Project Manager's Dashboard [PMD]

Control Phase - Six Sigma series

2013-08-30T15:34:00.002+05:30

Gurus,

Thanks for your support during this period; my apologies for the delay to post the new article to you all.

We have seen DMAIC series Improve phase in my last article. Let us see about Control phase this time.

Control phase is the final phase of Lean Six Sigma life cycle. Below is the list deliverable of this phase:

· Standardizing and documenting the Improvements

· Creating a Process Monitoring Plan

· Closing the phase & Calculate Be

See you soon with another post. Happy surfing and reading!!!

Six Sigma - Improve phase

2012-07-10T21:11:00.000+05:30

Gurus,

Let us see about Improve phase this time.

Once we completed the Analysis of the root causes, we can finalize the factor which causes the issue. In this phase, we can try to improve the factor in below order:

1) Finalizing the solutions to implement:

Short list the solutions to fix the problem or issue. From this action, we can find out the way to fix the issue.

2) Implementing the Solution:

We have to implement the solution after selecting the solution.

3) Assessing the Solution:

We have to asses the solution on the periodic basis to find out the solution's effect.

4) Completely make the solution:

Once we assess the solution and satisfied on the solution, we have to move the solution for the permanent basis on the environment.

Is it looking like repeat of PDCA cycle? Of-course, it should be. Because, Six Sigma has been driven by PDCA cycle.

Tools for Improve phase:

We can use the below tools in Improve phase. They are:

ANOVA [ANalysis Of VAriance], and

DOE [Designed Of Experiments].

See you soon with another post of Six Sigma series.

Happy surfing and reading!!!

Challenges while adopting Scrum methodologies in an Organization

2012-07-05T17:40:00.000+05:30

Hello Gurus,

An agile post after a long time.

I have received a question from one of my friend who wants to konw the challenges while an organization adopting agile practice. I have tried to list out some of the practical issues and challenges as below:

1) Management / Staff turnover will occur.

2) Team conflict will occur.

3) Lack of environment of trust.

Expecting your valuable inputs on it to improve further.

Meet you soon with another interesting post.

Six sigma - Pareto analysis

2012-07-05T17:35:00.000+05:30

Gurus,

We will see an interesting post named Pareto analysis this time.

Who is Pareto:

He is an Italian economist who found out 80% of Italian income going to 20% of the people by statistical values.

What is Pareto analysis:

Pareto analysis is a tool used in common management to find out which business process or unit impacting 80% of the issues.

Example of Pareto analysis:

1) 80% of Defects arise from 20% of process issues
2) 80% of revenue is derived from 20% of clients
3) 80% of material is delivered from 20% of vendors

Graphical example of Pareto analysis:

How to perform Pareto analysis:

There are several tools such as Minitab, QIMacros, ets., to perform Pareto analysis and find out the 20% of the reason which causes 80% of the issues.

Gurus,

Catch you soon with another post of Six sigma series!!!

Six sigma - Analyze phase

2012-07-05T17:13:00.000+05:30

Gurus,

Let's see about Analyze phase of Six sigma series.

It is the third phase and longest phase of the six sigma life methodology. Six sigma believes in statistical facts and there is no room for guessing. In this phase, we collect data on all our inputs and outputs and then use one or more of the statistical tools to analyze them.

Purpose of Analyze phase:

The purpose of the Analyze phase is to find out whether there is any significant relationship between each of the inputs and outputs.

Types of Analysis:

There are five specific types of analysis that will help to promote the objectives of the project. They are:

1) Root cause analysis: Attempt to find out the reason for any issues.

2) Process analysis: Attempt to find out the best process to promote the goals of the project.

3) Data analysis: Attempt to find out the data which caused the issue on the project.

4) Employee analysis: Attempt to find out the employee strength and their training requirements.

5) Communication analysis: Attempt to easier the communication way to promote the objectives of the project.

Tools used in Analysis phase:

The following are some of the tools used in Analysis phase of the Six Sigma methodology. Try to focus some light towards them to get clear idea about how are they working:

Analysis of variance,

Regression,

Correlation,

Hypothesis testing, and

Graphical analysis.

Catch you soon with another interesting post on Six Sigma methodology.

Till then, happy coding and surfing!!!

Time for a change

2012-07-05T16:34:00.002+05:30

Gurus,

Thanks for your continuos support. I was in knowledge transfer phase with MphasiS as I have decided to join another company.

The proverb "Time and tide wait for none" has proved in my case again.

Catch you soon with Six Sigma series posts.

Cheer up!!!

