Scope: in one recurring lane, what share of elapsed completion time waits for an authorized owner? Define the queue, decision types, operating hours, and a consecutive four-week cohort. Include completed, cancelled, returned, and open items.
Methodology: capture intake, action, approval request, response, restart, completion, and closure. Classify intervals as active, dependency, approval, or unobserved. Publish rules, missing-data count, median, range, and cohort size; never convert unknown time into approval delay.
GAO, NIST, and World Bank material informs responsibility, governance, and fit-for-purpose data. It supplies no OutsourcedLabor.com benchmark, geographic attribution, or universal acceptable time.
Inference limits and limitations: after-hours pauses, batched updates, private decisions, and changed priorities distort intervals. Observation cannot prove causation. Use results only to form a narrow later test.