Glossary
Sludge audit
What is a sludge audit?
A sludge audit examines the burdens in a process to find steps that are unnecessary or disproportionate. It can assess time, effort, complexity, and psychological costs.
How it works
The OECD and New South Wales report describes mapping different user journeys, measuring burdens, obtaining feedback, and evaluating changes. The audit asks what each step costs the user and what purpose it serves.
Record where people stop, how long each stage takes, and what they must supply. Include people with different access needs and constraints. A step that is easy for the team running the process may be costly for someone using it.
Example
An application might ask for the same information on three forms. An audit could identify that repetition and examine whether it is necessary. Removing it would be a proposed improvement whose results still need to be measured.
Why it matters
A process can accumulate steps until users spend substantial effort navigating it. An audit makes those burdens visible. Keep measured costs, estimated benefits, and tested results separate when reporting the findings.