One thing that I've seen a number of times in a number of different clients is the following:

• A team decides on an approach
• The team spends considerable effort building support mechanisms for this approach
• The approach that was decided on turns out to be invalid
• The has to scrap all the support mechanisms built for this approach costing the effort days/weeks or in some cases months of time

There are two ways to avoid or minimize this type of problem:

1. Make absolutely sure that the approach you are taking does indeed solve all your problems and doesn't have any "deal-breakers" that would invalidate using the approach.
2. If you can be absolutely sure of the approach, try to build your support mechanism such that they are as generic as possible so if your initial design approach is invalid you don't have to scarp all your work.

The may seems obvious, but this is one of the bigger product killers I've seen out there.

The Chaos Filter allows for identifying and capturing metrics on day-to-day assignments for a large number of knowledge workers.  As processes are defined they are put into a "portal" that will be used as a dash-board to capture metrics as work is completed.  Targets are established for tasks down to a fine level of granularity, if those targets are not met, that is OK in that they will be adjusted however and reasons are captured as to why things take longer than they should.

Once it is established why things are taking longer than they should, the process/job aids can be modified so that the next time the process is executed actual time may be closer than expected.

This same model can also be applied to the sales process.  Reasons can be captured as to why sales are not be closed.  These reasons can then be addressed.

An interesting challenge here is how to allow for an environment where the knowledge workers can feel empowered to suggest changes to optimze the process as well as try new things and make mistakes in an effort to be more efficient.  The problem here is not where people try and not meet the targets for their processes/tasks but where people try to "game" the system and take advantage of a situation where processes are closely being tracked.

The key here is worker efficiency, not making people work harder.