Reforming Project Management » project planning

Toyota’s Lesson for Project Managers

Hal — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:22:36 +0000

Looks like I hit a nerve with my previous post. For years I've been writing about the good example Toyota set for the design and manufacture of cars. I've been writing about the even better example they are as a model for modern-day management and leadership. At times, it might have appeared I was fawning over them…that I might not see their shortcomings. Perhaps. The one thing I know about Toyota is that they understand that their company is built on human beings…the greatness coming from the everyday ingenuity of people along with the limitations from our mistake-making.

I still choose to interpret both Lahood and Toyoda are sincere.Still, it is easy to interpret arrogance in Toyota's actions regarding unintended acceleration just like it's easy for some to interpret grand-standing from Ray Lahood. I feel no safer after listening to either Secretary Lahood tell us that he will hold Akio Toyoda to his promise to be more diligent regarding safety or to the apologetic TV commercials from Toyota. In making our interpretations we must acknowledge our predispositions just as we acknowledge Toyota's pattern of apologizing and the bluster of American politicians. Considering all of that, I still choose to interpret both Lahood and Toyoda are sincere. It will help us learn from this experience.

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Time to Re-Th!nk Improvement

Hal — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:10:50 +0000

So much of our attention in the lean community is on continuous improvement. Normally that is interpreted as "process improvement". In the project world processes are often incidental to the work we are doing to fulfill the promise of the project. In other words, the value stream goes through a series of tasks like writing software code, documenting a feature, refactoring, etc., none of which follow a repeatable step-by-step process. Architecture and construction projects are similar. The process stuff is supporting the value stream. When we make so-called improvements to process we are dealing with "the how" some outcome is accomplished. Rarely are improvements focused on "the what" of the outcome. Ric Merrifield tells us to shift from the how to the what to get innovation and to really cut costs.

Shift from "the how" to "the what" to boost innovation and to really cut costs.Ric's book, RETHINK: A Business Manifesto for Cutting Costs and Boosting Innovation, does a good job of getting our attention off the how and onto the what. He offers story after story of companies that stay clear about what makes them distinctive to their customers. While the process for delivering on results is always important, getting the outcome right makes or breaks our projects. My colleagues and clients have heard me say over and over Don't improve on something that we shouldn't be doing in the first place. Ric says it more forcefully,

Never has there been a more important time to continually improve your company's efficiency and productivity. (F)or that to happen, they are going to have to avoid the "how" trap, rethink and focus on their "whats," and become a collection of plug-and-play operations.

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Does Reliability Matter in Project Planning?

Hal — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 01:20:27 +0000

: Image via Wikipedia

Ihad an interesting question about plan reliability. "Why does reliability (PPC) matter?" My first thought was, "Where do I start? Of course it matters!" Ok. Breathe in; breathe out. I know what to do.

A good planning system will enable project team members to fulfill their promises just as they make them

Let's start with PPC. We recommend measuring planning reliability using the measurement percent of promises completed. Our thinking is if people can do what they promise to do, then the planning is good. It doesn't mean that the future should be just as we planned it to be. Life's not like that. But, if we're doing a really good job with our planning, then most of the promises we make for completing work will be kept. PPC is a measure of reliability.(...)
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Does the Project Manager Know Better?

Hal — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:03:33 +0000

Image by himmelskratzer via Flickr

Better than who? Better than what? What does better mean? Seth Godin wrote this morning about zippers vs. buttons on jeans. From a technological and ease of use many people would assess that zippers are better. However, after years of wearing jeans with zippers Seth has switched to buttons. Why? Because for him buttons are better. That is the key point.

"Better" is always personal.

"Better" is a value statement, an assessment, that we make as customers. I've never owned jeans with buttons. I can't imagine thinking they would be better than a zipper. But, don't make that decision for me. This reminds me of my new home. A year ago, the framer decided that he should center a window on the back wall of the garage because it would look better. He even spoke with the project manager about it. She agreed. When I saw it installed I was surprised they had not followed my plans. The project manager said it would look better. But what she didn't know is how I intended to use my garage. It was worse for my use, not better. "Better" is always personal.(...)
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Looking for 32 or more Dumb Project Management Questions

Hal — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 04:25:45 +0000

My last post created some interest and a little controversy. I don't think there are any dumb questions among team members. As the cliche goes, only the un-asked questions are dumb. Projects go much better when there is a free exchange among the participants. We all know this. Yet, for whatever reasons, usually having to do with fear, people often fail to ask when something looks unusual. Enron, Madoff, AIG…these tragedies in some way all involve people failing to ask questions.

Help generate a list of great dumb project management questions

I proposed 10 questions that are worth asking on our projects. The list was my list. Not scientific. No survey. Just based on my experience working on projects. A number of people left comments proposing other questions. Some sent me emails. So, let's try something together. I'm getting a book ready based on my project e-tips. It's in editing. I'm not sure when it will be published, although I have it on the front burner. What if we make my list of 10 dumb project management questions your list, but bigger? Let's see if we can generate a list of 42 really good dumb PM questions. (I'll tell you later why 42.) I'm looking for at least another 32 good dumb questions. Once I have a bunch, then I'll create a survey where you can vote up or down the questions. The top 42 will get published.

