The growth of agile and the increasing pace of all forms of project delivery have meant that the triple constraint is no longer the thing we all have to tattoo on our brains. But it is still important, and it is still heavily misunderstood. If it’s not helping, then it needs to adapt—and a new variable can help.
Find answers to these questions and more in this Quality Practice Area. If you are new to Quality, take advantage of the resources below and don't be shy about commenting or asking questions. If you're a seasoned pro, help others out and become an influencer. We welcome contributions from all sources and the more you participate, the more visible you become. Let us help you move down the road from "giver of sage advice" to "Thought Leader".
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Although they may appear to be competitors, Agile and Lean Six Sigma have the same objective: supporting the organization’s priorities by achieving customer satisfaction. Lean Six Sigma has a very mature approach to process improvement: DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control). This approach can certainly be used for a successful Agile transformation. The webinar is based on the author's experience using the Lean Six Sigma DMAIC framework for Process Improvement for software development projects with a focus on D (Define).
‘Scaled Agile’ is one of the most misunderstood concepts. Agile adoption surveys indicate that Scrum, or some combination of it, is used by 70--80% of Agile Teams. None of the 'scaled' frameworks is mentioned as 'used', only as an option to 'scale'. Agile, a new approach in 1970 to scale down manufacturing processes and make them more ‘Agile,’ was created to improve Lean Six Sigma. Out of Software development, the team frameworks are now 'scaling up' by reverting to Lean Practices like Kanban, Theory of Constraints, Voice of Customer, Kaizen, etc. The Six Sigma component that is the most mature and confirmed way of measuring the impact of process improvement initiatives was left out. This is possibly partly because it requires skills and knowledge that can't be acquired in a 2-3 days course, partly because its practices are associated with manufacturing, and it is as seen incompatible with software development. In addition, Lean goals (eliminate waste, adoption of standardized processes) are completely opposed to the Agile mindset that fundamentally embraces change, allows good waste, and is against reliance on standardized processes, This webinar is an analysis of lessons learned from using Lean Six Sigma to measure process improvement initiatives in software development including a comparison between Agile and Planned approaches in a large system development. It is a project manager's view that is probably different than what is heard in conferences and training courses.
This template provides a framework to communicate your project's purpose (with some supporting information) to the project team. It should be completed as soon as the project is approved and should be led by the sponsor. It will require input from multiple stakeholders (including the project manager), and should be walked through with the team as part of project initiation.
The Final Project Performance Report is developed in the closing process. It documents final project performance as compared to the project objectives. The objectives from the project charter are reviewed, and evidence of meeting them is documented. Use this form to document your progress.
This document allows you to manage quality within your project. It contains sheets to capture a quality management statement, a responsibilities log, an attributes sheet, and a control registry.
While actively participating in mentorship during a project with a local design/build firm, this practitioner compiled an overview of the project management process as detailed in PMI’s A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide). Use this overview with other project managers as a tool to reference in your day-to-day PM activities (as well as share with new project managers).
Use this Go/No Go production readiness checklist to assess if your organization is prepared to deploy an application. This spreadsheet aims for a composite or holistic view between the business and technical aspects of an application deployment. There are 36 questions in nine categories to respond "yes" or "no" to, with self-adjustable weighting and a final score.
Accreditation offers periodic self-evaluation, assessment and improvement opportunities for the educational institution. Higher education institutions should handle accreditation projects with utmost care—and use it as a chance to refine their plans to offer the best services for their students and community.
If what we measure prompts change, then we have to be careful what we evaluate so that attention is focused on those things that are most meaningful and important. We are exhorted to “measure what matters” with “key performance indicators"—which often miss the mark.
"We need to guess if we are successful?!” They often get a bad rap, they’re often misunderstood, and executives frequently want to avoid them. But subjective performance measures help when there simply isn’t a way to know whether benefits have been achieved.
It’s easy to be taken in by numbers. But ultimately, metrics are just as fallible as people. The answer is not to adopt a nihilistic view—to give up numbers and data. No, the better way is to boost our data literacy and how we act on metrics.
What does it mean when service was “good” or overall customer experience was “somewhat satisfied”? Adjective-based and numeric-scale assessments are ineffective. So why are they so broadly used? And what can we do about it?
Let’s face it—not too many people want to be measured. However, done right, a scorecard can become a much-appreciated way for project teams to demonstrate how fast, effective and proficient they are in delivering project objectives.
Accreditation is a major quality assurance and compliance project for any higher education institution, serving as a catalyst for establishing internal QA systems and related policies and procedures.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a majority of the quality audits of the hydro-mechanical equipment supplier on one of the largest hydropower projects in Canada were conducted by remote interactions. Follow the guidelines developed for this project to expand remote auditing techniques across your projects and industries.
Modeling should be at the core of project management. So, where have we gone wrong? Did we lose the narrative and accept the arguments that these tasks are outside our active concern scope and leadership abilities? The simple answer is, we have.
Are you preparing for the digitization of the project management process? Your success in the future will depend on your ability to adapt to and utilize any digitized step, process and application upgrade. Follow these four steps to stay on top of required changes.
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