Project Schedule I have been thinking on project scheduling since invitation to speak at a Wake Forest MBA class.  Schedule management is much more than Microsoft Project, though an appropriate tool can help the project manager and the team to visualize how the project activities map to success, however, we must have performed sufficient diligence. […]

By Kim Robertson and Jon M. Quigley Leveraged Innovation Logistics Mike and Akio had been invited to one of the Genesis Test Equipment logistic repair depot by Lina Hendrik, the facility manager to discuss an idea she had regarding retrofit of a discontinued product line still widely used in an automotive niche market segment. As […]

The project organization should use the Configuration Management process to script the project and product growth – instead of just the version control. In this way the product content is adjusted formally from the learning that should have happened in the prior work.

The olden days… A long time ago (seemingly) I graduated from university with my engineering degree.  I was lucky, my first job was with a small company and I performed many roles as it applied to developing their new product line.  The product was an embedded strand process control unit. This unit would control older […]

Models are not new, and neither models in the employ of product development. Product development has always had some basis in discovery and always will. If everything had such a high degree of certainty, likely the product or endeavor has already been done. Developing new things ceaselessly brings questions. To be effective, we want to answer these questions as quickly and as certainly as possible.

In conventional project management, it is called the white book. In agile, it is known as the retrospective. Both the retrospective and the white book serve the same purpose that is to learn from the past and improve the future. Though the objectives may be similar the manner and perhaps the efficacy are quite different.

What is “watermelon” green? Watermelon.  A great treat in the  summer. The dark green rind, the yummy bright red center. Recently I had lunch with an IT friend named Phil.  We were talking about checklists and determining project “status” when he mentioned the color Watermelon Green.  I chuckled.  Then I continued a bit afraid to […]