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Defining Standards
What is it?
Before you can determine whether the problem has been solved, or evaluate the
performance of your organization, you need to define the standards
against which you will compare the process.
Who uses it?
The management and the team.
Why use it?
All processes have some form of variation. If you want to reduce the amount of variation in a process, you need to compare the results of the process with a standard.
Variation can exist for two reasons:
- Common causes are flaws inherent in the design of the process.
- Special causes are variations from standards caused by staff errors.
Most causes of variation in processes are from flaws in the
system or the process, and not because of staff errors. Once you realize this, you can stop blaming the employees and start changing the systems and processes that cause the employees to make mistakes.
The standards are used to assess the quality of the process and to provide staff with guidelines for evaluating their performance.
When to use it?
After planning the solution to a problem, and before monitoring or evaluating the solution.
How to use it:
There are two methods of defining standards:
- You can use international or national standards or norms. For example, WHO's Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses (IMCI), or the Safe Motherhood Project.
- You can define the standards locally:
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