OPS.13:4.5 - Observe early enough to act

Choose the observations and review point from how quickly the plan can become infeasible and how long recovery takes. Confirm resource decisions before they are needed. Follow readiness, actual progress, repeats, acceptance and protected conditions where a change would affect the promise.

Work backward from the last time a useful response can start. Include the delay before detecting the problem, conveying it to someone who can decide, making that decision and obtaining the remedy. Use OPS.10.2 when resource windows or other work affect the remedy’s timing. For a response intended to preserve the promise, the whole detection-to-remedy sequence must fit the remaining usable window. If no such response fits, use the early information to compare another remedy or a service revision. A percentage of reserve consumed can help direct attention; it supplies neither a delay probability nor the resources needed to respond.

Use this response timing to choose a periodic review, an event signal or both. A report of a consequential change can require action before a dashboard threshold is crossed. Where the current account supports continuation and no shared decision is needed, a status meeting need not interrupt the work. Preserve other purposes for meeting, such as learning or resolving an actual disagreement.

When the basis changes, calculate the affected service consequence and contact the responsible parties while a useful choice remains. Preserve what can still be performed under existing authority. Use observed delivery and acceptance to determine which promised results were fulfilled, and retain any remaining obligation. A changed forecast records the new outlook.