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.

 TIEMPO – Test, Inspection, Evaluation Master Plan Organized by Jon M. Quigley and Kim Robertson PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT TEST, INSPECTION AND EVALUATION Ensuring product quality is not accomplished solely through testing and verification activities. Testing is but a fraction of the techniques that are at an organization’s disposal to improve their development quality.  Good planning of the […]

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 […]

I have been brought back to this topic many times over the past few months. Hits production is sort of like “hitting the fan.”  We release our product after development and then put our fingers in our ears hoping to not hear the metaphoric explosion at the plant. It is no wonder.  We have the […]

Another beneficial attribute of Agile, particularly Scrum, is the daily sprint meeting. In this very short and focused meeting that includes the immediate project team and as needed the sponsor, we will learn much about the state of our project. The questions three that are up for discourse are: What did you do yesterday? What […]

To go on further with the output discussion, we need to make sure we have an understanding of indicators.  Indicators inform us what is going on. My stomach growling is a pretty good indicator that I am hungry, and sweating while mowing the lawn is a good indicator I will need a refreshing beverage upon […]

Our organization’s structure can confound what constitutes and output.  Consider the company that is structured as a “functional” organization, the output from one group will typically go to another group in the system.  This organization structure is sometimes referred to as “silo” since each part of the company, group or department is segregated by expertise.  This has […]

Each process produces some sort of, at least intermediate output. The ultimate output will be the resultant of the series of inputs, processes and outputs, and will be directed toward the ultimate end customer. Therefore the ultimate output capability is the collection of all of the inputs and processes of the systems of the organization. […]

The next few blogs will be further elaborating on the systems concept of SIPOC.  Upon completion of the characters or phases in the systems thinking and chain of events (SIPOC itself), we will illustrate how we can use these to improve our organization’s capability. This post will treat “suppliers”. We are not referring to drug […]