Software implementations are most difficult when implementing in a printer who has few if any processes. In all businesses, employees do things over and over, so there is a need for process in virtually every business, but not all businesses implement processes. Lots of businesses do the same things over and over, yet never step back and document what they are doing, how they are doing it, and if it makes sense to continue to keep doing it that way. 

Assessment usually doesn’t happen until there’s a crisis. For example, a major mistake happens and then there is a lot of finger-pointing to find blame because the business relies solely on humans to do the right thing repeatedly. When you implement a process, you not only get a chance to access the current workflow, but you also create consistency across people, and remove the mental overhead on the humans involved. 

Humans resist process for the most part. We assume that it will “cramp our style” or that it’s a waste of time. I know how to do my job, why do I need a process/checklist to tell me what to do? Some people feel insulted by this. This was a very common response in our healthcare system, especially from the doctors/surgeons. The resistance to a checklist was strong, yet patients were having the wrong limb amputated and experiencing other irreversible mishaps.  A checklist or process doesn’t mean you don’t know what you’re doing. It means that you should not have to keep in your memory specific steps every time you do something. Our human brains are good at a lot of things, but consistently repeating the same steps over and over is not one of them. The computers we invented to keep track of stuff are very good at reminding us of the processes we created.