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 […]
There are times when the project manager will be subjected to the long list of potential risks brought to them by their team. Handling these issues rather than summarily dismissing the item being brought to their attention as input from a hypercritical or doom-centric team member is important for project success and team morale. If […]
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 […]
Many organizations have a series of activities or processes (design reviews, analyses, verifications, validations, etc.) that they go through to produce the end product or service. The work will start with some kind of development process, which may be a matter of days, months or years, depending on the complexity of the product or service. […]
Experience suggests risk management happens after we have already encountered numerous and severe risks. We can see engineers bringing “risks” to the project manager when we are already witnessing the symptoms and the impact to the project is inevitable. To be relevant, risk management has to occur when there is time to plan actions that […]
Another piece of the configuration management pie is the ability to move backward and forward from revision to revision. To demonstrate the importance of this concept I will relate a story. There once was a developer who was writing in assembly language for a new product. He was incrementally developing the features for the product […]
We have hardly seen instances of this issue being discussed. We are painfully aware of the large extent we often require of configuration management because we have to work with tools in the embedded environment called “cross-compilers.” These tools allow the developer to work in a familiar programming language such as C and then produce […]
We take a time out from the configuration management discussion. We see in the news numerous companies with field quality problems and we cannot help but think of the discussions we have had with colleagues about how many organizations handle their product testing. Testing, done right, is a lead indicator of product quality. It is […]
by Kim H Pries and Jon M Quigley Configuration management quality will have a significant impact on the system. If configuration management is necessary for component development, producing a collection of parts that make up a system is even more complicated. Developing and delivering a workable system to test and subsequently delivering it to the […]
by Jon M Quigley and Wally Stegall This post is a flashback to the earlier series about prototypes (https://valuetransform.com/planning-prototype-parts). A recent event reminded me of one other area we did not cover in this series. Such is the way of the blog. Consider the organization that decides to limit the number of prototype parts to […]