Information related to predetermined Six Sigma parameters is issued by the senior management through a document known as the “project charter”. Aside from defining the Six Sigma parameters, the project charter also acts as an authorization certificate, allowing the project manager to allocate organizational resources towards the completion of the implementation projects.
What Exactly Is A Project Charter?
Every project is implemented for satisfying a business need. These unique business needs are specified in the project charter along with information about new business opportunities and business threats that the organization might have to face in the near future due to increased competition. The charter also contains detailed information about the type of features that are to be included in the product or service being designed. Detailed explanation is also given about how the customers will benefit from the newly introduced features.
What Is A Problem Statement?
Also included in the charter is the “problem statement”, which provides detailed information, related to the essentialities of the project. It allows project managers to ascertain the overall scope of the project and determine the roles and responsibilities of the related stakeholders. If the project is complex, the problem statement lays stress on breaking down the whole project into smaller manageable subprojects that are easy to execute.
What Is A Mission Statement?
Another important part of the charter is the mission statement, which allows implementation team members to understand the basic relation between the project and the business objectives of the company. As far as possible, the senior management tries to give precise specifications in simple language in order to avoid any potential confusion. For example, if the purpose is to reduce defects, the mission statement will include a precise target such as “reduce defects to twenty percent” or something even more specific such as “reduce defects by twenty percent in two months time”.
If simple and precise terms are not used, it will very unlikely that the project will be completed in time. Mission statements lay stress on eliminating the main problem that is causing the defects rather than suggesting short-term remedies. If the project is large and has been divided into smaller projects, different mission statements are created for each individual subproject. In spite of all the precautions, if the implementation team is not able to understand some points, they can talk to the project sponsors such as senior management.
The task of defining Six Sigma parameters related to project implementations has become easier through the project charter containing the problem statement and the mission statement. In layman’s language, we can say that the project charter is a document that allows a project manager to understand what is to be done and how it is to be done.
Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solution’s Six Sigma Online offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.
Those who are considering outsourcing portions of work for the first time may be feeling overwhelmed and hesitant about the concept of relying on someone outside the company to complete work related tasks. The discomfort with deciding whether or not to outsource work stems largely from ignorance about the process of outsourcing.
This article will serve as a guide to those who are considering outsourcing for the first time and will provide information on how to select qualified candidates, establish project requirements and enforce a deadline for project completion.
Select Qualified Candidates Carefully
One way to greatly simplify the process of outsourcing is to give special consideration to selecting a qualified candidate to complete the outsourced tasks. This is important because outsourcing the project to an individual who is qualified to complete the tasks and motivated to do a good job will make the outsourcing endeavor more likely to be successful.
To find the right candidate for the job, place advertisements outlining the project requirements and preferences and carefully review each application which is submitted. Immediately disregard applicants who are not qualified for the position.
Then review the applications of qualified candidates carefully and select a small group of the most promising candidates. Next interview each of these candidates and verify their references and passed work experiences to learn more about these candidates and their abilities and work ethics.
After interviewing these candidates it is time to make a decision regarding hiring one of the final candidates. Do not be discouraged if none of the final candidates seemed right for the job because you are under no obligation to hire any of them. You can continue your search for a qualified candidate by placing your job advertisement again and soliciting new responses.
Establish Definite Requirements
When outsourcing a project or tasks, it is important to clearly define the project requirements. This is critical because it is important for the contractor to fully understand the tasks which are being outsourced to ensure he is fulfilling all of the requirements and completing the task in a satisfactory manner.
Failure to establish definite project requirements and goals can lead to a great deal of problems when outsourcing a project. The contractor may feel as though he has completed the project as it was outlined but the employer may disagree.
When this happens there can be harmful delays until the issues can be resolved amicably. In the case that this is not possible it might be necessary to employ the assistance of a mediator to evaluate the contract documents and the work produced to determine if the contract terms were met.
