Posts by Rob Allen
Benefits of Comparing Agile with Waterfall
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…
Read MoreBenefits of Comparing DMAIC with Project Management
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…
Read MoreBenefits of Comparing Lean/Kaizen with Agile/Scrum
By comparing Lean/Kaizen with Agile/Scrum, those familiar with kaizen will improve their understanding of agile and vice-versa.
Read MoreAchieving Lean by Identifying Forms of Waste
Our previous article compared agile/scrum with lean/kaizen and revealed several similar fundamentals that helped make each methodology easier to understand. Since the objective of lean and agile is waste reduction, we also want to identify and eliminate various forms of waste. In order to do this, first let’s consider our objective to manufacture hardware product,…
Read MoreMinimizing Waste and Task Management
Our previous article identified several forms of waste, specific to completing tasks, as detailed by the following table: Keep in mind, by focusing on tasks, this table assumes several things: Without the above key characteristics in place, it’s possible to have a non-value-added project (regardless of efficient of task management). Also, the limited scope of…
Read MoreFundamentals of Applying a Structured Approach
In reviewing several previous articles in this article series, it’s apparent there is much in common with product development, project management and process improvement. Let’s look at a brief list that considers a structured approach vs. unstructured While this list is pretty “high-level” it reveals the importance of project leadership, governance and management. A structured…
Read MoreTiered Meetings Structure Enables Production Oversight & Support
A complex production process requires a mixture of leadership, governance and management. In this article, we’ll discuss a tiered meetings structure that can effectively enable this. Empowerment, escalation paths, accountability and responsibility are included as some key ingredients. We’ll start with the following diagram: Production Floor Team Meeting (Tier 1): the production supervisor (or manager) holds…
Read MoreDemystifying Business Requirements
In a previous article, we compared and contrasted the definition of a requirement, with a ‘story’, which is used in agile/scrum. In that article, we stated: “requirements and stories establish a clear understanding of customer needs in the context of desired functionality”. What if we want to establish a clear understanding of a customer’s needs in the context…
Read MoreWho called this meeting, anyway?
Often, when the completion of a task or deliverable is needed, a meeting is a good way to establish mutual understanding of the way forward. With many resources working remote these days, effective meetings are taking on even greater importance. An effective meeting comprises the right mix of technical expertise, project management and project sponsorship. However,…
Read More