Answer
What is a Workflow Spec?
A Workflow Spec is the first paid engagement: a fixed 15,000 dollar, ten business day study of the problem you have that ends with a fixed Build proposal. It covers observation, up to 12 interviews, baseline measurement, the business case, an adoption design and the build specification.
What the Spec includes
The Spec is built to answer one question: should this workflow get a tool, and if so, exactly which one? To answer it, we watch the work where it happens, on site or remotely on the floor, and interview up to 12 of the people in it. We measure the baseline from your own records, so the before and after are real numbers rather than impressions.
From that we write:
- a workflow map of how the work actually moves today
- the business case
- an adoption design that says how the named crew will come to use the tool
- the build specification
- a fixed Build proposal
- an approval brief your sponsor can forward
Why it comes first
Every engagement starts here. We do not quote a build before the workflow is defined, because a quote without a definition is a guess. The Spec is paid at signing and stands on its own. It is priced to be worth its fee even when the answer is not to build, and a no-go that saves you from building the wrong thing counts as a successful Spec.
If the numbers make sense, the next step is a Production Build, fixed in price by the Spec itself.
Questions people ask
How long does a Workflow Spec take?
Ten business days.
What do we keep at the end of the Spec?
The workflow map, the business case, the adoption design, the build specification, a fixed Build proposal and an approval brief your sponsor can forward. You keep them whether or not you build with us.
Does the Spec have to happen on site?
Observation happens on site or remotely on the floor. Which one fits is decided per engagement, based on the workflow.