Establish a Firm Deadline
Another important element of outsourcing is establishing a firm deadline for the project. This is important to avoid misunderstandings and to prevent late submissions of work. Setting milestone goals is also important because it gives the employer the ability to evaluate the progress of the contractor during different stages of the project and to ensure it is proceeding according to schedule.
Ideally the deadline should be established before the candidate is chosen. This is important because this enables the employer to verify that the contractor is available for the duration of the project. Schedule should be discussed early in the process of selecting a candidate to avoid selecting an ideal candidate only to find out he is unavailable when his services are required.
Ryan Smith is the owner of MyCirclePal.Com, one of the Net’s hottest community and social neworking sites! Post your free profile today at http://www.mycirclepal.com/
The future of a company or institution depends on the performance of their employees and students. Education professionals always come up with new ideas to improve overall performance of students and institutions. These ideas are implemented in the form of new techniques and learning aids in teaching. This information given to the student not only helps them, but also helps the institution to maintain a good track record.
What Is Six Sigma?
A technique to achieve strategic business results, 6 Sigma is a customer-based approach, which shows that neglecting defects can turn out very expensive for the company or institution. The fewer risks a company is exposed to, the lesser the possibilities of losing customers.
Origin Of Six Sigma
In the 1980?s, under threat from its Japanese counterpart, Motorola came up with a concept to counter the situation. The success of this concept is witnessed in the profit and expansion of companies like General Electric (GE) and Allied Signal.
Culture And Techniques Used In Six Sigma
Culture may be very unnecessary, but by merely changing it, companies can be very successful. This culture includes not just the Quality Leaders, Black Belts and Green Belts, but everyone in the company. After following a process of identifying the problem in a process and charting out the course to address it, the process is evaluated and worked upon.
By reducing the number of defects from a process to 3.4 defectives per million, 6 Sigma raises the level of customer satisfaction. In companies, everyone strives to achieve targets by introducing a change in their work environment and way of functioning.
Education And Six Sigma
6 Sigma is the appropriate tool where quality management is concerned. In an educational setting, teachers are the work force and parents are the customers.
The latter tend to pay the fees and expect their wards to get good and qualitative results. By improving teaching techniques, teachers expect a positive change in the performance of their students. This change is expected to last for a stipulated time for the acquired profit to remain constant.
Six Sigma Implementation
The first step before the implementation is to recognize the problem and define a project to lessen or completely eradicate the problem. These projects are led by the Green Belts and assisted by the Black Belts. Using a DMAIC (Define. Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control) theory the following steps are taken
Starting from the senior most level, basic six sigma principles are taught. This creates an environment for innovation and creativity. Thereafter, a module is developed in order to establish a close communication between teachers and students. This module involves preparing a method to obtain and evaluate everyone’s input. In educational settings, teachers help in building a data by conducting a study.
Conclusion
By applying Six Sigma to education, a positive change in teaching methods and a consequential positive result is bound to happen. Proper education paves the way for qualitative learning for everyone. By implementing the right techniques, the road ahead would be smooth enough to reach the desired goals.
Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solution’s Six Sigma Online offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.
Six Sigma uses statistical analysis and data to formulate a disciplined method to improve the company’s operations. This is done after identifying and eliminating errors in the manufacturing and service related processes. Some of the common myths regarding 6 Sigma are:
Six Sigma Is A Quality Management Initiative
The idea that 6 Sigma is a quality management initiative is believed to have originated in South Africa.
Total Quality Management, or TQM, and Six Sigma are different. 6 Sigma project teams follow a predefined plan of action that is evidently linked to the STRAP or Annual operating plan. There is a high level of involvement seen within the organization, since all the employees focus primarily on the results.
Many individuals, especially the Master Black Belts, are affected by the methodology and its impact on the organization. These individuals are relocated from their current job-profiles and are assigned full-time mentoring and training of the staff. Only driven and highly motivated individuals can be a part of the project teams, and this poses a problem to the Human Resources Department.
