Right-size the rigour

Right-size the rigour is all about being pragmatic with process. Add more process when the risk and the stakes warrant it, and drop process when they do not.

Every approval gate, documentation requirement, and governance step exists to manage risk. When the stakes are high — think healthcare systems or financial data — you need robust processes to protect against serious consequences. But that same level of process would be overkill for a small internal tool or a startup’s MVP.

Right-size the rigour is about finding balance: enough process to manage the risk, but not so much that you’re just adding rigmarole for no benefit.

• Process kills progress. Every approval, document, and meeting takes you away from delivery. In the real world, that means missed opportunities and less throughput. When process is overdone, you’re burning time and energy that could be spent delivering value.
• Risk management matters. Too little process and you miss critical risks. Too much process and you create new ones through complexity and confusion. Getting it right means you’re actually managing the risks that matter.
• Fly safe. The right level of process means you floor it and trust that the guardrails are in place to stop something really bad happening.
• Removing process is a master’s move. Everyone can add process — being pragmatic with it is the power move. It shows you really get it, and are not just blindly following best practice.

1. When reviewing your processes, use right-size the rigour to dig into why (and if) a process should exist.
2. When starting up a new process, use right-size the rigour to ensure that you are managing the risk and the stakes.
3. When inheriting a process, use right-size the rigour to understand what risk each step is managing before making changes. Sometimes what looks like bureaucracy has a good reason to exist.

But know your limits. You don’t always have influence over process and might be powerless to change anything. If that’s the case, right-sizing might be out of scope.

• Map the risks. Before doing anything, you need to understand what could go wrong. What’s the worst that could happen? What stakeholders could throw a spanner in the works? What regulations apply? How sensitive is the data are you handling? Don’t guess! Do the analysis.
• Understand the needs. Processes do a lot, and the benefits of a process might not be apparent at first glance. Take a wide view of what could go wrong. Unhappy team members, lack of buy-in from management, and annoying Jenny from HR are all their own kind of risk! Remember to mind the humans!
• Start lean. When creating new process, start with the minimum and add only what’s needed. It’s easier to add steps than to remove them.
• Everything must earn its place. Each step of each process needs to justify its existence. If it can’t, lose it.
• Be wary of best practice. Best practice works somewhere, but not necessarily in your situation. Don’t assume their context matches yours. Outsourcing your thinking is dangerous.

• Missing the big picture of risk. Risk isn’t just about system failures or data breaches. An unhappy stakeholder can derail your project. Poor team collaboration can kill productivity. Cultural misalignment can sink initiatives. Every aspect of your work environment carries its own risks that process could potentially help to manage.
• Overlooking hidden benefits. Process steps often serve multiple purposes. That weekly status meeting isn’t just about updates — it might be the only time certain stakeholders interact face-to-face. That unnecessary documentation might be critical for new team members. Take care before you cut.
• Chasing perfection. Constantly tweaking processes is deeply annoying. It creates change fatigue, confuses people, and makes it hard to judge what’s working. Aim for good enough over perfect.
• Not giving process time to settle. New processes need time to bed in. People need to adjust and habits need to form. Judging too early risks further unnecessary change.
• Becoming a dictator. Just because a process seems obviously bloated to you doesn’t mean others agree. Process is shared — you can’t just single-handedly change everything!
• Overreacting. Seeing process problems can make you want to burn everything down and start fresh. Nuclear options should be saved for when they are truly needed!

• Always ask why. Make What’s the point? your default response to, well, everything! But especially, get in the habit of asking whether you’re creating, following, or reviewing process.
• Review regularly. If you’re the owner of a process, schedule time each quarter to look at your processes. Which ones earned their keep? Which ones need tweaking? Which ones need to go? Regular review is always better than a massive overhaul.
• Champion the pragmatic. When you are messing with processes, explain your reasoning. We’re adding this review because X could go wrong or We’re dropping this because the risk is tiny. Help others to see what you are seeing.

• Flow, not force (method)
• Nothing is sacred (method)
• The Map

• The relationship between context and process was the subject of my article, Context is King: A Deep Dive into What “It Depends” Depends On .
• The consequences of not appropriately right-sizing the rigour for Business Analysts is discussed in my article, The Cost Of Busywork: A Guide to Business Analyst Waste.
• Arguably, the concept of right-sizing the rigour is really just an evolution of the there is no right way idea mentioned in my article, 10 Things They Don’t Tell You: Unlikely Truths from 10 Years of Business Analysis.