Procedures

Production blocker procedures

Production blocker procedures allow for organizational members to suspend work on domains of work where, if not suspended, continuation of such work would lead to negative or sub-optimal outcomes.

STOP and HOLD are decision and coordination processes, not task flags, Statuses, or Stages. Invoking either process may lead the Team leader to change the Status or Stage of affected tasks, but Clarity does not require a specific state change. The Team leader decides what changes and countermeasures are appropriate for the circumstances and determines when the affected work may resume.

Once initiated, team leaders should act on these procedures by communicating with the relevant stakeholders to resolve the condition that led to the stop procedure being initiated.

STOP

Stop procedure, or STOP, allows for any team leader to suspend work on a task, task complex (goal) or perimeter of implementation - set of related goals, tasks, etc., under their personal authority, if the team leader believes continuation of work on the subject of STOP would produce a net-negative result unless immediately acted upon.

The Stop procedure should result in an immediate pause of any progress on the subject that the stop procedure was called for and a meeting between whoever invokes the stop procedure and any stakeholders that could help resolve the conditions that resulted in the STOP call, such as the Goal Owner and others.

The Stop procedure is considered a blocker condition that, once declared, would naturally prevent any work from continuing. STOP should also be considered low-to-high emergency, meaning it should not be invoked to solve mundane and everyday issues.

Any member of a team can request a Team leader to call for the STOP procedure; however, it is up to the team leader to determine if the condition and urgency warrant the STOP.

HOLD

Hold procedure, or HOLD, is very similar to STOP, with the main difference in that the level of urgency of triaging the condition that caused HOLD should be significantly lower than the urgency of triaging STOP. With HOLD, all relevant work is also suspended, however, HOLD indicates a significantly lower level of urgency when compared to STOP.

HOLD should be considered a “last-mile there is a better way to do this” condition, and should be casually used when additional information about the work subject is discovered, such that acting upon this information could lead to potential net-gain or prevent a net-negative outcome.

Any member of a team can request a Team leader to call for the HOLD procedure; however, it is up to the team leader to determine if the condition warrants the HOLD.