By Shawn P Quigley and Jon M Quigley Change Dynamics Change is a function of tension created by the difference between the current condition and the desired state. It can only occur when this tension contains sufficient energy to overcome external forces. These external forces could be something as simple as the current condition being […]
Go to the place where the work is performed, that is the Gemba walk. This does not apply just to manufacturing, but also line managers and their respective departments as well as to project management. You want to know what is going on, what could be better, go unto the work space and watch and […]
In preparation for our trip to Eindhoven University of Technology to lecture on Configuration Management, we provide a brief excerpt on the evolution of the horseless cariage. Traditionally new market segments open due to the need to solve a problem. Such problems may be real as in the case of the environmental crisis solved by […]
Value Business is predicated on providing value to the customer, but it does not end there. The business itself needs to see value in the work, so this is really a value chain that is only as strong as the weakest link. If the value to the customer is too low or not existing, no […]
What does not work -duration Besides wasting time planning out many months into the future as if we could see and control that far ahead, there have been studies over the years that have established an inverse correlation between the length of time a project runs and project success rate. Perhaps this does not sound […]
I had a brief chat with Tom Cagley of the famous SPaMcast the other night about teams. We periodically take time to talk about product development topics, and I frequently appear on SPaMCast podcasts. Last night we talked about teams an whatever magic makes a collection of individuals move to the point of performing better than the […]
I have been in twitter and real discussions about safe spaces for the product development team to do their work. I can understand this, nobody should get hurt at work, that is one of the reasons for OSHA, and internal work instructions and equipment. However, we are not talking about the physical world in our modern […]
It is clear to me that some people think an agile approach means you can willy-nilly delete things in the process. This is also true for conventional project, but I do not think for the same reasons. For conventional projects, it seems time pressures cause elimination of certain functions or processes to keep the schedule. […]
If commitment to the requirements is a significant source of failure, it is followed close behind by the management of changes or additional requirements that come from doing the work. Though many project managers may believe that once a project is underway, there shall be no changes; that is a myopic approach. Change happens. As […]
Continuous Deliver and Embedded Automotive I have worked on projects that employed continuous delivery for embedded products. The embedded product was an automotive component. The core of the software (the operating system) was specified using conventional approach. This operating system consisted of the maximum model requirements for this globally used component. The component looked and […]