What a process and systems review should cover, and why we build it into every Operational Terrain Analysis
By Tom Foley · October 2026
A process and systems review is a structured, independent assessment of how work flows through your business and whether the tools behind it are fit for the stage you are heading towards, not the stage you were at when you bought them. In this article I set out what a good one should cover, and why it forms part of every Operational Terrain Analysis.
What a review covers
A thorough review looks at four connected areas. Processes are the way work actually flows through the business, including the workarounds and unwritten rules that keep things moving but never appear in any policy document. Systems are the tools and software your teams rely on, and the question is whether they fit the size you are heading towards or whether they were chosen for a business half the size. People covers roles, responsibilities and decision rights, and whether everything routes through the same few people because no one else has the authority or the information to act. Data is whether you have the information you need to make good decisions, and whether anyone can actually find it when they need it.
Why growing businesses need one
Most businesses only look at their operations when something goes wrong. By then the workaround has become the process, the spreadsheet has become the system, and good people are spending their time keeping things running instead of moving the business forward. A review done before the cracks show gives you time to fix things properly. It is cheaper, less disruptive and far less stressful than waiting for a crisis. It also gives leadership a shared, evidence-based picture of where the business will struggle next, so investment and hiring decisions rest on what is actually happening rather than what the org chart suggests.
How the review works
The review does not start with the process map or the policy manual. It starts with the people doing the work, through structured one-to-one conversations and walkthroughs of the systems they use every day. Findings are checked with more than one person wherever possible, and where accounts differ the difference is recorded rather than smoothed over. Every finding is rated for risk and potential impact, so leadership can see at a glance what needs action now and what can wait for a trigger. The output is a prioritised roadmap in three horizons: immediate fixes that remove friction in weeks, medium-term changes that hold up as you grow, and longer-term investments in systems and capability.
When to commission one
The right time for a process and systems review is before a planned step-change in scale, a funding round, a new system implementation, or a shift in operating model. It is also valuable when growth has already outpaced the operation and leadership senses that things are starting to break but cannot quite see where. A 30-minute call is usually enough to tell whether a full review is warranted and what it should focus on.