Kevin Liedtke

Software ArchitectureProduct Experience DesignHands-On Engineering

Requirements Review Automation & Compliance Dashboard

A multi-stage automation system that transformed a manual, error-prone requirements review process into a self-running compliance engine with executive visibility, achieving two consecutive years without an SLA violation.

At a Glance

RoleAutomation Architect & Process Lead
Team3 process owners, infrastructure teams, stakeholders across engineering and leadership
StackSQL (stored procedures), Python, Power BI, automated email with escalation logic
Key Impact50% reduction in review cycles, 45% increase in SLA compliance, 2 years without a violation

The move: replace one person's manual tracking with a self-running SQL pipeline that escalates on its own and never misses a Wednesday.

The Challenge

Requirements review is a critical gate in the engineering development process. Tracking compliance was entirely manual: a co-chair hand-combing through documents, tabulating missed reviews, and drafting follow-up emails one by one. There was no defined SLA, no automated notifications, and no leadership visibility into which teams were lagging. The process depended entirely on one person's time to function at all.

No system for the target

90% SLA compliance was an organizational OKR with no system in place to reach it.

No accountability loop

Teams had no clear target, no automated reminders, and no accountability outside of manual follow-up.

No leadership visibility

Leadership had no visibility into bottlenecks or patterns of non-compliance.

My Role

  • Worked with process owners to define a reasonable SLA, then led the effort to socialize and ratify it across the organization, including direct engagement with teams already lagging to ensure they understood the expectation and had a path to compliance.
  • Built the full technical system: SQL stored procedures, automated per-team emails with escalating logic, and Power BI dashboards.
  • Coordinated with infrastructure teams to formally embed the system in organizational process.

How It Works

Built in three stages, each replacing manual effort with automation as confidence in the approach grew.

  1. Manual Python + manual email: Python extracted compliance data from source documents; results were reviewed and emails sent by hand to validate the approach before investing further.
  2. Manual Python + automated email: Email generation and delivery were automated, removing the notification burden while scripts still required manual execution.
  3. Full SQL automation: Stored procedures replaced the scripts and ran automatically every Wednesday, fully self-running with no manual intervention required.
System architecture diagram showing data sources feeding into SQL stored procedures that run automatically each Wednesday, with outputs to per-team automated emails and a Power BI dashboard.
The full automation pipeline: data sources, weekly SQL processing, and dual outputs for notification and visibility. Click to open full size.

Every Wednesday, stored procedures query all active requirements documents against each team's review status: approve, reject, object, or N/A. Each non-compliant team gets its own targeted email listing only its outstanding items, and as the SLA window passes without resolution, escalation moves automatically to progressively higher leadership, no co-chair involvement required.

Email escalation logic diagram showing four stages: Wednesday automated run, initial per-team notification, management escalation as the SLA window passes, and senior leadership escalation for extended non-compliance.
Escalation is automatic and time-driven. No co-chair intervention required between stages. Click to open full size.

All compliance data feeds a Power BI dashboard that updates automatically each run. Teams track their own progress against the OKR; directors and VPs use it to spot chronic non-compliance and its downstream impact on review timelines.

Results & Impact

50% shorter review cycles

Cut requirements review cycles by 50%.

SLA target reached and held

Increased SLA compliance by 45%, reaching and sustaining the 90% OKR target.

Two years, zero violations

Achieved two consecutive years without an SLA violation; my team was the only team in the organization to reach 100% compliance.

Manual burden eliminated

Eliminated the manual tracking burden from the process owner team entirely.