Cheap to Make, Costly to Check · Volume One

Tools

Eleven tools, twenty-seven things to do, and where each one is built. The worksheets are in Part Five of the book.

Three of them, the trigger check, zone and pace, and the coupling measurement, can be filled in on screen, with a guided start that tells you where to begin. No login, and nothing is stored.

You can then take each of them further with your own AI. A button copies the completed worksheet with matching instructions, so your AI can ask about your answers.

Fill in on screen

The eleven tools

Tool	Built in
The inventory — what is actually running	Chapter 2
The three failure modes	Chapter 2
The five triggers — does this need a rule at all	Chapter 8
The four zones — how strictly handled	Chapter 8
The constitutional-rank test	Chapter 9
The pattern review	Chapter 9
The duty to challenge	Chapter 9
The pace rule	Chapter 11
The coupling points	Chapter 11
Configuration power	Chapter 13
Unassisted practice	Chapter 14

Twenty-seven things to do

A diagnostic produces a finding. A commitment sets something that stands afterward. None of them is a project.

Ch.	Form	What to do	Time
1	Diagnostic	One pair of numbers: items per week at a checkpoint against minutes for a serious check	two hours
2	Diagnostic	The list of your systems, sorted into three layers — count before you explain	an afternoon
3	Diagnostic	The same pair of numbers on your longest-running AI use	fifteen minutes
4	Diagnostic	Three things that were true about your last significant decision and appear in no file	twenty minutes
5	Diagnostic	Mark where a standard tone would be noticed	half an hour
5	Diagnostic	What work did you learn to judge on — and who gets that practice now?	ten minutes
6	Diagnostic	Two phone calls: who stands behind the last thing you relied on, and for what exactly	fifteen minutes
7	Diagnostic	Write down who signed the maintenance agreement and who installed the last update	fifteen minutes
7	Diagnostic	Run the last AI decision through all five perspectives	—
7	Diagnostic	Approvals issued last week against those where you saw the material yourself	ten minutes
8	Commitment	Apply the five triggers before every new use and every new rule	—
9	Diagnostic	The pattern review: who was invited, who was not, what separates the groups	half an hour, quarterly
11	Diagnostic	Assign each process one of the four paces, with a date and a name	a morning
11	Diagnostic	Measure one coupling point instead of estimating — three numbers	two hours
12	Diagnostic	The load check: four questions, with the people affected	half a day
12	Diagnostic	What a tool saves, and what happens to the time it saved	—
13	Diagnostic	Write a name behind every pre-sorting system	one hour
13	Commitment	Fix your own position before looking at the system; log dissenting views	ten minutes per decision
13	Diagnostic	Once a year, ask three suppliers or candidates you turned down what they would have offered	—
14	Commitment	Set a recurring date on the calendar at which work happens without the system	an hour a month
14	Diagnostic	Mark ten decisions where your information advantage actually decided	—
15	Diagnostic	Write the actual pace next to each zone	—
15	Diagnostic	Count the empty fields where no name stands for the configuration	twenty minutes
16	Diagnostic	Hold a reviewed decision against the five requirements and cross off whatever fails	—
16	Diagnostic	Write the question you would ask a colleague — then look for who can answer it	twenty minutes
16	Commitment	Write the one sentence on update review, and ask for two numbers	one phone call
16	Diagnostic	Look for a review hours figure in your last business case	—

Where no time is given, the chapter gives none — usually because it depends on the size of the organization.