with the process owner and team.
- [ ] Document the standard way of working and keep it easy to find.
- [ ] Capture feedback from customers and frontline staff.
- [ ] Review new exceptions and feed learning back into the process.
- [ ] Celebrate improvements and update the process when business needs change.

**First review date:** ____________________

**Next improvement to test:** _______________________________________________

---

## Final review

- [ ] The process has a named owner.
- [ ] The current and future states are documented.
- [ ] Baseline and target measures are agreed.
- [ ] The improvement addresses a verified root cause.
- [ ] People affected by the change understand what will change and why.
- [ ] A review plan is in place to sustain and improve performance.

**Summary of expected outcome:**

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

> Sustainable process improvement combines clear ownership, evidence-based decisions, practical change, and continuous learning.
>
> — Dominic Phan, GAQM-certified business process expert and BPM trainer