From IPAPI

Break Points are the genesis of White Space. They are Hand-offs. Places where we pass our customers, physical work or information to someone else or something else. They are all around us, and they create unintended work more than everything else combined.

IPAPI Definition

Break Point - A Break Point is any transfer of product, work, information or data between two process actors other than the Customer.

Break Points exist everyplace a hand-off occurs in the flow of products, paper, and information. Break points are the root cause of organizational “white space.”

Variants

(Break Points, BP, Hand-offs)

Overview

Dr. William Edwards Deming (October 14, 1900 – December 20, 1993) brought to the forefront of management philosophy the idea of “white space” which he characterized as the”interface points, or the handoff points, where most of the action and the screw-ups occur.” Deming clearly articulated and was primarily concerned with hand-offs between functional areas of the organization; recognizing that these hand-offs were part of the most important processes of every organization.

Break Points in and of themselves: 1) create no value 2) consume resources 3) distract us from doing planned work

Any point within a process where something (work, information, responsibility) is handed off is a Break Point. It doesn’t matter if it’s between people, systems or any combination thereof. A hand-off is a hand-off, and every hand-off creates dependencies in the process where things can go wrong.