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Out with Deterministic Project Planning

Hal — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:42:37 +0000

One of the highlights of the PMI Global Congress 2008 for me was my meeting with Greg Balestrero, CEO of PMI. On the last day of the congress Greg met with the PMI New Media Council for lunch. We had an hour-long chat. We heard what was on his mind and we shared some topics with him. Along the way we got into a conversation about standard practice and best practice. Eventually, Greg let out the "T" word. Let me back up…

The reductionist deterministic approach to planning had outlived its usefulness.

The PMI member community routinely misunderstands PMBoK® as PM methodology. It's not methodology. It is a guide to the generally accepted practices. And it is an ANSI standard. All that is meant by standard is that most people most of the time would do the actions described. It is not best practice. As the New Media Council members and Greg were discussing the usual confusion about PMBoK, one of the council members asked about featuring more best practice at the coming PMI Global Congress. Someone went on to say that we needed research into Project 2.0. It was in that conversation that Greg uttered the word "theory".

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Rules of Lean Project Management

Hal — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 04:29:21 +0000

Claude Emonde writes the weblog Surviving the Project Age at Project Times. He recently finished a four-part series on the Rules of Lean Project Management. Overall, he did a good job. Those of us who developed and teach the lean project approach don't refer to these ideas as rules. For us, we tend to think about principles. But, Claude has done a good job.

Make your choices and commitments at the last responsible moment.

Let's take a look at Claude's four rules.

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Mind Map Your Way to Project Success

Hal — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 03:41:45 +0000

Istarted mind mapping in the mid '80s. It was part of a program at my company to accelerate our learning. It was coupled with a speed reading program and rapid recall training. For the most part, all three stuck. But it's mind mapping that has been most useful over 20 years later.

Tony Buzan introduced the world to mind mapping. Essentially, it's an association technique for taking notes or collecting thoughts in a word-art fashion. Ideas are linked one-to-the-other making associations. According to Buzan, and in my experience, mind mapping increases your recall and helps make surprising connections of otherwise seemingly unrelated ideas. It is a great approach to use for planning, in preparation for innovation, and when in the midst of doing something creative.

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Scrum: Inspect and Adapt

Hal — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 02:03:26 +0000

There's nothing like learning-in-action.¹. We just finished our planning session for our development project. I was surprised by how much time we spent defining what it meant to be done. In the LPS world we call that establishing conditions of satisfaction. But we struggle to get team members to stay in that conversation. "Just tell me what you want!" The ScrumMaster wouldn't let us move on 'til he confirmed that the whole team understood what would satisfy the Product Owner.

I'm looking forward to comprehending!

Towards the end of today's session, I noticed that our ScrumMaster frequently said, "We'll inspect and adapt." (He said it before we started the planning. I just hadn't noticed.) "Of course," I thought. The future is uncertain and unknowable. That's just what we do on (LPS) projects. But I also know it's not what is usually done on CPM-style projects. Conventional wisdom (and scheduling software) guides people to put a plan in place and stick to it. The result is project managers often try to get reality to match their plan. Doesn't work. Never did.

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I Hired a Certified ScrumMaster

Hal — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 02:03:16 +0000

Why would a lean projects guy hire a Scrum software development ScrumMaster? Short answer: it seemed like a good idea at the time. Seriously, I'm doing some work for an architectural engineering firm. The company focuses on designing technically sophisticated manufacturing facilities. We are developing for them a responsibility-based planning approach. It's starting out as a Scrum adaptation of the Last Planner System® (LPS). I thought…what better way to understand how Scrum can inform the changes to LPS than to perform our own development effort as a Scrum project.

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Why Do Deadlines Matter?

Hal — Fri, 25 May 2007 02:48:44 +0000

Hard to imagine in the world of projects that anyone would ask the question "Why do deadlines matter?" However, in the world of politics and world conflicts the argument is front and center. We learned this week, President Bush just won his battle with the Democrats in Congress. There will be no deadlines in the funding bill for the war in Iraq. To my surprise, I opened the June issue of Business 2.0 turning to Jeffrey Pfeffer, Professor, Stanford University, to see his essay Why Deadlines Matter.(...)
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Misunderstanding Project Planning as Anticipation

Hal — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 03:26:17 +0000

Our everyday speaking gets in the way of better planning. This weekend I was listening to Tim Russert interview Presidential Spokesman Tony Snow on Meet the Press. Tim asked Tony about the plan for winning the war in Iraq. The question inferred that something went terribly wrong. Tony replied,

"I'm not sure anything went wrong. Battle plans don't live beyond the first encounter with the enemy."

Tony went on to say that like most of life we can't anticipate the future…no amount of planning can change that. Tony is right about that. The future is uncertain and unknowable. Grasping that fact is a key to better planning. (...)
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