The Impact of Limited Project Transparency
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| Freedom from
Project Surprises Newsletter - Issue #55 |
November 2009 |
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Project transparency
- What
thoughts do you have about this for your organization? Transparency is
a
mechanism that facilitates information flow both up and down through
the project hierarchy - a means to observe
status and decisions while also delivering essential information to the
members of the
team. Contemplate heightened
transparency as an enabler of predicable new product development
efforts. If
New Product Development (NPD) surprises are common to your business,
there are issues with project transparency that must be resolved.
Limited
NPD
transparency
or visibility silently steals productivity.
Jeff Jorvig, IC NPD Coach
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News of Interest to New Product
Development Teams
- Where are
project barriers and why do they continue to impact projects?
Take this 5 minute survey and view the results upon
completion.
- New blog post - "Organizational Silos - The Enemy of
Project Execution". Is the
current approach to organizational structure the best we can do?
- Take a look at
this thought provoking video about the reality of investing in
improvements: How Engineers and Managers
Communicate: A Video Parody
- Is synchronization
of
register
information between firmware, design, verification
and documentation a huge headache? I have a solution that will remove
the pain - contact me for details.
- In need of a simple yet effective way to
develop, manage and monitor your new product workflow? Check out this web 2.0 based solution to managing your
NPD/NPI process here and improve visibility of
your development activities.
- Check out our quick
start instant downloads for managing design
projects.
Leadership Quote of the month:
"It is a
fine thing to have ability, but the ability to discover ability in
others is the true test."
-- Elbert Hubbard |
Limited Transparency
Hinders New Product Development
When thinking about transparency for a new product
development effort, do you believe it's a problem for your
organization? Here's
a simple test, pick some in the trenches team members at random and ask
them
something you believe they should know about a project. Questions like
tapeout,
characterization or qualification planned dates are simple yet
revealing.  For a
bit more of a challenge you might try a question about inclusion of a
specific
feature that has recently been in a state of flux and is now resolved.
Does the
team accurately know the decision of that feature? Odds are high that
you will
be surprised at what team members should know, but don't. These are a
few
examples of easier project transparency issues.
How visible is a project when in the early stages of
assessment, the period from product concept through a decision to
launch or
drop a product development effort? Having broad based input on risks,
scope and
effort is critical for a fully informed decision. This is certainly not
the
time for a project to be out of view. How many times has a sanctioned
product
been killed, significantly delayed or has failed to realize financial
objectives? An unacceptable success rate is a solid indicator of
deficient transparency
during the vital new product assessment phases. For failed projects,
something
largely unknown (invisible) did not have the opportunity to surface
during the
new product consideration phases.
How often does a completed activity need to be reworked?
Yes, you guessed it - rework is another example of inadequate
transparency. In
this case an individual did not have access to the current information
they
needed to successfully complete and/or properly deliver their
contribution. A
high rate of revisiting completed activities should be another flag
that there
is work to be done for improving transparency of project activities.
Why would an improvement in transparency ever be bad? Maybe
when attempting to keep a thorny issue under wraps, typically hiding it
from
someone who will have an opinion we don't want to deal with. So, how
has that
worked out in the past? Limiting transparency to avoid conflict rarely
leads to
a project success story. Full disclosure real time keeps us all honest
and
ensures that a new product does not end up a victim of unrealistic
expectations. If you find that there is an item that you prefer to
de-emphasize, that is a flag that it's time examine your motives.
The benefit of expanded transparency is hard
to argue. Be open, be honest and be prepared for ideas, concepts and
opinions
that make you squirm. Hanging out in the comfort zone is not a place
where product excellence is nurtured.
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Concepts
for
Improving
New Product Transparency
Transparency - Ensuring everyone has the information that
allows them to maximize their contribution and enable informed
decisions for
the ultimate success of a project. Unpredictability will always be the
result
of a constriction in information, where transparency has not been a
priority.
Below are some thoughts on mechanisms that will pump of project
transparency.
Visible Milestones
You don't want your team fishing around for key milestones.
Take the key dates such as tapeout, 1st Si, characterization and
product ramp and post them - BIG. You can see them from across the room
size.
As a project approaches a key milestone, post it on doors as they enter
the
area. This stuff is not a secret and there is no excuse for everyone on
the
team not knowing what the next key project event is.
Workflow Management
There must be an easily accessible mechanism where the team
can go to find out where things are at, specifics on deliverables and
the best
practices for the project. This is not a set of documentation gathering
dust on
the shelves, or a rarely accessed read only file wasting space on a
hard drive.
It is an interactive guide for the team's activities where the user is
adding
value to the content in addition to seeking best practices guidance and
deliverable expectations. PIEmatrix is at the top of the
list for this
application followed by Design Guides.
Bi-Directional
Project Meetings
Make sure there is more to routine project meetings than
updating status and directing activities. Don't forget to listen -
where are
the areas of concern from the team and what can you collectively do
about them.
This is promoting upward transparency from the team to leadership and
will only
provide continuing results where the team realizes actual benefit.
Encourage
open communication and problem solving and reap upward transparency
rewards on
a long-term basis.
 There are many other
possibilities for
improving transparency. Bear in mind that the objective is that no one
is ever
surprised, from the lower levels all the way to the top. Ponder what
can be
done to enable this goal. Best of luck and may transparency prosper and
deliver
the new product development predictability that your business requires.
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| How I
can Help
"Providing solutions to the systemic project challenges that
quietly steal early revenue opportunity"
- Development
Process & "Same" Practices Management
- If you are looking for a solution to project surprises, this is it.
Anywhere from design guide documents to a full web 2.0 interface can be
implemented to manage the who, what, where, when and how of a project.
The absolute clarity this provides will snuff out project surprises by providing a heightened NPD Project
Transparency.
- Discovery
& Solution - Do
you need to find and remove the the barriers to a predictable and
streamlined new product flow? Maybe you need to understand the history
of past failed project activities. Our Discovery & Solution
services provide the results you need.
- Requirements
workshops
- I will facilitate the timely closure of a high quality set of
requirements for a specific product. If you have a complicated project
where requirements closure is critical, this would be an ideal
candidate for a workshop. More information can be found here.
- NPD team one day workshop to improve planning, execution and monitoring skills for
design projects.
- Web based NPD workflow management.
- Ready made downloads:
schedule, checklist, analog design guide.
- Increase management bandwidth via Virtual Design Manager.
- Full listing of common services here.
Contact me today via email, 480-895-0478 or
877-895-0478 |
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Feedback
To increase the value of this newsletter for you I would like
to hear your comments.
- What do you like or not like about this
newsletter?
- What subjects would you like to see covered in
the future?
- How is the format?
- Ask me a question related to new product
development and I will anonymously post and answer it here in this
section.
Please email me here with any questions,
comments or suggestions that will help me better serve my readers. I
would enjoy hearing from you.
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