Green Belts Are Individuals With Basic Training In Six Sigma Principles
Six Sigma Black Belts are the result of advanced training. Their targets are lofty, up to $1 million, improvement at the bottom line, within two years. They hold fulltime positions and are responsible for the training and certification. On the other hand, Master Black Belts are individuals who benefit from extended training.
Six Sigma Can Replace The Current Systems
Six Sigma is an independent initiative and not a replacement to any existent quality system. It is expected to include the understanding and application of LEAN principles. Many employers focus only on extracting maximum work from their employees. Due to this, a very small percentage of the profit is spent on value contributing activities. Companies with a lack of vision or strategy tend to enjoy short-term benefits only. Their employees and set objectives are designed to produce limited and short-term goals.
Six Sigma Practitioners Are Expected To Become Statisticians
Statistics is important but only to some of the projects, like the Green Belt. The teams implement tools like cause-effect, quality function deployment and process mapping. They also apply statistical concepts like control charts. Designated Master Black Belts or Black Belts administer the complex statistical analysis, to quantify the impact of the given inputs.
6 Sigma methodologies deliver the targeted benefits in companies of all sizes. They are applicable to different industries and governmental and non-profit organizations. The number of projects a company completes affects their involvement in more meaningful and bigger projects. The ability to produce the desired results within a pre-set time frame is a confirmation of the company’s commitment to dedicated service. 6 Sigma tends to grow and change the business needs, simultaneously.
Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solution’s Six Sigma Online offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.
Motorola, Allied Signal, GE and Honeywell are some the companies that started and refined the Six Sigma quality concept. The methodology includes the use of an advanced set of tools, designed to solve problems faced by the company and improvement in the quality of work.
Enterprise Cost Reduction
Companies should conduct a thorough check of the costs involved, in the same way that they view revenue generation and market expansion.
Enterprise cost reduction is a wider approach towards controlling the company’s expenses and leading the organization towards improvement. It does not only imply focusing on specific operational processes. Enterprise cost reduction addresses a number of key cost-aspects that span the enterprise, such as the business configuration, organizational structure and design, business and process complexity, external expenses and the benefits.
Addressing any one of these cost aspects produces an impressive cost flow understanding. Cost reduction offers the opportunity to examine all the business areas and identify the savings, both within and between those areas. These aspects or ‘drivers’ determine how far the organization can stretch to reduce costs, without it having a negative impact on the organization’s culture and strategy and targets.
The cost reduction achieved in one area of the business through such a program can be identified within another area. There will be a visible shift in the amount and nature of work in the applied area of the business.
External Spending
It is essential to identify the large and small costs incurred by the business. The savings on the purchase of the raw material and on the business trips add up to a considerable amount of money. This could be utilized for the promotional campaigns of the product. This in turn affects the sales and again the business turnover. Improved product sourcing and the controlled expenses can generate dramatic cost reduction.
It pays to investigate the raw materials being purchased and the source. The company must indulge in the products of more than one supplier, to ensure the availability of reasonably priced and quality goods, whenever required.
Most companies spend a lot of time focusing on improvements in sales only. Their most common indulgence is to negotiate with buyers for a greater unit price.
Any organization can benefit from dramatic cost savings by indulging in the Enterprise cost reduction effort. Cost reduction needs a strategic and methodical approach. Six sigma and other similar techniques make important contributions to the business, particularly by helping them to adapt to and monitor the effects of change that is necessary. The Enterprise cost reduction concept ensures fundamental and sustainable improvement to the company. Six Sigma helps the enterprise and its employees equally and can be understood as a vision, a philosophy, a symbol, a metric, a goal and a profitable methodology.
Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solution’s Six Sigma Online offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.
