The project creates savings for one team but extra work for another. How should we assess it?
Shifted cost mistaken for valueEvaluate the end-to-end process rather than the local improvement alone. Make transferred workload and service effects visible before claiming a net organizational benefit.
What to do now
- Map affected teams and process steps
- Measure work removed and work added
- Assess the overall outcome
- Agree improvements or an explicit trade-off
When to escalate
Escalate when
The local saving creates unacceptable burden or risk elsewhere.
Who decides
The product or business benefit owner
Example
Self-service reduces helpdesk entry work but increases unresolved correction tasks in finance.
Mistake to avoid
Claiming full savings while ignoring the receiving team's new workload.
Prevent a repeat
Compare observed outcomes with the baseline and separate forecast benefits from benefits actually measured.
Suggested ApprovedFlow setup
- Projects
- Tasks
- Documents
Keep the intended outcome and measurement plan with the project, and assign improvement work to an accountable business owner. See the platform
Related cases
- How do we distinguish an output, an outcome, and a benefit?Value-chain confusion
- Our expected benefit depends on another department changing its process. What should we do?Unowned benefit dependency
- Two projects claim the same resource savings. Who reconciles the portfolio?Portfolio benefit overlap
- Our business case assumes savings that nobody can explain. Should we accept it?Unsupported benefit assumptions