Questions that reveal an application's unfinished rules
After the first workflow is understood, examine the assumptions hidden inside its labels. A request can be “approved,” an account “active,” or a file “current” while different people attach different meanings to the same word.
Use these questions with a specific record and the person authorized to decide its behavior.
Which version does a decision apply to?
If a requester changes a consequential value after approval, decide whether the approval remains valid. Identify the information that must be preserved so the next team can understand what was reviewed.
Who owns a field when systems disagree?
A value may appear in the application, a workbook, and a provider tool. Name the authoritative source and the treatment of delayed or conflicting updates. Synchronization cannot resolve an ownership decision the business has not made.
Which relationship grants access?
A role may be limited by organization, team, project, or assignment. Include a person with several legitimate relationships and a person whose relationship has ended. The rule should apply to files and exports as well as record pages.
What does a repeated action mean?
A second click may be a retry or a genuinely new request. Decide how the system recognizes the difference and how staff investigate an uncertain result. The answer matters wherever an action creates work for another person or service.
What can a temporary delegate do?
Covering an absent colleague may require bounded authority. Define the reason, scope, and endpoint, and distinguish delegation from transferring ownership of historical decisions.
Which exception should remain manual?
Some uncommon cases need judgment rather than automation. Identify their frequency, consequence, responsible person, and required evidence. A manual route can be appropriate if the application makes it visible and usable.
What happens when a record is archived?
Decide how related files, direct links, search results, exports, and open tasks behave. An archived page should not leave a confusing mixture of inaccessible information and still-active actions.
Can another person interpret the history?
Choose the events staff need to explain changes. A technical timestamp and field name may be insufficient without the actor, reason, or related decision. Balance that usefulness with the purpose and sensitivity of retained information.
What does the migration prove?
Counts, totals, relationships, identifiers, and representative exceptions answer different questions. Define the evidence needed to accept a transfer and the owner who resolves rejected or ambiguous records.
What work continues during recovery?
If the team returns to an earlier system, new requests and corrections may already exist in the replacement. Decide how those changes are reconciled. Restoring a backup or reopening a workbook is only part of the process.
Who can keep the application useful?
Name business-rule, content, access, provider-account, technical, and support owners. The answers should survive a staff or supplier departure rather than depend on a single person's memory.