IDOV is a commonly used Six Sigma methodology and stands for Identify, Design, Optimize and Verify. It is a variant of DFSS or Design For Six Sigma, which is used for designing a completely new product or business process to meet customer needs and specifications or to achieve Six Sigma quality levels. As a methodology, IDOV is very different from DMAIC or define, measure, analyze, improve and control, which is used only for optimizing the existing products or business processes. IDOV consists of four different phases described below:
Identify Phase
The identification phase deals with identifying specific customer needs, based on which a product or business process will be designed. Proper identification of customer needs is very essential for launching a new product or service. In this phase, Six Sigma professionals are required to define VOC or voice of the customer, develop a team and team charter, perform competitive analysis and identify CTQ or critical-to-quality factors.
Some of the most crucial steps in this phase involve the identification of customer and product requirements, establishment of an appropriate business model, identification of technical requirements such as CTQs, allocation of roles and responsibilities and setting up milestones or benchmarks. Some of the main Six Sigma tools used in this phase include QFD or quality function deployment, FMEA or failure means and effects analysis, SIPOC or supplier, input, product, output, customer product map, IPDS or integrated product delivery system, target costing and benchmarking.
Design Phase
The design phase deals with various issues such as functional requirements, development of alternate business processes, evaluation of available options, and selection of the most appropriate business process, based on CTQs that were identified during the first phase. The design phase involves the formulation of concept design, identification of probable risk elements, identification of design parameters by utilizing advanced simulation tools and formulation of procurement plans and manufacturing plans. Some of the main Six Sigma tools used in this phase include smart simple design, risk assessment, FMEA, engineering analysis, materials selection software, simulation, DOE or design of experiments, systems engineering and analysis tools.
Optimize Phase
This phase utilizes CTQs for assessing the tolerance level of a selected business process, with the help of advanced simulation tools. This phase is used for predicting the performance capability of a business process, optimizing existing design and developing alternative design elements. This phase may involve assessment of process capabilities, optimization of design parameters, development of design for robust performance and reliability, error proofing and establishment of tolerance measurement objectives. Some of the most common tools used in this phase include manufacturing database and flow back tools, design for manufacturability, process capability models, robust design, Monte Carlo methods, tolerance measurement tools and Six Sigma tools.
Validate Phase
The last phase of IDOV methodology deals with testing and validating the selected design. Changes to a business process design can be made in this phase. Some of the main steps in this phase include prototype test and validation, assessment of performance, failure modes, reliability and risks, design iteration and final phase review.
Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solution’s Six Sigma Online offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.
Even when a good governance structure is in place the structure of an IT project is more important than is often assumed. The structure can make estimating difficult, and make it impossible to deliver whilst retaining the confidence of the management and external stakeholders. Yet the structure is often assumed without proper debate - either with the customer or with the project team.
Many organisations and project managers still like to use the so called ‘waterfall’ method of controlling IT projects, because they believe it gives them greater commercial control, and allows fixed cost projects. This method splits up the total project into a series of logical steps :
- Work out what items should be done
- Estimate what these will cost.
- Agree these definitions and costs.
- Undertake formal design.
- Build the items.
- Test the items.
- Deploy and use the items.
The waterfall method can appear to offer a clear logical path from inception through to completion. The commercial control supposedly occurs because the facts are determined before agreement is reached, thereby allowing the following steps to be controlled within an agreed financial framework.
If the project uses ‘well known’ technology or is very similar to previous projects then the waterfall method can be successfully used. Where there is a substantial part that is new, or uncertain some serious issues exist with this approach.
In some cases the proportion of the total project costs and time that need to be spent before sufficiently precise estimates are generated can be substantial. Clients and suppliers can disagree whether this should this be free or paid for. In many cases a messy compromise is arrived at where the costs of the business analysis and estimation will be paid for ( or at least negotiated about ) after it is decided whether the project is to be accepted.
In other cases it isn’t certain that people are good at thinking through complex systems with sufficient accuracy to make the design ‘fit for purpose’, prior to some good ‘proofs of concept’.
