Knowing a risk exists and not taking action is similar to standing on the tracks watching as the train nears.   You must spend time creating alternative plans in the event the train does, in fact, come.   It has been our observation that most project teams, under the pressure to deliver to the current plan, do […]

I have been having a running discussion with one of my colleagues regarding project and cost, specifically the cost of a project that is under consideration for termination.  A project is going through a gate review. During this review we find that the objectives are not met by this phase and further action has little […]

The longer a project is active, the more likely there will be interference with the other projects the organization undertakes. We believe this is one of the attractions of scrum or the other agile project management methods, which are designed to offset the fallacious multitasking approaches. In these agile models, we find the project team […]

There is a saying: “if you change form, fit or function, you change the part number.” On the surface this seems like a good saying. People use this saying as rule of thumb to determine if a new part number is required.  Taking out new part numbers cost the company some administrative time and effort […]

Every time we make a decision, we reduce the probability of some risks but may increase the probability of other risks. Consider where the following story may fit into our discussion. We have a project that should have, in fact, started months ago to meet the desired production introduction date.  Unfortunately, that did not happen […]

There are a number of quality tools that can help to evoke the risks that may be associated with your project. One such tool usually associated with cause and effect is the Ishikawa diagram. We can use this tool to explore risks as well. We will explore what happens (cause) and how it will impact […]

We can use value analysis and value engineering techniques to improve our product cost structure and ultimately our value proposition.  The analysis phase of this activity is called value analysis. The design phase of this activity is called value engineering.  We are a bit constrained during these activities since as we have a product already […]

We perform risk audits on projects to ascertain whether we are deviating from the desired budget, schedule, and quality levels we specified at the start of the project. At the 50,000 foot level, risk auditing looks like the following: Define the problem Choose an audit team leader Choose an audit team or let the leader […]

Okay – so we have worked with our team and have documented a list of risks, and have performed a qualitative or quantitative assessment – perhaps even both of these. Now what?  One such risk management failure then happens when we place the risk register on a shelf somewhere and the subsequent planned actions are […]

Program trigger events were discussed in our last blog. We can set up a program data base that has inbuilt triggers or we can pick up on the issue if we build these triggers into frequent product development reviews. We feel the project/program manager is the primary party to monitor for trigger events. Secondarily, the […]