Services
Understand what your process, plan or product really does, or what a new one must do.
Fixed fee, fixed scope, three tiers. Starting at £4,500.
Function analysis goes beyond saying what something is. It builds a deep understanding of what it does and the functions it performs. Function is already an intrinsic part of the design of every process, plan and product. This brings function to the fore and gives a disciplined structure and a common language for talking about it.
It asks four questions of each functional component:
Answers are given as an action and the thing the action is performed on. Grammatically, a verb and a noun.
A worked example
Take the maritime weather forecast. First, what it is. Then, what it does. Function analysis is the second view.
Scroll the diagram sideways to see all of it.
Decomposition is not uniform. A function is broken into sub-functions where the additional detail will change a decision, which is why only one branch here goes further.
Applications
Understand the functions of the existing process before you change it. Often existing processes are performed almost unconsciously and hold implicit functional knowledge that has never been written down. A functional baseline gives you a reference to guide decisions and to measure improvement against.
From the outside, function analysis creates a deep and verifiable understanding of what the customer or user requires the product or service to do. From the inside, it guides the design, so the solution chosen is the one that delivers those functions most effectively.
Build one shared understanding of what is being built, in one vocabulary, so the disagreements and ambiguities surface now rather than at integration.
Knowledge transfer is part of the service. Participants learn the method as they use it, so your team can amend, update and refine the outputs after we have finished.
Artificial intelligence
AI is a ‘doing’ technology, with agentic flows that perform functions. That is a profound opportunity to make a business more efficient and to create new products, services and business models. Function analysis is what lets you engineer it properly.
Where automation or AI is a possible solution, each function can be assessed against our CARBS framework, which decides what stays with human judgement, what an AI agent can do and what a deterministic script handles better, and when that judgement should be tested again.
How much does it matter that this is done correctly?
Can you tell quickly and cheaply how well the function is performed?
How easily can a mistake be put right?
How often can we expect each function to be performed correctly?
How long does that judgement stay valid?
The method
Function analysis is a tried and tested discipline. It began in General Electric's procurement function during the Second World War, when material shortages forced buyers to ask what a component had to do rather than what it was made of. It was codified in the 1960s by Charles Bytheway and is supported by published standards including British Standard EN 12973:2020 Value Management, and ASTM E2013-20, which sets out how to develop functions and construct FAST diagrams.
Applying the correct verb-noun pair is what allows functions to be told apart from goals, constraints, specifications and predetermined solutions. Functions are then classified and arranged in hierarchical order using how and why logic. Asking how of a function identifies its sub-functions. Asking why reveals its purpose and its linkage into higher level objectives and goals. Asking how else stimulates creativity.
The method, including CARBS in full, is published in our white paper, pFAST: a risk based framework for the design of processes. Read the white paper.
The engagement
Identification and creativity are best done by individuals; assessment is best done in groups. So we start with participants working independently, supported by us. We synthesise, then confirm the result with the people who own the functions.
Confirm the subjects of the analysis, the focus areas, anything excluded, any potential solutions already being considered, and the draft architecture (our first-pass sketch of how the functions are likely to hang together).
Participants work through a primer on function analysis, then brainstorm the functions of the subject independently and in parallel, assisted by our online tool.
We consolidate every contribution, with the disagreements left visible rather than smoothed over. We also record incidental findings: performance criteria, constraints, risks and higher order objectives.
The draft outputs are challenged, refined or endorsed by the people who own the functions. Gaps and functions nobody can justify surface here.
The outputs are finalised. Where automation or AI is a possibility, the CARBS assessment is delivered alongside them, with a recommended point at which to test the judgement again.
The output
Deliverables depend on the subject. The core is a list of validated functions. These can then be presented in a number of ways: as a structured list, as a functional tree, or as a functional architecture map. Everything is delivered in an editable format your teams can update.
Tiers and pricing
The cost driver is people, not days. Every participant is a separate view of the subject, and the analysis is only as good as the range of views in it.
| Tier 1Function Analysis | Tier 2Function Analysis Workshop | Tier 3Function Analysis Programme | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scope (recommended) | One process, product or system | One process, product or system, examined in depth | Up to three linked processes, or one end to end across departments |
| Participants | Up to 4 | Up to 8 | Up to 16 |
| One-to-ones | 1 hour with each | 1 hour with each | 2 x 45 min with each |
| Facilitated session | 2-hour online review session | Half-day facilitated workshop | Two half-day workshops, two weeks apart, with additional synthesis between them |
| Passes included | One pass | Two passes | Three passes |
| What you receive | Validated function list and function map, observations, and a CARBS assessment where automation or AI is a possibility | Everything in Tier 1, plus a how and why hierarchy or architecture map, and a leadership presentation | Everything in Tier 2, plus a sequenced implementation plan and board-ready summary |
| Fixed fee | £4,500 | £8,500 | £18,000 |
Fees are fixed and exclude VAT and travel. Half on commissioning, half on delivery of the report. A pass is one full cycle of brainstorm, synthesis and review, ending at a review gate where you decide whether the analysis gives you sufficient clarity to stop or to commission further passes.
Why us
Shape Select Optimise is the consulting practice of Stephen Cresswell: over 20 years in project risk and value management on major programmes, and a Diploma in Strategy and Innovation from Oxford Saïd Business School.
Most advisers are paid to agree with the plan. The value of an independent analyst is entirely in the times they do not. That is what you are buying, and it is why the method is designed to produce an answer your own people can check.
A 30-minute call to scope it. If function analysis is not the right instrument for what you are dealing with, we will say so.
Book a scoping call