Quite apart from the difficulty of identifying the ‘facts’; the fixing of features up front can lead to an 80/20 split where 80% of the costs produce 20% of the benefits and vice versa. This should give most clients cause for concern.
There can also be significant change in the business requirements during a project of 2 or 3 years duration. This has encouraged the move to Rapid Application Development ( RAD )
Good estimates are difficult
It is difficult to produce good estimates. Increasing the granularity can lead to estimating safety margins being accumulated ( if say the minimum estimating unit is 1 day - then something that took 1 hour would be recorded as 1 day giving a 7 hour accumulation per task of this length).
Estimates need to be distinguished from use of historical data to give timings. But the latter need to be very carefully annotated and used to ensure they are being used properly.
Perhaps the thought that ‘estimation should be democratically controlled, and execution involve authoritarian methods rather than as often happens the other way around’; is one of the most useful maxims here.
Acceptance of the facts
It is very difficult to know the extent to which the ultimate customer actually has bought into the design and estimates being produced. There may in fact be no acceptance other than of ‘that is the way our supplier chooses to do things’ giving the opportunity for later disputes.
In some projects it can be very difficult to establish who is entitled to sign off documents as correct on behalf of the organisation. This makes any approach other than time and materials problematic.
Rapid Application Development ( RAD )
Rapid development techniques are now accepted in many cases. These methods involve using a number of iterative prototypes are built to give the customer greater control over the finished result. Thus the analysis, design, build and test sequences of the whole project is split into a number of successive cycles.
There are, however, unanswered questions about the range of IT projects for which RAD is suitable, and issues about whether all of the suggested elements of RAD are as important as one another. For instance some approaches time box 3 to 6 week periods, whilst others simply allow incremental delivery over a number of months. Yet others regard the complete incorporation of automated unit testing into the coding ( build ) stage as perhaps the most important contribution.
There are numerous variations on RAD, including pairing - where two programmers work together with one writing tests and the other writing code to satisfy those tests. There is still a real need however to prioritise the efforts.
Some of the serious criticisms of RAD are that it can allow scope creep, lack of rigour, and cost overruns. It can be particularly difficult to stop ‘gold plating’ on particular easily understood elements (e.g. the user interface) at the expense of underlying functions that are more complex and less easily explained or understood by business people ( when the latter are involved in the assessment of each iteration ).
Here again, therefore, we encounter evidence that the structure of the project can have substantial impact on the viability of the development.
There are a number of problems therefore with both traditional and RAD methods of controlling custom and or complex IT projects. Many projects would be improved if expert help and more time were spent restructuring the project at the start to help the IT supplier clarify the design choices and the IT client clarify the business requirements. Whilst this does involve an explicit acceptance that money will be spent ‘investigating’ and ‘researching’; this is actually nothing more than bringing present good practice out into the open.
Vernon Riley is a senior consultant who understands both project management and technology. He has 20 years experience of major IT projects, and the difficulties of delivering complex projects. He can be contacted via Kutchka
You know how even the most organised of us find there’s always something we can put off and there are things on our ‘To-Do’ list that never quite make it to the top. Well, how about having a Focus Day? One day in a week or a month when you give yourself the chance to clear these things out once and for all?
Sometimes we just need a chunk of time to clear the decks or just really to get to grips with those things that we’ve been putting off, all the little things that we never quite have time for.
What happens on a Focus Day is that you get together with a group of people over the phone, on a specific day and check in on a central number at regular intervals throughout the day.
Start putting together your tasks for the Focus Day a few days before. It can be one big task or lots of small ones. You might want to clear a specific work project, declutter a room, clean the house, catch up on admin or filing.
List out your tasks and if possible think about how long they’re going to take or the maximum amount of time you’re going to spend on them. Make this fun and put them into whatever format works best for you. A simple list to be ticked add some smiley faces, colours, pictures etc. Get together everything you need for the day.
Here are just a few ideas.
Catch up on Emails (30 mins)
Make phone calls (45 mins)
Clear desk (1 hr)
Organise the office.
