[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
granted, hence the need to identify this as a project risk.
Identifying this as a risk is the first step. Next is to analyze the risk to see if
it is important enough to manage. If it is, a risk plan must be created to re-
spond to the risk. In this case, Jade must put a risk plan in place to respond
to this potential problem. A common objective of the risk plan is mitigation,
84
Use Risk Management to Discover Potential Problems
which means you try to minimize the probability of the risk occurring
and/or minimize the impact to the project if the risk occurs. (There are
other risk response options, which will be explained in another lesson).
Looking at Jade s project, the timing of the new baby s arrival can t be con-
trolled, so eliminating the risk event is not an option. However, since Jade
has identified this risk early, she has plenty of time to minimize the impact of
the event to ensure the project can still be completed successfully. Potential
options for Jade to consider include:
Accelerating the work Kristen needs to perform so there is a higher
likelihood it will be completed before she leaves. This could still be
risky since she may have to leave early.
Cross-training a replacement who can take over from Kristen if she
has to leave early.
Replacing Kristen with another resource, while still utilizing her as a
backup and a mentor for her replacement (if this fits with the Hu-
man Resources policies).
Since Jade has time, this project risk will likely be resolved before there is an
impact on the project. That is the nature of risks. Since they are future
events, you have some time to minimize them or prepare for them before
they occur.
C H A P T E R
20
Focus Quality
Management
on Processes,
Not People
Jerry called me to set up an afternoon meeting on May 1. I invited him
to lunch, but he asked for a rain check as his schedule was crazy. Jerry
and I exchanged e-mails frequently, so I knew that he and his wife were
getting excited about moving into Wayne s house. The Morettis were
moving to Arizona in July and planned to leave Illinois during the last
week of June. Jerry was already beginning to pack up the apartment,
preparing to move in shortly after the Morettis moved out. Jerry had
filled out the necessary paperwork to take over ownership of the Moret-
tis home and had already secured the mortgage from the bank. I volun-
teered to help him move when the time came and he gladly accepted.
T. Mochal et al., Lessons in Project Management
© Tom Mochal and Jeff Mochal 2011
86
Focus Quality Management on Processes, Not People
Jerry was also approaching a significant milestone at Mega Manufactur-
ing or at least I thought it was significant. He was in the final week or
two of his project to upgrade the phone mail system, and most of the
changes had already been implemented. He had not had a major prob-
lem pop up for almost a month, and I could tell his confidence was sky-
high as he witnessed the fruits of his labor. At least it was sky-high be-
fore last Friday.
Jerry arrived on time for our meeting and began filling me in on the
problem he had encountered. He was wearing a blue suit with a red-
and-yellow-striped tie.
Why the fancy suit, Jerry? Do you have a job interview today? I joked.
No, actually Barbara and I are celebrating our anniversary today. I am
taking her to a pricey restaurant for dinner right after work.
That s great. Happy anniversary! I said, standing up to shake his
hand. Sounds like buying the Moretti s house was perfectly timed.
Makes for a great anniversary gift!
We are definitely excited about that, to be sure. Still, though, doesn t
get me out of the fancy dinner!
I smiled knowingly. Jerry filled me in on his dinner plans before getting
down to business.
The CIO asked us to give him a demo of the new voicemail software,
he started. This should not have been a problem, but when we went to
his office, wouldn t you know it the system didn t work right! We had
to come back half an hour later to finish the demonstration. He liked
the new system, but I m not sure he is totally confident in our ability to
install it.
Sounds embarrassing, I said. What went wrong?
We re trying to get additional people trained on how to install the
software, he replied. Unfortunately, we assigned one of our newer
people to work on the CIO setup, and he missed one of the steps.
Maybe he can t be trusted to do the upgrade. We may have to remove
him from the project.
Whoa, I cautioned. You have thousands of phones to upgrade. I
think you are going to need all the help you can get. Tell me, what pro-
cedures are in place to help these new technicians?
