Six hours was the option not taken

Lesson map

Lesson 15. Map, example, EX069.

flowchart TD
  O["Three options"] --> A["Accept four hours now"]
  O --> B["Accept after improvements and a retest"]
  O --> C["Raise the limit to six hours and staff manual booking"]
  B --> Y["This is the approved option"]
  C --> N["Do not start the manual process"]

Missing by five minutes does not promote the option the director did not choose.

Logical drawing

option 1
    accept four hours now
    not chosen
option 2
    improvements, then a second test
    approved
option 3
    six hours, plus a staffed manual booking process
    not chosen
        |
        +-- the miss of 5 does not switch the choice
        +-- no staffing number is invented
        +-- the target is not rewritten to 360

Learning outcomes

After this chapter, you should be able to:

1. Name the option the director approved.
2. Leave the six-hour manual process unstarted.
3. Resist moving the target because the first sum missed.

15.1 The third option remains on the page as a road not taken

The decision record offered three ways forward. Accept the four-hour limit now. Accept it after improvements and a second test. Or raise the limit to six hours and staff a manual booking process. The director approved the second. A classmate, looking at the five-minute miss, starts recruiting the front desk onto a manual process and writes 360 minutes where the target says 240. That is the third option, and it is also the temptation to change the target instead of the process. The engineer does not invent how many people the manual process would need. Four hours stays the proposal under test. Six hours stays unchosen.

15.2 Worked example

Lesson table; scroll horizontally to read all columns →

Synthetic case. No rota of front-desk staff is written. Six hours stays a rejected alternative.

Errors and limits

Recording that the third option exists is not the same as starting it. The record keeps the alternative visible so a later decision can revisit it on purpose.

Apply

• EX069 — Which door was opened? The exercise missed 240 by five minutes. A teammate starts a manual booking process and changes the target to six hours. Which option did the director approve, and what stays unstarted?
  Show marking criteria

  Rubric: 3 = option 2 was approved; the six-hour manual process was not; do not start it; do not replace 240 with 360; invent no staffing number;; 2 = the manual process stays unstarted;; 1 = one of those;; 0 = none.