Check lists are a time honored way of keeping track of breaking down an objective and monitoring progress.  There are a number of benefits to using check lists.  Check lists should not be confused with a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).  A WBS is a form of a check list of all of the tasks required […]

What are we trying to accomplish with a communications plan?  Effective project management is the efficient achieving of an organization’s objectives.  To do that, we have to keep our project team informed and working toward the target.  That includes our project sponsor and other stakeholders.  Ultimately our plan should be able to quickly answer the […]

We have a running discussion with some project managers and line managers on the topic of responsibility.  The organization structure is matrix (weak) with seeming aspirations to strong matrix.  The project managers attempting to drive the project are frequently confronted with the line management saying – “it is our responsibility”, or “trust us to deliver”. […]

Our risk exposure starts at the beginning of the project. Even before the project is actually a project.  The simple act of scoping a project in the initiating phase already alludes to the risks to which we may be exposed. For example, the minute we decide that our project scope is going to include software, […]

We have mapped how long it takes to prepare the vehicle for testing using the histogram. We have used the Ishikawa diagram to generate ideas we wish to investigate as causing the time to be longer than we would like it to be. Our next step is to see if the ideas suggested in the […]

We would like to revisit our blog post May 2013 and tell the complete story over the course of a few blogs.  I realized the importance of showing the use of the variety of tools after giving an ITMPI webinar based upon our book Total Quality Management for Project Management.  At the end of the […]

Sometimes it is difficult to speak up when you know you have problems. Not many people want to be the person who is perceived as holding up progress, probably a self-preservation mechanism.  However, when it comes to project work and teamwork, we can ill afford to play such games.  Enter the game I call “product […]

I recently read a Scott Adams cartoon http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2013-06-09/ in the Greensboro News and Record Sunday paper and had flash backs to projects that prematurely move to the production phase.  Experience indicates that this mentality contributes to the recalls to which the consumers are subjected. Capitalism is based upon the willingness to take risks.  There is […]

We have seen our product and our sales volume grow, and we begin to see that rate of growth slow. We are entering the maturity phase of our product life cycle. In the maturity phase we are no longer acquiring customers at our previous rate. The market is becoming saturated; perhaps there are newer versions […]

If we have developed a product that is useful to our clients, our production volumes will grow allowing us to improve our product cost and pricing structures. Additionally, besides the volume purchase of material cost improvements, we will work with our manufacturing line, improving those processes and subsequent first pass yields thereby reducing the associated […]