166 ◾ Improving Business Process Performance
to thus identify the actual CSFs, i.e., the ones that would have the largest
impact on an organization.
CSF as an Activity Statement
A good CSF begins with an action verb and clearly and concisely conveys what is
important and should be attended to. Verbs that characterize actions are attract,
perform, expand, monitor, manage, deploy, etc. Poor CSFs start with verbs such as
enhance, correct, and upgrade. For example, a good CSF would be “monitor cus-
tomer needs and future trends.”
CSF as a Requirement
After having developed a hierarchy of goals and their success factors, further analy-
sis will lead to concrete requirements at the lowest level of detail.
A critical success factor method:
◾ Starts w