Module 4 · Check 4.4

Check: write and test a definition

Five draft definitions from Harbourline. Choose an answer to see straight away whether it is right, and why.

Lesson 4 of 4About 5 minutes

Each question gives a draft definition. Judge it the way the two-people test would.

Question 1

Billing and Revenue drafts: “A Northlight ticket is resolved when the user is happy with the outcome.” Does it pass the two-people test?

A good intention is not a definition: without a way to measure “happy” and a point that decides it, two reasonable people will disagree.

Question 2

Service Transition’s first draft reads: “Run-book ready for go-live: the run-book is complete and of good quality.” Which change does most to make it pass?

It gives both teams the same concrete check; a producer’s own sign-off or a bigger template still leaves “good quality” open to opinion.

Question 3

Before the Monday status meeting, an office proposes: “A project is at risk when its delivery lead judges it to be at risk.” What is wrong with it?

Naming who decides is not the same as defining what is judged; the meeting would still spend its time reconciling opinions.

Question 4

The agreed draft reads: “A priority 2 Northlight ticket is resolved on time when the user confirms the fix within eight working hours of logging, using the service desk system’s timestamps and excluding time paused while waiting on Northlight.” In the weeks before the effective date, Pune and Cork disagree on one ticket because a pause was logged with no reason. What should happen?

Finding gaps like this is what the debugging weeks are for; handing the call to one side would bring back the ambiguity the definition removed.

Question 5

Account Management in Hartford and Billing and Revenue in Cork are defining the milestone details Billing needs for Northlight’s month-end invoices. Which draft passes the two-people test?

It names a date and the exact contents, so Rachel Kim and Emma Novak would both reach the same answer on whether a month’s details arrived complete and on time.

You have finished Module 4

Next is Module 5, structured collaboration artefacts and the canvas: what the canvas records, how it works with a process map, and practice in the canvas itself.

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