DPMO or DPMC explaining in depth

2012-05-16T15:30:00.001+05:30

Gurus,

One of friend has called up this morning and asked about DPMO. They are not clear about what I tried to convey in my previous Measurement phase of Six Sigma project series. Thought of posting a new draft specially for DPMO or DPMC immediately.

And here we go:

DPMO: Defects Per Million Opportunities.

DPMC: Defects Per Million Chances.

This will give us the number of possible opportunities or chances of committing a defect in our production unit.

In detail: At any given time frame, an organization may produce 'N' number of products to the sales. The organization may have various departments or functions to produce the product. There are chances of making error from any of the department while making the product. We need to measure how many errors are coming out from each department while applying Six sigma process.

An example:The whole India is suffering from IPL fever currently and we will see an example relates with Cricket to understand it better. There is a company which produces cricket bats. They are having various departments as follows:

1) Wood selection department,
2) Measuring and marking department,
3) Wood cutting department,
4) Joining department and
5) Coloring department.

They are producing 1000 bats for a particular week. We will see how to calculate DPMO or DPMC for that week.

There are possible chances of bats getting defects due to following chances from each department.

1) Wood selection department: Cricket bats may get defect due to selection of wrong woods.

2) Measuring and marking department: Bats may get defect due to wrong measuring or marking on the woods.

3) Wood cutting department: Bats may get defect due to incorrect cutting on woods.

4) Joining department: Bats may get defect due to incorrect usage of paste or joining incorrectly.

5) Coloring department: The department may color the bats with wrong choice and hence bat may get defect on it.

The six sigma consultants observed that the below are the defects from each department for the specific week:

13 bats got defected due to wrong selection of woods,
12 bats got defected due to incorrect marking or measuring,
8 bats got defected due to wrong cutting on woods,
7 bats got defected due to usage of wrong paste to join the bats, and
10 bats got defected due to incorrect coloring.

Totally there were 50 defected bats out of 1000 bats they have produced.

We need to calculate the DPMO or DPMC by applying the formula as below:

                                                          Total number of defects
DPMO or DPMC = ------------------------------------------------------------------------ X 1,000,000
                                  Number of units produced X number of departments

                         50
DPMO = ------------------- X 1,000,000
                    1000 x 5


             = 0.01 X 1,000,000 = 10000

There are 10000 number of chances or opportunities that the bats are getting defects per million products.

Usage of DPMO or DPMC: We are using DPMO or DPMC to control the defects from various departments by providing Specification limits [Upper Specification Limit or USL, Lower Specification Limit or LSL] and Tolerance level of customers. By reducing DPMO or DPMC we will increase the profit of the organization too. We will see them in detail in upcoming posts.

Hope, I have cleared the doubts if you had any.

Let us see in the next post of Six Sigma series!!!

Happy reading, coding, managing and surfing!

Six Sigma - Measure phase

2012-05-16T02:43:00.001+05:30

Gurus,

Let us see the next phase of the Six Sigma series. That is the Measure phase.

We will measure the overall performance of the organization during this phase.

There are four important steps available in this phase. They are as follows:

1) Information collection plan,

2) Collecting the information,

3) Evaluating the information and

4) FMEA [Failure Mode and Effects Analysis]

1) Information collection plan:

Plan the information to be collected such as what type of data, and from where it needs to be collected.

2) Collecting the information:

Collect the information as planned in step 1. Collect the information from Input, Execution and Output area of the process.

3) Evaluating the information:

Evaluating the information against the DPMO [Defects Per Million Opportunities] or DPMC [Defects Per Million Chances].

Calculate the information of where the defect is being generated such as Input, Execution and Output space of the process.

Formula to find DPMO or DPMC is:

Total Number of defects

= ------------------------------------------------------------ X 1,000,000

No of units X No of chances

Example:

At a given time, a software company is producing 1000 projects. Out of which 23 projects getting error because of wrong analysis and design. 17 getting error due to wrong technical steps, 20 getting error by missing the test cases, and 20 getting error based on wrong implementation procedures.

DPMO for the organization is:

[23+17+20+20]

DPMO = ------------------------------------- X 1, 000, 000

1000 * 4

= ---------- x 1, 000, 000

4000

= 0.02 x 1,000,000 = 20,000

DPMO or DPMC = 20,000

4) FMEA:

Failure mode and effects analysis will deal with how we can avoid the defects before they actually occurs. This will make the process more powerful and accurate one to defend.

Let us see something about tolerance level and specification limits in the coming posts.

C U soon with another interesting post of this series!!!

Happy reading, coding, managing and surfing...

Six Sigma - Define - 2

2012-05-10T00:57:00.002+05:30

Gurus,

Let us see what we should do in Define phase of Six Sigma process.

