Eliminating the Top Five Project Obstacles
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| Freedom from
Project Surprises Newsletter - Issue #44 |
December 2008 |
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Are
there some well known obstacles in your NPD workflow that consistently
hinder project execution and you would like resolved and put behind
you? Of course you do, just like the majority of organizations in this
business. In fact, if you were to create a list of your top five
obstacles they are
likely to be similar to every other organizations top five items. I
only know this because I have talked with many of you about them
already. Why are they still there today, continuing to disrupt your
project execution? Only you can honestly answer that question. This
month we are going to focus on the common top five execution challenges
and getting them behind you.
Jeff Jorvig, NPD Process Consultant
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News of Interest
- Thank you
Readers! We have over 140 readers here and are averaging 12
readers per day (360/month) at our blog.
A
great
year for growth in
both areas.
- Here's a link to an interesting web based
project management tool I was introduced to this past week - Deskera
- Latest
survey results are now available. Includes a ranking of the top ten
project execution challenges and the key reasons for challenges not
being addressed. Email me if you would like to
request a copy of the results.
- Announcing availability of a new workshop
titled "IC Design Skills for Project Managers".
- Download a
Discovery & Solution Case Study of one of our engagements here.
- Check out this web
based
solution
to managing your NPD/NPI process here.
- Check out our quick
start instant downloads for managing design
projects.
Leadership Quote of the month:
"Leadership
is much more an art, a belief, a condition of the heart, than a set of
things to do. The visible signs of artful leadership are expressed,
ultimately, in its practice."
--Max DePree |
The Top Five Obstacles to Predictable
Project Execution
Do
you believe your NPD organization is unique in the top five issues that
are keeping project execution in a state of unpredictability? You may
be surprised to find that your organization is not dissimilar to many
others, when looking at project execution bottlenecks. I find it truly
fascinating that the top five are so common across organizational,
company and international boundaries. We are all dealing with very
similar project challenges and for the most part tolerating them as a
routine part of our business. The ongoing acceptance aspect is what I
find most troubling. There are a few exceptions where organizations are
actively whittling back the top five, however it is not the norm, often
smothered under a guise of resource availability.
Requirements Closure
Completing
a product definition that has a depth of detail, in the time frame
necessary, so as to prevent rework of any design activity due to a lack
of requirements information. That's the objective, one that needs
focused emphasis to remove this as a common source of impact to a
project.
Project Planning
This
is the activity that will lead to reaching commitment, one that your
NPD team believes in and will be able to hit. The problem is it's not
happening and the reasons tend to be generalized into a few different
bins. Root cause for failing to meet planned commitments must be
understood and addressed, whatever or wherever the source may be.
Individual Objectives
On
this one each team member may not always know what is expected of them,
to the level of detail that will prevent them from reworking already
completed activities. Team members may be guessing or making
assumptions about deliverables. This type of uncertainty is commonly
due to information lacking in the area's of how, what or where. Not a
good situation where being predictable is an objective.
Scope Control
A
lack of product scope control leads to confusion on requirements. The
team often does not know what changes should be made and which ones
should be left behind. The engineering team typically will assume if a
feature is being discussed, it is a requirement, without regard to
schedule or cost impact implications. This one quietly steals away your
team's productivity, often without a trace.
Project Leadership
Skills
This
item involves a deficit in the skills necessary to recognize and
effectively deal with the other four items in this list of top five.
This is bright technical talent leading a project without the proper
skills to manage project details such as requirements closure, detailed
planning, establishing detailed individual objectives or managing scope
change.
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Getting
your
Top
Five Obstacles Behind You
What
are the next steps after the top five common project execution
obstacles have been identified as scope control, individual objective
clarity, project planning detail, requirements closure and project
leadership skills? Ideally we must improve upon each of the obstacles
to the point where they no longer:
- Enable the need for rework of already completed
tasks.
- Enable wait states due to lack of information.
- Enable non-value added activities to take place.
These
three project performance indicators become the measurement criteria
for work flow efficiency and will be invaluable in providing insight
into progress. Once they are no longer enabled, predictable project
execution will result!
The primary step is to adequately
resource an effort to eliminate these top five. It must be a focused
effort with someone responsible for delivering a solution, wherever in
the organization that solution may need to be.  But
wait, adequately resource? I have just lost you on costs, haven't I?
OK, let me back up a bit. The primary step is to identify how much
these top five are costing you in terms of delays to revenue ready
products. Now you have a justification for the second step, which is to
adequately resource the effort to remove these top five barriers.
Get
someone on the hook with the passion to uncover root cause, ability to
gain consensus for real solutions and be comfortable working across all
organizational silos. Failure to do so will be a grave error and allow
a naysayer the opportunity to say, "I told you so". Recovery from a
failed attempt will be far more difficult than engaging the ideal
resource in the first place. Do not cut corners in putting the right
person in place for driving the solutions.
Approach the top five
with a strategic approach to problem solution. A tactical attitude
would focus on activities within a NPD project workflow whereas a
strategic approach will focus on the big picture view of how to plan,
resource and engage on projects to eliminate impact from the top five.
The mission is a change from what is "believed" the best the team can
do - to becoming the best via the elimination of the obstacles that are
well known disruptions to projects. Don't focus on why things can't
change, evolve thinking to how things can be changed.
Have you
started the mental list of why this could never work for your
organization? The uniqueness of your particular situation precludes
this from being possible, right? Fight the negative thoughts or you
will only strengthen the hold of the status quo. Justification of
uniqueness will pave a lethal path to non-action. The time is now for a
focused attack on the top five sources of unpredictability in project
execution. Honestly, why wouldn't you get started today?
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| How we
can Help
"Providing solutions to the hidden, behind the scenes project
roadblocks that quietly steal early revenue opportunity"
- Change Agent -
We can lead the effort to remove the "top five" challenges in your
product development work flow. We have the skills, time and passion to
make a difference.
- Discovery -
Are you certain that you know everything that is impacting project
execution? We are expert private investigators at uncovering the
unknowns in an organizations development process.
- NPD team workshop to improve planning, execution and monitoring skills.
- Web based NPD workflow management.
- Ready made downloads:
schedule, checklist, analog design guide.
- Increase design management bandwidth via Virtual Design Manager.
- Full listing of common services here.
Contact us today via email, 480-442-6730 |
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Feedback
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