The programme expands, priorities shift and each team uses different language to describe value.
Executive leadership guide
Lead an operational transformation without losing control of scope
Connect ambition, operational friction, decisions, sequencing and value creation in a readable roadmap.
For: Executive leaders and management committee membersWhat to clarify before discussing a solution
Which decisions should remain with the management committee and which should be delegated to process owners?
The answer does not lie in an isolated feature: it is built by connecting rules, actors, data and evidence.A wave-based roadmap with decisions, ownership, expected outcomes and stage gates.
Four decisions to make before configuration
These decisions make the scope testable and prevent structural choices from being discovered during the project.
Set the outcomes that justify the first wave
The decision must specify the rule, its owner, the required data and the evidence used to accept it.
Name owners for cross-functional decisions
The decision must specify the rule, its owner, the required data and the evidence used to accept it.
Define stop, adjust or extend criteria
The decision must specify the rule, its owner, the required data and the evidence used to accept it.
Establish a measurement routine understood by the management committee
The decision must specify the rule, its owner, the required data and the evidence used to accept it.
A readable end-to-end flow
Scope is not a list of modules. It is a chain of events, ownership and decisions.
1Ambition and problem
2Decision scope
3Expected value
4Governance
5Measurement and arbitration
In the first scoping
- One representative flow and its useful variants
- Authoritative events and minimum data
- Roles, decisions and escalation times
- Acceptance criteria and baseline measurement
To sequence in waves
- Additional sites, activities or populations
- Rare variants that do not condition the pilot
- Automations whose rule is not yet stable
- Advanced dashboards after source reliability
To decide explicitly
- Set the outcomes that justify the first wave
- Name owners for cross-functional decisions
- Define stop, adjust or extend criteria
- Establish a measurement routine understood by the management committee
From direction to measured improvement
- 1Navigator
- 2Personalised review
- 3Scoping workshop
- 4Wave-based deployment
- 5KPI measurement
Each stage produces a decision or evidence reusable in the next. Deployment remains business-led and verifiable.
Measure to decide, not to fill a dashboard
Every KPI needs a definition, a source, a cadence and an associated decision.
KPIFormulaSourceDecision
Service rateDemand served to commitment ÷ total demandDemand, commitments and actualsAlign priority, capacity and promise
Contribution marginRevenue − directly attributable costsSales, purchasing, operations and chargesArbitrate portfolio, service and terms
Working capital requirementInventory + receivables − operating payablesInventory, sales, purchasing and collectionsReduce tied-up capital without weakening service
Decision lead timeDecision date − signal dateAlerts, decisions and actionsShorten the path from signal to action
06 · Business scenario
A programme governed by evidence
- Situation
- Several projects are being considered, but their dependencies and expected outcomes are not comparable.
- Approach
- The committee chooses one priority problem, a representative wave, success evidence and arbitration rules before authorising expansion.
- Target outcome
- Investment decisions rely on a measurable roadmap rather than an accumulation of features.
Useful answers before the first discussion
01Where should we start in practical terms?
Choose a representative scope spanning “Ambition and problem” and “Decision scope”, then document one normal case and one frequent exception. The first flow should be important enough to matter but contained enough to observe end to end.
02Do all existing systems need replacing?
No. Scoping starts with decisions, authoritative events and ownership. It then determines what should be retained, integrated, replaced or simply better governed, wave by wave.
03What data should be prepared before a workshop?
Prepare a few real cases, the volumes shaping the operation, the main variance reasons and the sources used to measure Service rate. The quality of examples matters more than the quantity of documents.
04How should the right pilot scope be chosen?
Choose a scope with an available owner, accessible data, a meaningful exception and a measurable outcome. Avoid both an overly simple case that proves nothing and an overly broad scope that dilutes learning.
05How can scope changes during the project be limited?
Make assumptions, interfaces, variants, exceptions and acceptance criteria explicit. Every new request can then be classified: essential to the wave, suitable for a later wave, or outside the objective. Discussion focuses on impact rather than intuition.
Next step
Turn this guide into a personalised review
Complete Navigator to position your context, then use the review as the starting point for a scoping workshop.
- 1Navigator
- 2Personalised review
- 3Scoping workshop
- 4Wave-based deployment
- 5KPI measurement
Complementary guides
Guides by suite
EMS Logistics suite
Transform transport & logistics
Connect order, warehouse, transport, delivery and invoicing around the same events and responsibilities.
- Service promise
- Warehouse execution
- Transport plan
Guides by suite
EMS Industry suite
Connect planning to the shop floor
Build decision continuity across demand, materials, capacity, execution, quality, maintenance and cost.
- Demand and schedule
- Materials and capacity
- Execution and WIP
Guides by suite
EMS Commerce suite
Unify omnichannel commerce
Connect catalogue, availability, order, payment, fulfilment, delivery, return and customer relationship.
- Catalogue and pricing
- Available-to-promise inventory
- Order and allocation