ICPM

Continuous Improvement

This is one of my favorite points from Dr. Deming. I see so many mistakes that are made again and again, and lessons learned that are either completely undocumented or filed away after a project, never to be seen again.

Do all of the other project managers in the firm get exposure to lessons learned from other projects? Usually not, in my experience. Surely, individual project managers and sponsors learn from their projects, but organizational learning and continuous improvement require a formal process for the documentation, analysis, and incorporation of lessons learned into a common methodology.

Have you ever let someone down even though you had tried your best and thought you were doing what they wanted? Few things are frustrating as putting forth tons of effort only to find out you were working on the wrong things.
Expectations are such an essential and common component of human relationships and communication that most of the time they are taken for granted. Taken for granted is exactly what expectations should not be.

One of the first inputs to risk management is the project charter. The charter is needed in risk management planning because it identifies the business need of the project and the overall product description. Risks that can prevent the project from satisfying the business need of the project must be addressed. The product description must also be evaluated to determine what risks may be preventing the project work from obtaining the acceptable product description. 

Project Managers have a professional obligation to conduct lessons learned sessions for all projects. An example of specific lessons learned may include:

• Update of the lessons learned knowledge base
• Input to knowledge management systems
• Updated corporate policies, procedures and processes
• Improved business skills
• Overall product and service improvements
• Updates to the risk management plan

An Organizational Chart represents the structure of an organization in terms of rank. The chart usually shows the managers and sub-workers who make up an organization. The chart also shows relationships between staff in the organization, which can be:

Quality Assurance covers all activities from design, development, production, installation, servicing and documentation. It introduced the sayings "fit for purpose" and "do it right the first time". It includes the regulation of the quality of raw materials, assemblies, products and components; services related to production; and management, production, and inspection processes. One of the most widely used paradigms for QA management is the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) approach, also known as the Shewhart cycle. The main goal of QA is to ensure that the product fulfills or exceeds customer expectations. PDCA (also known as the Deming Cycle, Shewhart cycle, or Deming Wheel) is an iterative four-step quality control strategy.

Decomposing the major project deliverables into smaller, more manageable components completes scope Definition. There are a good number of outputs from the Scope Definition phases that you’ll need to be familiar with.

Scope definition is the subdivision of project deliverables into smaller (and more manageable) pieces until you have adequately identified in the work breakdown structure all the work on the project. 

The project plan is a key integrative document that uses the outputs of the other planning processes to create a consistent, coherent document that is the guide to both project execution and project control. Be familiar with what the project plan is used for and what items are often included in a project plan. The PM uses it to guide project execution, to document our planning assumptions, to document planning decisions regarding some of the alternatives that we have chosen. We use it to facilitate communication among the stakeholders and define key management reviews as to content, expense, and timing. It is a baseline for progress measurement and project control.

The project management plan can be either summary level or detailed, and can be composed of one or more subsidiary plans and other components. Each of the subsidiary plans and components is detailed to the extent required by the specific project.

The Develop Project Management Plan process includes the actions necessary to define, integrate, and coordinate all subsidiary plans into a project management plan. The project management plan content will vary depending upon the application area and complexity of the project. This process results in a project management plan that is updated and revised through the Integrated Change Control process. It also defines how the project is executed, monitored and controlled, and closed. The purpose of planning is to develop a Project Plan.

Subsidiary plans

• Project scope management plan
• Schedule management plan
• Cost management plan
• Quality management plan
• Process improvement plan
• Staffing management plan
• Communication management plan
• Risk management plan
• Procurement management plan

Other key components include, but are not limited to:

• Milestone list
• Resource calendar
• Schedule baseline
• Cost baseline
• Quality baseline
• Risk register