Process Analysis and Improvement Checklist

A process converts something to something else (e.g. raw materials into a finished product, an unhappy customer into a happy customer, an unpaid bill into a paid bill, a hungry student into a satisfied student).

Analyzing and improving a process includes:

Understanding the context of the process. What exactly is the process meant to accomplish? Who is involved in the process? How is the process measured?

Visualizing the process steps and exception paths that the process might take

Evaluating how the process is currently functioning (good and bad).

Brainstorming changes to the process that you think might make the process more effective and efficient.

When these steps are completed, you will prioritize process improvement ideas and design small tests that you can conduct and measure to determine whether the improvement idea is worth pursuing.

Assess how the process is currently performing.

It's hard to know if a process needs optimizing or not without understanding how it's currently performing.

Carry out qualitative and quantitative assessments by taking actions such as: 

• Measuring the process against its KPI or expected outputs.
• Talking to the customer for this process (i.e. whoever receives the value the process creates), the process owner, and the process user.
• Understanding the value this process creates.

Write down your notes from the research in the corresponding text boxes.

Examine potentially wasteful steps in the process.

Sometimes, processes contain steps that repeat previously-stated information, steps that aren't helpful, or steps that simply don't add anything.

Examine if your process has any wasteful steps in it via the subchecklist below, then write about those wasteful steps in the text box below.

Based on your understanding of the process and how it is performing, start to make some hypotheses about how the process could be improved.

Write down the potential process improvements that could be made.