Burden measure definitions
What each measure counts, where the data comes from, and its threshold.
Burden dashboards
Measure the time, steps, documents, and waiting a person spends to use or correct the system, split by group, and send each breach to a named owner.
- 1 Evidence
- 2 Authority
- 3 Decision
- 4 Consequence acts here
- 5 Challenge
- 6 Reconsideration
- 7 Correction
Where it acts
At Consequence, one of the seven stages every consequential decision passes through. It measures the time, steps, documents, and waiting the system puts on people, group by group.
Steps
Put the mechanism in motion
3 steps, in order. Check each one off as it is done; the records below show the work was done.
0 of 3 steps complete
Records this mechanism keeps
What a team running this mechanism keeps, and what each record is for.
Burden report
Trends by group and channel, with each breach marked.
Burden fix log
Each breach, its owner, the fix made, and the measure afterward.
Reuse-ready snippets
Copy policy, audit, and incident language
Use these snippets in requirements, audits, and postmortems with the mechanism permalink.
Policy requirement
Policy requirement (MEC-09 Burden dashboards) - Publish burden measures and thresholds for each high-stakes system. - Assign each threshold breach to a named owner with a fix date. Reference: https://ethotechnics.org/mechanisms/patterns/burden-dashboards
Product requirement
Product requirement (MEC-09) - Burden reports show median and 90th-percentile figures by group and channel. - A threshold breach opens a fix task with a named owner.
Audit evidence checklist
Audit evidence checklist (MEC-09) [ ] Each burden measure is defined and recorded the same way in every channel. [ ] Reports split burden by group and channel, and include the challenge route. [ ] Each breach links to a fix task, its owner, and the measure after the fix.
Postmortem trigger
Postmortem trigger (MEC-09) Trigger review when a burden breach passes its fix date with no fix, or when one group exceeds a threshold that the overall figure does not.
Example usage
Publishing a monthly burden report
One scenario with each part of the mechanism in place.
How it plays out
A city permits office reports that appealing a parking-permit denial takes a median of 40 minutes and three documents online, but three hours and five documents by phone, where most callers are over 70. The phone gap is logged as a breach, and the intake manager owns a fix due in 60 days.
Anti-patterns
Common failure cases and counterfactuals
Each case passes on paper and fails in operation. The counterfactual shows what would have worked.
Burden tracking without action
Burden is measured and charted, but no one is named to fix a breach, so the figures grow with no response.
Counterfactual: Each breach goes to a named owner with a fix date.
Exception: A small team can rotate the owner role, if the record shows who held it for each breach.
Averages that hide a group
Burden is reported only as one overall figure, so a group carrying far more of it, such as phone callers or people filing in a second language, does not show.
Counterfactual: Burden is reported by group and channel, with the worst-off group's figure beside the overall one.
Exception: Groups too small to report without identifying people can be merged, if the merged figure is labeled.
Diagnostics for this mechanism
Tools that size the risk this mechanism addresses.
Diagnostic
Workload modeler
Rate seven sources of workload, such as interruptions, handoffs, and incidents. Get a burden score out of 100 and the three places where reducing load would help most.
Cite this page · v1.2.1 · updated Oct 6, 2026 · CC BY-SA 4.0
APA
Ethotechnics Institute. (2026). Burden dashboards (MEC-09). Ethotechnics Institute. https://ethotechnics.org/mechanisms/patterns/burden-dashboards
MLA
Ethotechnics Institute. "Burden dashboards (MEC-09)." Ethotechnics Institute, 2026, https://ethotechnics.org/mechanisms/patterns/burden-dashboards.
Chicago
Ethotechnics Institute. "Burden dashboards (MEC-09)." Ethotechnics Institute. Oct 6, 2026. https://ethotechnics.org/mechanisms/patterns/burden-dashboards.
BibTeX
@misc{mechanism_burden-dashboards,
title={Burden dashboards (MEC-09)},
author={Ethotechnics Institute},
year={2026},
howpublished={Ethotechnics Institute},
url={https://ethotechnics.org/mechanisms/patterns/burden-dashboards},
version={v1.2.1}
}
RIS
TY - WEB TI - Burden dashboards (MEC-09) AU - Ethotechnics Institute PY - 2026 UR - https://ethotechnics.org/mechanisms/patterns/burden-dashboards ER -