Define:

As name implies, Defining a problem in countable manner is called as Define phase. Or in other terms, "Writing the problem statement, the goal, and prioritizing it!"

This phase involved togetherness of the stakeholders of the project and define the output and outcomes of the project.

Tools of the phase:

A spreadsheet like MS Excel can be used as a tool to record or to define the problem statement of the project. Data collection of this tool can be either done by manual or by a downloadable entries.

The information of the sheet can be split into four areas such as Responsibilities, Milestones details, Duration, and Results. It can be looks as follows:

C U soon with the following post of this Six Sigma series!!!

Happy coding, reading and surfing!!!

Six Sigma - DMAIC - 1

2012-05-10T00:06:00.001+05:30

Gurus,

Let us see what is the Six Sigma and where it started from.

Six Sigma:

It is a process for continuous improvement. It is a structured methodology used in the industry. Not only in our industry but across other industries as well. Six sigma changes the way organizations work and their thought process.

We can quantify it further as, "Six sigma is a process of structured methodology to achieve a near zero defect or 3.4 defects in a million chances!"

History:

During 1986 a Motorola engineer [Bill Smith] defined this methodology. It has been originally centered by manufacturing improvements. Later, services industry too adopted this methodology to reduce their defects and improve their standards.

Levels of Six Sigma:

We can use the Six Sigma methodology in following levels: As a Metric, As a Methodology, and as a Management System.

DMAIC:

Now comes the answer of DMAIC. DMAIC means Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control. They are the stages of Six Sigma methodology. Or the life cycle of the Six Sigma process.

We can see the Define phase of the Six Sigma in the following post.

Happy reading and surfing till that time!!!

Six sigma project series - Introduction

2012-04-11T12:52:00.003+05:30

Gurus,

Thought of starting a fresh series of articles on Six sigma. By implementing Six sigma methodology we can achieve the below benefits from the projects. They are:

a) Satisfaction level of the customer will improve,

b) Project cycle time will come down,

c) Profit of the project will increase, and

d) Issues coming out of the project will get reduced.

Happy to know them and want to know how we can implement this on our projects?

Think on it and think on the word "DMAIC". Will come with the answer to them as soon as possible.

Happy coding, reading and surfing!!!

Trace the project (Agile process series - 4)

2012-04-11T12:39:00.001+05:30

Gurus,

The tracking of the agile project can be done as below:

A) Track the project plan:

Do not forget to track the project plan by having Burn-down or burn-up charts in place to trace the project progress.

B) Have project progress reviews on demand:

Even the Scrum Alliance is not recommending to have a reviews in between of the sprints, it is better to have them to find out the track for the projects.

We can have a weekly review of the Sprint with PO along with important stakeholders so that, we can fine tune if we want to do so.

C) Complete the sprint:

Complete the sprint and plan for the next sprint by having documents such as leassons learned, Estimation evaluation against planned.

The above said steps will make sure the project is progressing as per plan and help us to track and control the agile projects successfully.

C U soon with another interesting post!!
Happy coding and surfing!!!

Executing a sprint (Agile process series-3)

2012-04-11T12:24:00.002+05:30

Gurus,

Executing a sprint is an important phase of the Agile project since it deals with delivering the committed project items(features) to the end user as a billable / shippable bundle.

We may user any of the agile methods and any of the agile process to execute this phase. Even we may innovate some agile process and incorporate them to complete the phase successfully.

A) Drill down the user stories as tasks:

Drill down the user stories as tasks so that, we can come to know how many tasks are there to complete. It will help out to sort out the dependent tasks and to remove the duplicate tasks from the list.

B) Assemble team to take up the tasks with responsibility:

Assemble your team to take up the tasks that they feel comfortable to take up and to proceed further with development of it. It will help the team to get matured in the Agile process while progressing it.

c) Conduct the Daily stand-ups:

During the development progress of the Agile project, conduct the daily stand-ups without fail. Make sure the stakeholders of the project from Product owners to the QA persons attending it without fail.

The above mentioned steps will ensure the progress of the sprint is happening as per plan.

C U soon with the next item of this series!!
Happy coding and surfing!!!

Project / Sprint Planning activities (Agile/Scrum process series-2)

2012-04-05T00:29:00.000+05:30

Gurus,

Planning activity will come after the first phase of the Agile process. It may have the steps as follows:

1) Build the backlog items,

2) Describe the velocity of the team and

3) Publish the release plan

1) Build the backlog items:

Building the backlog items is nothing but creating a list of user stories. This will provide an idea that how many user stories we are going to deliver to the customer.

a) Syntax of a User story: A simple user story will looks like:

"As a I want so that "

Few examples:

As a reader I want to read out the updates so that I can improve my knowledge.

