Comments on: Project Manager in a Box? http://www.reformingprojectmanagement.com/2002/10/09/41/ The magazine for the project age Thu, 07 Aug 2008 22:43:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.5 by: Tom Poppendieck http://www.reformingprojectmanagement.com/2002/10/09/41/#comment-384 Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 +0000 http://www.reformingprojectmanagement.com/2002/10/09/41/#comment-384 I wrote one of these for a large commercial avioinics company 8 years ago. Design to Production transition times went from 6-12 months to 4-6 weeks. Quality improved significantly. The benefit, however was mostly from the concurrent engingeering and up front communications, not from the software itself. To get this to work, of course, different groups had to agree on standard formats and on signaling clearly what the status of their efforts were. Once this agreement was achieved, the software could work and did indeed provide dramatic benefits but it dis NOT cause them. The enlargement of the team perspective to look at the end-to-end value chain was the key step, not the software I have worked with Metaphase and Matrix 1 mentioned in the linked article and there is a danger with both of these that focus will be on the formal process steps that are easily automated rather than on the person to person and group to group disciplined collaboration that is what really adds value. People who do not understand lean thinking get this wrong all the time, focusing on formality rather than enabling people. I wrote one of these for a large commercial avioinics company 8 years ago. Design to Production transition times went from 6-12 months to 4-6 weeks. Quality improved significantly. The benefit, however was mostly from the concurrent engingeering and up front communications, not from the software itself. To get this to work, of course, different groups had to agree on standard formats and on signaling clearly what the status of their efforts were. Once this agreement was achieved, the software could work and did indeed provide dramatic benefits but it dis NOT cause them. The enlargement of the team perspective to look at the end-to-end value chain was the key step, not the software

I have worked with Metaphase and Matrix 1 mentioned in the linked article and there is a danger with both of these that focus will be on the formal process steps that are easily automated rather than on the person to person and group to group disciplined collaboration that is what really adds value. People who do not understand lean thinking get this wrong all the time, focusing on formality rather than enabling people.

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