Process Improvement is Self Improvement for Organizations

A very common term that is heard around in every business, across all industries, is “Process Improvement”. Senior management wants to focus on Process Improvement to increase the productivity and efficiency of already existing processes to perform better than their competitors. But are we doing enough to really improve those processes? If we are then, why some companies within the same industry performs better than others? Why not all the processes are efficient and productive as we want them to be? These are very thought provoking questions which are around for quite a sometime.

Let’s not consider two competing organizations instead let’s take a closer look inside an organization. In any organization there are different departments (Marketing, Software Development, Quality Assurance etc). Some departments have better processes in place that are highly productive and efficient while some departments unfortunately struggle to deploy new and improved processes. Why not all the departments have those productive and efficient processes in place? Why some department finds it easy to introduce new processes?

Solution to this problem lies within the new or improved process. The way in which the process is introduced has a big impact on the success of that process. Some departments are able to implement those highly productive and efficient processes because the manner in which those processes were introduced convinces the team members that the process will not only help the company to perform better but at the same time it’ll make their life easy and help them to grow professionally. Productive and efficient processes can be complex and sometimes confusing at first look. The very basic human nature is to avoid change and we are very good at it. We are happy doing stuff in 5 hours when that can be done in less time using a better process. But if we are able to communicate across board that all changes are not painful then introducing a new process can be a cake walk for us.

Process improvement doesn't always means to discard the already existing process and implement a completely new alien process.  So the question is, are there any well defined procedure to devise and introduce a more efficient and productive process? And the answer is No. The procedure for improving a process depends on number of different factors and among them the most critical factor is the acceptance of change by the team members. The focus should be on the VALUE that the improved process will bring to the team. If the team realizes the VALUE in the new/improved process then easier it becomes to change the already existing process.

But from where we will get these improved and efficient processes, In short how can we improve the processes that are already in place? Simple answer to this question is just by analysing the existing process. A simple way to analyse is to draw the existing process on a white board and then start marking the parts that are strong and need not/cannot be changed. In the end of this analysis you’ll get the parts of the process that are weak and can be changed for a better process. So now you have a very well defined area that you have to focus on. This is when you will start experimenting different options. An improved and efficient process is not created at once but it gets evolved over a period of time. All it takes is innovation and thinking out of the box. The important thing to remember here is never try to force the new/improved process onto the team but instead ask for their input and recommendation. You don’t want to end up looking in a different direction than your team. I have personally experienced a strong push back from one of my team when we were trying to introduce an improved QA process. In the start of that initiative whenever we conduct presentation/ work session the team looked completely disengaged. We were struggling to engage even a single member of the team. At that time, we realized that solution to this disengagement is to engage some team members on one-to-one basis understand what they think is a problem and show them the solution is in new process. This was the game changer for us, some of the team members started using the new process and they acknowledge that now they can work more efficiently. Seeing this rest of the team also started making efforts to adopt this new process. In a very short span of time we were able to engage the whole team and successfully introduced the new and improved process. The process that we introduced not only increased the productivity of team but also helped each individually to grow professionally.

Many organizations do not realize the value of a Process Improvement Analyst or consultant, who can audit the processes periodically and introduce changes whenever needed. With process improvement we cannot only achieve better productivity but also we can engage employees more effectively. So with process improvement techniques in place an organization can grow with a healthier work environment.  

Project Requirements: The only Truth

An ideal Project Requirement document defines all the deliverables in detail with the dependencies among them and there is no requirement change during the lifetime of a project but in real world there is no ideal project requirement document. Change request is an integral part of a project and I don't believe that there is any project completed without a change request and I am sure most of you will agree with me on this. But this doesn't imply that project requirement document is of no use and is just a formality. The main purpose of a requirement document is to record all the requirements initially and it needs to be updated with different change request that may surfaces during the project lifetime. 

If we record any requirement wrong or if there is any part which is left uncovered then the project will experience setbacks during the course of execution. So while writing down the project requirements one should always make sure that every part of the project is covered in the requirements and there is no ambiguity. It’s the project requirements which act as the basis for project plan and if we get all the requirements correct then only we'll have the correct project plan followed by timely project execution.

"It’s better to assume then to leave any requirement incomplete and ambiguous"

Let’s see how important is to make sure that we've have the correct and unambiguous requirements in case of a software project. Let’s assume a project xyz is near to its completion and testing phase of the project is going on. Testing is basically a process to make sure that behavior of the software is as per the requirements. What if the requirements collected in the very beginning of the project were ambiguous or incomplete then how a tester is going to make sure that the product that he/she is testing is what the customer asked for. The only way out is to ask the project sponsor one more time but it’s not that easy as it looks because the sponsor may now ask for something to which you never agreed upon but due to incomplete and ambiguous requirements you don't have any solid document that shows what were the initial requirements of the project and what you have agreed upon for delivering. I would conclude that without having a base lined project requirement document it's difficult to deliver a project on time and within budget.

So, one of the most important building block of a project is its requirement document.