Complete outstanding report (2 hrs)
Tidy bathroom/kitchen … (30 mins each)
Update client files (30 mins)
Clear backlog of filing (2 hours)
Write newsletter (3 hours)
Clear washing pile (1 hr)
Wash the windows (1 hr)
Do ironing (no - you really don’t have to!) … but you get the idea.
The day starts anytime from 9.am onwards. Call in on the hour, every hour. Each call will last between 5-10 minutes (max), sometimes just a couple of minutes, depending on how many people are on the call. You need all the time you have to work on those tasks. When you join the call you just state your name and share what you’ve achieved in the last hour and what you’re going to get done in the next hour.
Once everyone’s had a chance to talk, hang up and go do it.
Call back an hour later, report how you’ve done and what you’re going to do next. Don’t forget to keep it brief! If you’re finished for the day just let us know or if you’re going to take a couple of hours to do something just say.
The day continues until 6pm or sometimes later or as long as you want - depending on how much time you have available and how much you want to get done. It’s even worth doing for just half a day. You’ll be amazed at how much you get done and how much energy it creates being part of a group.
Yes, you’re allowed breaks - if you’re going to take the next hour to have lunch or have a coffee break - that’s fine. Just let us know.
At the end of the day, give yourself a huge pat on the back, prepare a treat for yourself for all your effort, put your feet up and relax for a well earned rest!
Tip - get yourself a kitchen timer or alarm if you want to restrict your time on a task. That way you won’t overrun and you get more done in the time - it’s called the end effect.
Copyright 2006: Clare Evans
Clare writes on several topics to help busy, stressed individuals and small business owners organise their lives more effectively.
Get her free monthly newsletter at www.clareevans.co.uk and receive free Weekly Time Tips on managing your time.
Join the next Focus Day - http://www.clareevans.co.uk/services.htm
The different types of project review each have their own characteristics and benefits. For any review however it is important to decide what the overall purpose is, and who should gain what from the output. This step is missed out in many cases and the design of the review is not given sufficient attention. Standard methodologies for carrying out project reviews can be helpful, but must be supplemented by intelligent thought! In the author’s experience a review should consider both the project management standards and the subject matter of the project. Mistakes in either or both of these can lead to disaster, and it can take considerable skill and knowledge to uncover the truth.
If you are responsible for a project’s success then you need the truth, and you are responsible for setting the principles and scope that will govern how effective the review will be in uncovering that truth. In particular you need to pick the reviewer so that you understand what bias is likely to be reflected in the results. Bias can arise from background, review methodology or political interests; and may not be intentional.
Bias due to interests
The review may been commissioned, designed or just operated by people who wish to prove certain results and disprove others. It may be that some wish to prove a particular methodology works, and therefore the review concentrates on the extent to which that methodology has been completely and fully employed. This may be completely different from assessing whether the project itself is likely to succeed or fail. The Prince2 manual for instance has a comprehensive healthcheck. This will check for the complete use of Prince2 but the questions are mostly of the ‘is there…item X’ type, and there are very few questions asking about the quality of any of the items whose existence is being checked. Jobs and career progress may be at stake and informal alliances may be formed to ensure that the “correct results” are obtained by the review.
Bias due to role
The UK government OGC gateway review is an externally focused health check which concentrates on the extent to which the project is still required and could deliver the benefits sought by stakeholders. It is also quite reasonably designed to protect a purchaser ( because the UK government almost always has this role ), rather than the creator or supplier of the project. This affects the questions and can lead to a situation in which the project is affirmed as meeting all the criteria for the purchaser but is doomed as a result of events being suffered by the supplier ( e.g. commercial losses, staff turnover etc. )
Bias due to reviewer’s background
There can be subtle issues arising from the background of those carrying out the project review. Some reviewers will be much more technologists than project managers, whilst others will be the reverse. Although it makes competent practitioners much harder to find there is a good case for insisting on both sets of skills.
