Milestone map
Milestone map
3 milestones
Inventory Processes and Identify Critical Ones
2 weeks
Conduct a process inventory for your team or organisation: list all recurring operational processes (weekly meetings, reporting cycles, hiring pipelines, onboarding, incident response, planning cadences, etc.), classify each by frequency and business-criticality, and identify the top five processes where documentation absence creates the highest risk (key-person dependency, quality variance, training difficulty). Validate the prioritisation with at least two other senior team members and document their input.
Proof required
Submit the process inventory (table or structured list covering all identified processes with frequency and criticality ratings) and the prioritised list of five critical processes to document, with rationale and validation notes from at least two senior team members.
What gets checked
- Process inventory covers at least 15 distinct processes — omitting common operational cycles is a gap
- Criticality rating is applied consistently — the submitter can explain the rating method
- Prioritisation is validated by at least two senior team members, not the submitter alone
Common mistakes
- Inventory is too narrow — covers only the submitter's own processes, not the team's full operation
- Prioritisation is not validated — the submitter decides alone which processes matter most
- Top five are chosen by familiarity rather than criticality — the processes the submitter knows best, not the highest-risk
Resources
Foundationstart here
Depthgo deeper
What a verifier looks for
- Ask the submitter how they rated process criticality — what method did they use and can they apply it consistently?
- Confirm at least two senior team members validated the prioritisation
- Check the inventory has at least 15 processes — a sparse inventory suggests the scope was too narrow
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Write and Validate the Five Critical Process Playbooks
4 weeks
Write detailed playbooks for the five prioritised critical processes. Each playbook must include: purpose and scope, prerequisites (what must be true before the process starts), step-by-step instructions runnable by a team member who has never done the process before, decision points (what to do when things go wrong), and a 'done looks like' success criterion. Have someone who has never run the process before attempt to follow each playbook and document what they couldn't follow or what was unclear.
Proof required
Submit all five playbooks (each min 400 words or equivalent structured content) plus validation notes from a team member who tested each playbook cold — showing what was unclear or missing and the revisions you made.
What gets checked
- All five playbooks include all five required elements
- Each playbook was tested cold by someone who had never run the process
- Test findings produced documented revisions — the playbooks improved after cold testing
Common mistakes
- Playbooks are written from the expert's perspective — they skip steps the expert considers obvious but a new person wouldn't know
- Cold testing is skipped — playbooks are not tested before being declared done
- Test findings are noted but playbooks are not revised — the documentation is treated as complete
Resources
Foundationstart here
What a verifier looks for
- Ask the submitter what the cold tester got stuck on in at least one playbook — what was the most common unclear step?
- Confirm each playbook was tested by someone who had not previously run that process
- Check revisions were made after cold testing — the playbooks should have a version history
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Establish Playbook Maintenance and Expand Coverage
9 weeks
Create a maintenance process for the operations playbook: assign ownership for each playbook (one person responsible for keeping it current), define a review cadence (at least semi-annual), document the update protocol (how a team member triggers an update when a process changes), and build a playbook usage log (evidence that playbooks are being used, not just stored). Then expand the playbook to cover two additional processes identified in the original inventory, following the same write-validate cycle. Conduct a 60-day usage review.
Proof required
Submit the maintenance process document, ownership assignments, usage log (showing at least five instances of playbook use over 60 days), and the two additional validated playbooks. A team lead or senior manager must confirm the maintenance process is live.
What gets checked
- Every playbook has a named owner — not 'the team' or 'whoever runs the process'
- Usage log shows at least five instances — proof the playbooks are being used
- Two additional playbooks are written and cold-tested following the same standard
Common mistakes
- Ownership is not assigned — playbooks become stale with no one accountable for updates
- Usage is not tracked — the submitter cannot demonstrate the playbooks are being used
- Additional playbooks are added without cold testing — quality degrades as the playbook expands
Resources
Foundationstart here
What a verifier looks for
- Ask the submitter to name the owner of a specific playbook and what happens if the process changes
- Confirm the usage log shows at least five instances — not just that the playbooks exist
- Verify the two additional playbooks were cold-tested — ask for the tester's name
You'll sign in first, then come straight back here.
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