The Risk of Memory-Based Event Triggers

A business event triggers a response. The response is a business process. When a business event is triggered (initiated) only when a human performer remembers to trigger it, I call that a Memory-Based Event Trigger (MBET). MBET’s are risky because the business depends on a performer to remember to trigger the event. If the performer forgets, the process doesn’t happen. If the performer takes a day (or week or month) off, the process doesn’t happen.

Mature, quality processes rarely rely on MBET’s. Instead of relying on someone to remember to initiate the process, the Process Owner or Manager should schedule the initiation. Then, since one of a Manager’s basic responsibilities is to control the processes he’s responsible for, the Manager should periodically check to make sure the Performer’s follows the schedule.

Now you have the foundation for meaningful process metrics. If the process is scheduled to initiate three times a week, the Performer responsible for maintaining the schedule can be measured (the % of times the process is initiated on schedule).

In reality, a process that relies on a MBET may never initiate. If your organization has nothing to lose if the process never initiates, then don’t worry about it. Otherwise, schedule the process initiation, schedule the management task of checking up to see if the process was initiated, then count the consistency of initiation.