Bias due to distance
Reviews are sometimes undertaken by those who inhabit a management world of reports. If they then communicate with project managers and others who are somewhat distant from the actual tasks then the overall effect may be that the blind are leading the blind. Remember that real people, somewhere, should be actually doing the work to deliver the tasks required by the project. A competent reviewer needs to find them, understand them and discover what they think. This necessitates not only people and managerial skills but also some understanding of the skills employed by the project staff.
Checklists
These are useful for ensuring appropriate coverage but it is equally important that the reviewer can think freely and explore the implications of the information that the project team give. This information is normally messy and ill organised. Coherent results pointing in a single direction are unlikely and the reviewer needs to be able to cope with
So what should the balance be ?
Project Management skills in medium or large projects are certainly critical as the need to be organised is a critical success factor. ‘Ready aim fire’ expresses the simple truth that without those competent to first aim the project team members in the correct direction there is little chance of the target being hit. It is important that clear business justification and rules for project control are created and maintained during the life of the project. Appropriate risk management and planning are also vital to enable the overall project to achieve its intended results.
That the reviewer also possesses a reasonable level of subject related understanding is also critical so that those who are undertaking the work can be questioned rigorously about the quality and assumptions underlying the work they are undertaking. This isn’t about the facility to do the work, but the ability to discuss designs, build dependencies, test conditions and the like in the detail that will establish whether the sequence of work intended is viable.
Reviews can be very important, but deciding who should carry them out, and how they should be undertaken is not simple. The most important determinant of success is your choice of reviewer.
Vernon Riley reviews IT projects as a project manager and technical consultant. He has 20 years experience of major IT projects, and the difficulties of delivering complex projects. Visit
Kutchka to find out more.
When a business plan to have a product and decide to outsource the activity the big mistake is not to have a contract in place with the supplier and good product specifications.
The product specifications should, or better let’s say, must be an annex to the contract or agreement: black on white!
Many people have no or do not want to spend the necessary time to have a good start when outsourcing a task. This is really the most important part of a project, the product development phase. Everything depends on this phase.
In your product specifications you should have made a list of the features and all the functions your product should be characterized of. At this aim you should know well your product before it really exists. You should have an expert managing this activity and provide these descriptions.
The best way to start a product specification is to perform a product break down structure. You try to split your product in all its parts. Then you need to describe all their parts. As a consequence you have your feature lists.
Then you should provide a description of each feature and what its functions are. If you define all the functions for each feature you are starting to create the product specifications. The supplier has no doubt about what that product should be designed for.
Try then to split your product according to the functionalities it has to guarantee. This is a work breakdown structure. In this way you may see that a particular functionality is achieved through the combination of the actions of more than one of the product features. If the functionality is achieved through one feature then you are almost close to the product breakdown structure.
Now organize your product specification document in two sections. In the first section provide the feature list. In the second one provide a list of all the functionalities that must be guaranteed in the product. You can collect this information from the description of each feature and from the work breakdown structure.
For each feature in the feature list provide the characteristics they should have (e.g. if one feature is the current consumption of an electronic device then you should mention what the current intensity should be). In other words provide the values of the parameters, if we call in this way your product features.You should then provide a full description of the process related to each feature. Specify the inputs and the outputs for that functionality and a description of the process. For example if we are talking about a software tool and mentioning the registration of an user the inputs are the user’s data, the output is the generation of an account (storage of a record into a database) and the process is related to the creation of the account (insert into a database and forwarding of the data to the user).
You should also mention all the particular cases and exception. Do not leave anything as granted.
If you do not create a good product specification document and you have problem with your supplier, he/she will always be right. In fact you could have missed out what you wanted to be satisfied.
This is the only way to have an efficient product development, reducing mistakes, risks, wrong functionalities.
Find out how Business Management ideas applied to Internet Marketing make companies become more professional at http://www.davincistrategylab.com.