The "Back Pack"

One thing I am sure about is that you all must have used back pack at some point of your life. Whether at School, College, University or Office. Now the question arises "What back pack has to do with Project Management?". But if you try to be more creative just like me then you'll see "Back Pack" has a direct relation with the Project Management.

Lets take it this way, When you go to School, College or Office what are things that you have in your back back. Are those things have to do some thing with you or they are just those things which can't find place any where else, so you just kept them in your back pack. The answer, I hope, that most of you are thinking about is those are the things that you need, that actually helps you carrying out your work or a part of your work. Now we have reached the climax of whats the relation between back pack and the Project Management.

The material in your back pack defines and outlines the work that you are doing or that you are suppose to do. So in the simple words of Project Management we can define the back pack as the "Scope Statement" that is it includes all the work that a Project Manager is suppose to undertake and implement as a part of a Project.

Like wise if you take another course in School or University then you have to carry that extra book in your back pack but if your back pack is not big enough to accommodate that book then you have to buy a new back pack with large space and in this process you'll spend more money and time. In the same way when ever there is a scope change request we have to modify the cost and the timeline associated with that project in order to incorporate those changes.

I hope I am able to justify the relation between a back pack and the Project Management (Scope Statement). So when ever you undertake a project just ask one question to yourself "What's in your back pack?" because that is something that you have to carry on your shoulders and if its too small to accommodate all the "books" then the back pack would tear apart that is it would be difficult to complete the project on time and within cost.

Thank you for reading my blog and All the best.

The "Tripod"

You all must be wondering how a tripod is related to the Project Management. Let me tell you there is a deep connection between a tripod and the project management. Just like a tripod has three legs in the same way a project has three legs on which it stand, walk and finally sits. These three legs are: Scope, Time and Cost. 

Everyone who has any relation to the project management field is asking a question from a long time that "Which of the three constraints is more important?" and on which a project manager should spend most of his time in order to make sure the project completes successfully. The answer to these questions lies in a tripod; we can only understand the answer with the help of a tripod. 

Let’s assume that the project is kept inside a flask on the tripod and we have to perform a successful experiment. The three legs of the tripod represent time, cost and scope. Now if we increase the length of any of the leg then the balance of the tripod gets disturbed and eventually the flask which hold the project will fall down, which is something every project manager wants to avoid for sure. So we have to maintain a balance between these three legs of the tripod in order to carry out the experiment successfully.  

So the answer to the question is that none of the triple constraint is more important or least important. All of them are equally important and it’s the duty of the project manager to make sure there is a balance between all these to complete a project successfully.

There is one more discussion going on everywhere, that there are four constraints not three and the fourth constraint is Quality. So you all must be wondering that where this fourth constraint is represented in the tripod. This fourth constraint is nothing but the lines joining the three legs of the tripod and it solely depends upon the three legs, we can conclude that though we can consider quality as a constraint but it does not exist on its own in a project rather it depends upon the other three constraints for its existence.   

As a final conclusion, we can say that there are three core constraints (Scope, Time and Cost) like the three legs of a tripod and there is another dependent constraint called Quality which depends upon the three core constraints.

Project Management - A Buzz Word

We all must be very much familiar with the term "Project Management". In our day to day life we use this term "Project Management" very often. But we never take a look into from where this term came from. Many of us would say it’s a term which came into existence in last 100 years.

Even though the term came into existence in last 100 years but we all were following the meaning of this term from the time when early man first produces the fire with the stones; for producing the fire he first have to make sure that he has all the material that is required to carry out this activity then he make sure that all the environmental factors are in the favor of this activity i.e. there is no rain and no fast blowing winds. By managing all these factors he was able to carry out his fire producing project. 

To understand the real meaning of Project Management we have to break this term into two parts and then understand these words separately in order to understand the concept behind it.

The very first word is "Project", whenever we do anything we call it project. Whether it’s a small in size or large in size, or of short period or of long period. A project is something which has a definite start and a definite end. It's not something which keeps on repeating itself. Two projects can be of similar type but they can't be same. for example, if we take cooking as a project even though you cook daily but every time you cook something different and even if you cook the same dish there is always variation no matter if you follow the same procedure, taste will always varies i.e the outcome is not the same every time. So whenever you undertake any activity or task then do remember that it is nothing else but a project.

Now let’s understand the second word "Management". Most of you must be hearing this word on a daily basis. Management is used in reference to manage something whether its time, money or even you life. Management is part of our daily life. We start our day with managing time; we make sure we reach Office, College or University on time. Then we make use of money management in order to manage our daily expenses like the one that we spent on our food, groceries, travelling and drinks.

So we knowingly or unknowingly make use and even implement management in our day to day life. 

Till this point we have discussed the meaning of the two words Project and Management separately. If we join these two words

  PROJECT + MANAGEMENT = PROJECT MANAGEMENT

we get to the buzz word "Project Management", and from our previous discussion we can conclude that the real meaning behind this term is "Carrying out an activity by managing all the factors those can affect or get affected by this activity".