87
Lessons in Project Management
Jerry thought carefully for a minute. The techs are supposed to under-
stand the phones and the voicemail software. We spent time showing
each person what needs to be done for the upgrade, and we assume
they are skilled enough and professional enough to do the job.
I started to see a problem with the team s quality process. You know,
you are going to have to upgrade dozens of phone switches and thou-
sands of phones for this project. It seems to me that even if your team
is very diligent, there is a good chance problems will crop up on some of
the installations. High-quality projects are only partially the result of
good people. They are also the result of having good quality processes.
When quality problems like this surface, don t blame your people fix
your processes instead.
LESSON
If people always produced high-quality results, there would be no need for
quality management. However, even the best people make mistakes, includ-
ing project managers! Sometimes they don t even know it. For instance,
quality problems can result from simple misunderstandings. You may be
doing everything right as far as you know, and problems can still occur.
One core project management responsibility is to manage the overall quality
of the deliverables produced. Creating a quality plan that identifies quality
control activities and quality assurance activities is one aspect of managing
the overall quality.
Quality control activities validate the specific quality of the deliverables. It is
also referred to as inspection. For instance, a peer review of engineering de-
sign specs is a quality control activity.
Quality assurance activities focus on the processes used to create the deliv-
erables. This is also called prevention. The thought is that if you have good
processes, you will build good deliverables. Quality assurance could include a
quality audit to ensure all aspects of a manufacturing process were followed.
A project team can t deliver consistent, high-quality products without good
processes in place. Of course, you want to have good, motivated people as
well. But if you put good people into a complex, chaotic situation without
good processes or guidelines, they are bound to struggle.
Quality processes must be scaled to the size, complexity, and importance of
the project. Small projects should have simple, basic quality checks built into
88
Focus Quality Management on Processes, Not People
the schedule. Larger projects should have good overall quality processes in
place, as well as metrics to determine the level of quality being produced. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl szamanka888.keep.pl
granted, hence the need to identify this as a project risk.
Identifying this as a risk is the first step. Next is to analyze the risk to see if
it is important enough to manage. If it is, a risk plan must be created to re-
spond to the risk. In this case, Jade must put a risk plan in place to respond
to this potential problem. A common objective of the risk plan is mitigation,
84
Use Risk Management to Discover Potential Problems
which means you try to minimize the probability of the risk occurring
and/or minimize the impact to the project if the risk occurs. (There are
other risk response options, which will be explained in another lesson).
Looking at Jade s project, the timing of the new baby s arrival can t be con-
trolled, so eliminating the risk event is not an option. However, since Jade
has identified this risk early, she has plenty of time to minimize the impact of
the event to ensure the project can still be completed successfully. Potential
options for Jade to consider include:
Accelerating the work Kristen needs to perform so there is a higher
likelihood it will be completed before she leaves. This could still be
risky since she may have to leave early.
Cross-training a replacement who can take over from Kristen if she
has to leave early.
Replacing Kristen with another resource, while still utilizing her as a
backup and a mentor for her replacement (if this fits with the Hu-
man Resources policies).
Since Jade has time, this project risk will likely be resolved before there is an
impact on the project. That is the nature of risks. Since they are future
events, you have some time to minimize them or prepare for them before
they occur.
C H A P T E R
20
Focus Quality
Management
on Processes,
Not People
Jerry called me to set up an afternoon meeting on May 1. I invited him
to lunch, but he asked for a rain check as his schedule was crazy. Jerry
and I exchanged e-mails frequently, so I knew that he and his wife were
getting excited about moving into Wayne s house. The Morettis were
moving to Arizona in July and planned to leave Illinois during the last
week of June. Jerry was already beginning to pack up the apartment,
preparing to move in shortly after the Morettis moved out. Jerry had
filled out the necessary paperwork to take over ownership of the Moret-
tis home and had already secured the mortgage from the bank. I volun-
teered to help him move when the time came and he gladly accepted.