As a parent I want to know the results of my kid so that I can fine tune his weak areas.

As a mobile phone user I want to have most of the advanced features on phone so that I can use the device for multipurpose.

b) Prioritizing the User stories:

After completing the identification of the user stories, we have to prioritize the user stories in such a way that we can provide more focus on the high prior user stories.

C) Estimate the user stories:

After prioritizing the stories, we need to estimate the user stories using Collaborative manner as a team. Each individual from Development and from Q&A team should involve in this.

We can also need to figure out the Must to features and Nice to have features from the user stories.

2) Describe the velocity of the team:

Once we identified the estimation of the user stories, we need to determine the velocity of the team so that, we can conclude how many sprints we are going to execute to complete the backlog items.

3) Publish the release plan:

Once we calculated the sprint counts and estimation, we need to publish the release plan for the project / product. The release plan should include the details such as: Story items, In which sprint the team gonna cover it up, Acceptance criteria for the user stories.

C U soon with the next item of this series!!!

Happy coding and surfing!!!

Prepare for the project (Agile/Scrum process series-1)

2012-04-04T18:01:00.002+05:30

Gurus,

Planning to write a series of blogs consists of Agile / Scrum process.

Having the list of items as below:

1) Prepare for the project in Agile / Scrum

2) Project / Sprint planning

3) Executing a Sprint

4) Trace the project

1) Prepare for the project in Agile / Scrum:

The first phase of the Scrum project is to prepare for the Agile / Scrum projects. We have to look into the Agile / Scrum projects as a Feature Driven Development projects. We have to answer the following question at very first second of the Scrum / Agile project duration. "Do we really need to convert the project from Waterfall methodology to Scrum/Agile methodology?"

If our answer is YES, we can proceed with the next steps as follows:

A) Identify the business case

B) Set a Scrum team

C) Assign the roles of the team members

D) Prepare team's infrastructure

C U soon with the next item (Project and Sprint planning) of this series!!

Happy coding and surfing!!!

Complete PMP ITTO List in a single MS Excel sheet

2012-03-22T16:24:00.000+05:30

Gurus,

I have uploaded an excel sheet with complete ITTO list of PMBOK v4. Kindly use the below link to download the document and use it for your reference.

PMP ITTOs list

C U soon with another interesting post!

Happy reading and surfing!!!

Controlling the impediments in Agile / Scrum projects

2012-03-20T21:09:00.005+05:30

Gurus,

There are few steps we need to take care in Agile / Scrum projects as a Scrum Master to control Impediments. They are as follows:

1) Record:

Record the impediments that come across for the product / project from the analysis phase. It will give you to calculate the deviation happens on velocity of the team and performance review.

2) Solve few at a time:

Once we know the number of impediments exist in the projects, we should try to tackle very few [not more than 2] at a time from it. Taking care of impediments alone will not boost up the team's deliverables.

3) Solution:

Find out the solution for the impediment and fix it successfully.

4) Report:

Report the impediments and it would help us for the future to track any impediments with the same signature.

5) Lessons:

Take the lessons learned from each impediment's history. Lessons learned are the most valuable things in any management methodology.

C U soon with another interesting post!
Happy reading & surfing!!!

Commonly found Impediments in Agile / Scrum Methodology projects

2012-03-19T16:59:00.000+05:30

Gurus,

Though all the scrum / agile projects look like running smoothly on many phases, we as a scrum master should be ready to face any impediments coming as surprisingly!

I have listed below some of the common impediments which I faced on my experience. Kindly add any comments if you have any other important impediment other than these listed items.

The below are the common project impediments that may come as a surprise from any corner of the Agile / Scrum projects.

Meetings Absenteeism:

Meetings absenteeism are the main impediments because of which our schedule may get some delay. We as a scrum master should make sure that all the stake holders of the Sprint are turning on to every meeting as they should address.

More number of avoiding audience:

We may not require all the team members of developers or QA team members for all the Agile / Scrum ceremonies. We should make sure whom we need to invite for which meetings of the project.

Build Failures:

This is also a common impediment that may come across of every scrum master's experience. We should make sure all the developers are checked-in the code and the build is taking place on daily basis to make sure to build the product successfully.

Issues of Software Environment:

Developers may unnoticed any software update happens between sprint that will affect the delivery of the product to the customer. This may happen with the third party software items which play as a role of dependency for our own product.

Unplanned activities of circumstances:

There may be an unplanned activities such as local issues, organization holidays, public holidays of other required teams, nature issues. We should know what and how the things are progressing with the multi locality scrum teams to overcome of these issues successfully.

