Posts by Rob Allen

In this article series, we covered several topics in the area of product development and project management.  We will now begin to explore process improvement with the topic “Design for Lean”.  While design for lean may be a subtopic within product development, it helps us understand operational risks, operational costs, enables operational planning and process…

When it comes to ensuring a task or deliverable is accomplished, we often see the word “owner” used.  Perhaps surprisingly, there really is no true ‘owner’ of anything in the context of program or project management. We can begin explaining this with two adjectives:  responsible and accountable. Responsible is simply the person responsible for completing…

In previous articles we covered design for six sigma and design for lean.  Now let’s take a look at Design for Assembly.  We’ll do this by following the Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) thought process, and add design for assembly (DFA) subtopics as follows: Recall the objective of DFSS/DFA is to model and improve design…

When considering a business process improvement (or some other) initiative, we also want to communicate to motivate the right behaviors.  However, initiatives often seem to use buzzwords or use titles familiar to employees that have seen such initiatives come and go (the key word being “go”). A few common initiative titles include: Business Excellence (BusEx)…

Tasks (or action items) are a fundamental building block of an ongoing work-effort or project schedule.  While we tend to think of completed actions as deliverables, a project schedule can also be considered a project deliverable….and the value of well-written task (within the schedule or otherwise) is often overlooked. Generally, a task begins with a verb (some…

From time-to-time, there are new ways of thinking or shortcuts to solving problems.  However, the tried-and-true Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control (DMAIC) thought process endures as a fundamentally robust problem-solving thought process. DMAIC must be properly applied to be effective, however.  In this article we’ll consider some important objectives within each DMAIC sub-process. First, let’s consider each sub-process as…

Organizations often accumulate a list of desirable projects, however, may not have project management bandwidth to filter or manage them effectively. While project management is a respected discipline, the Project Management Institute Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) has swollen to several hundred pages.  This level of detail and complexity makes it difficult to absorb and apply…

In Part 1 of this article series, we explored a simplified project management process using a phase/gate structure that enables a robust project planning and execution thought process.  Now let’s identify some deliverables within each of the phases. These deliverables would be required and reviewed at each of the gates.  Below is a brief description of each:…

Previous articles have covered a proposed waterfall product development phase/gate process.  This article will compare and contrast waterfall with Agile product development, especially with respect to the front-end of the process. Let’s start with a proposed waterfall product development phase/gate process.  (The process below implies a hardware product, however, it can be considered any waterfall process…

Our previous article covered the benefits of comparing waterfall with agile, emphasizing the benefit of planning the agile process and product backlog content.  In this article we’ll compare the Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control (DMAIC) thought process, with a project management thought process. DMAIC is a problem-solving thought process applies critical thinking to ensure robust…