T. Mochal et al., Lessons in Project Management
© Tom Mochal and Jeff Mochal 2011
86
Focus Quality Management on Processes, Not People
Jerry was also approaching a significant milestone at Mega Manufactur-
ing or at least I thought it was significant. He was in the final week or
two of his project to upgrade the phone mail system, and most of the
changes had already been implemented. He had not had a major prob-
lem pop up for almost a month, and I could tell his confidence was sky-
high as he witnessed the fruits of his labor. At least it was sky-high be-
fore last Friday.
Jerry arrived on time for our meeting and began filling me in on the
problem he had encountered. He was wearing a blue suit with a red-
and-yellow-striped tie.
Why the fancy suit, Jerry? Do you have a job interview today? I joked.
No, actually Barbara and I are celebrating our anniversary today. I am
taking her to a pricey restaurant for dinner right after work.
That s great. Happy anniversary! I said, standing up to shake his
hand. Sounds like buying the Moretti s house was perfectly timed.
Makes for a great anniversary gift!
We are definitely excited about that, to be sure. Still, though, doesn t
get me out of the fancy dinner!
I smiled knowingly. Jerry filled me in on his dinner plans before getting
down to business.
The CIO asked us to give him a demo of the new voicemail software,
he started. This should not have been a problem, but when we went to
his office, wouldn t you know it the system didn t work right! We had
to come back half an hour later to finish the demonstration. He liked
the new system, but I m not sure he is totally confident in our ability to
install it.
Sounds embarrassing, I said. What went wrong?
We re trying to get additional people trained on how to install the
software, he replied. Unfortunately, we assigned one of our newer
people to work on the CIO setup, and he missed one of the steps.
Maybe he can t be trusted to do the upgrade. We may have to remove
him from the project.
Whoa, I cautioned. You have thousands of phones to upgrade. I
think you are going to need all the help you can get. Tell me, what pro-
cedures are in place to help these new technicians?
87
Lessons in Project Management
Jerry thought carefully for a minute. The techs are supposed to under-
stand the phones and the voicemail software. We spent time showing
each person what needs to be done for the upgrade, and we assume
they are skilled enough and professional enough to do the job.
I started to see a problem with the team s quality process. You know,
you are going to have to upgrade dozens of phone switches and thou-
sands of phones for this project. It seems to me that even if your team
is very diligent, there is a good chance problems will crop up on some of
the installations. High-quality projects are only partially the result of
good people. They are also the result of having good quality processes.
When quality problems like this surface, don t blame your people fix
your processes instead.
LESSON
If people always produced high-quality results, there would be no need for
quality management. However, even the best people make mistakes, includ-
ing project managers! Sometimes they don t even know it. For instance,
quality problems can result from simple misunderstandings. You may be
doing everything right as far as you know, and problems can still occur.
One core project management responsibility is to manage the overall quality
of the deliverables produced. Creating a quality plan that identifies quality
control activities and quality assurance activities is one aspect of managing
the overall quality.
Quality control activities validate the specific quality of the deliverables. It is
also referred to as inspection. For instance, a peer review of engineering de-
sign specs is a quality control activity.
Quality assurance activities focus on the processes used to create the deliv-
erables. This is also called prevention. The thought is that if you have good
processes, you will build good deliverables. Quality assurance could include a
quality audit to ensure all aspects of a manufacturing process were followed.
A project team can t deliver consistent, high-quality products without good
processes in place. Of course, you want to have good, motivated people as
well. But if you put good people into a complex, chaotic situation without
good processes or guidelines, they are bound to struggle.
Quality processes must be scaled to the size, complexity, and importance of
the project. Small projects should have simple, basic quality checks built into
88
Focus Quality Management on Processes, Not People
the schedule. Larger projects should have good overall quality processes in
place, as well as metrics to determine the level of quality being produced. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]