Unfrozen product backlog items:

Many a times, our clients want a backlog items modifications or addition to the existing list or unavoidable requests to the development team. We as a scrum master should deal with these places using COLLABORATION technique with the clients to move the sprint as planned and make sure the backlog items have been frozen before starting the execution of the items.

See you with another interesting post!

Happy reading & surfing!!!

PMP ITTO list 9 (Procurement Management)

2012-03-19T16:33:00.001+05:30

Gurus,

Kindly find below the ITTO list of Procurement Management:

C U soon with another post!

Happy reading & surfing!!!

PMP ITTO List 8 (Risk Management)

2012-03-19T16:29:00.001+05:30

Hi Gurus,

Please find below the ITTO list of Risk management.

C U soon with another post!

Happy reading & surfing!!!

PMP ITTO List 7 (Communications Management)

2012-03-19T16:27:00.001+05:30

Gurus,

I started PMP ITTO list but left it without any reason. Kindly find the below ITTO list for Communications management.

See you soon with another post!

Happy reading & surfing!!!

EVM in Agile methodology

2012-03-15T18:45:00.003+05:30

Gurus,

I had another question from a friend about implementing earned value management (EVM) on agile projects. I got surprised and spent some time on research and arrived as follows:

Planned Value: Can be driven by multiplying the expecting amount spending by number of sprints.

Earned Value: It can be calculated by multiplying the expecting amount spending by actual cost for the sprint items.

If you have any thought to be added, kindly leave me a comment. Many tributes for your time spending on this page.

C U soon in another interesting post!

Happy coding & surfing!!!

Status reporting in Water fall method Projects Vs Agile Projects

2012-03-15T16:07:00.003+05:30

Gurus,

I received an interesting question from a member who participated in my agile training of our organization. The question is "What is the difference of status reporting in Waterfall methodology projects Vs Agile Projects?"

It sounds interestingly and I wanted to share the same with you as well.

Status reporting:

It is a tool to analyze the health of the projects in traditional or waterfall methodology projects. It uses the managers to have a control over schedule and cost.

Traditional / Waterfall methodology status reporting:

We used to have the status report card in Traditional or Waterfall methodology with the details of Accomplishments last period, Upcoming Tasks of the current period, Status of the current tasks, Issues or Risks on the tasks and the owner of them in detail.

Agile methodology status reporting:

We really don't require any specific status reporting cards or meetings for Agile methodology projects since our daily stand-up meetings will address all the status reporting points.

We can also use the Burn-down or Burn-up charts for the agile projects as a verification of the status reporting tool. This will give the readers or reviewers a clear idea where our project is running towards.

Clear on this?

If you have any other idea / comments, kindly add them to improve this blog!

C U Soon with another blog!
Happy reading and happy surfing!!!

Scrum Master Vs Agile Coach or Agile Consultant

2012-03-10T00:53:00.002+05:30

Gurus,

We will see the differences between Scrum Master and Agile Coach / consultants in this post.

Scrum Master	Agile Coach / Consultant
Must be a part of a scrum team.	Not necessarily part of a scrum team.
Expert in Scrum	Mentoring scrum
Known as the point of contact of the scrum team.	Not like Scrum master
Protects the scrum team	Guarding the team
Concentrates on product / sprint impediments	Concentrates on Institute's goals
Should be aware of product / sprint backlog items.	Not necessarily aware of them

See you soon with another interesting post!
Happy reading!!!

Agile coach / consultant

2012-03-10T00:40:00.000+05:30

Hello Gurus,

You could have heard this term "Agile Coach" or "Agile Consultant" in your organizations. We will see what it means and the types of coaches available.

Coach / Consultant: These words Coach and Consultants are self explanatory for many of us. They are specialists or with with skilled professional or experienced profiles.

Agile Coach / Consultant means that a person having more experience in Agile methodology. They can guide the other teams to play the Scrum roles in correct manner. They will assist the scrum team when they face any practical issues.

Types of Agile Coaches: We could define the types of Agile coaches in three simple terms as follows:

1) Technical coach,

2) Process referring coach, and

3) All round coach!

1) Technical coach: Technical agile coaches are someone who use to interact with Scrum team technically and make them work and complete the scrum process successfully.

2) Process referring coach: Process referring coaches are someone who helps the team to follow the processes of scrum and do it professionally. They use to work with managers, analysts and scrum masters to identify the fulfillment of the scrum methodology processes.

3) All round coach: There are few agile coaches who can interact with managers, scrum masters and technical team and speak in their business language and mentor them when and where what is requires to fulfill the agile practice.

See you soon with another interesting blog!!!