310 Figure 16.14 CPI and SPI trend analyses (may display cumulative or measurement period trend). cott_c16.qxd 7/1/05 3:55 PM Page 310 PROJECT STATUS 311 Variance analysis reports need to be specific as to variance cause. Figure 16.15 illustrates the status for an example task, to- gether with the corrective actions, the subject of the next chapter. PROJECT STATUS ELEMENT EXERCISE Considering your current or recent project experience, evaluate the effectiveness of the status metrics used. Based on the evaluation, recommend additional metrics to aid in navigating the project. Figure 16.15 Status report example. Actual Metric Importance Headcount Accomplishing staffing Burn rate Funds consumption Desired Metric Importance Time to next milestone Keep eye on the ball Open action items Keep in field of view cott_c16.qxd 7/1/05 3:55 PM Page 311 312 17 CORRECTIVE ACTION There are many pressures to keep a project on schedule. In order to avoid admitting to a schedule slip, appropriate and timely corrective actions are sometimes delayed or eliminated altogether. Engineers were not allowed to pursue efforts to understand why some test data during the Hubble Telescope development evidenced that the mirror met requirements, while conflicting tests (on prior test equipment) indicated defects. The already overrun program could not “afford” the delay. Everything was assumed to be fine until eight years later when the telescope was put into orbit and first operational use revealed the defect previously detected in ground tests. Similarly, engineers were disturbed that the space shuttle booster field joints deformed differently than expected when under motor combustion pressure. They too were told that lack of funding prohibited further investigation. One joint subsequently failed on Challenger. PMBOK ® Guide This chapter is consistent with the PMBOK ® Guide treatment of corrective action within the individual knowledge areas of scope, time, schedule, cost, quality, and so on. INCOSE The INCOSE Handbook treats corrective action similarly to the PMBOK ® Guide. We believe it warrants special attention as the culmination of planning, visibility, and status. CORRECTIVE ACTIONS ARE TAKEN TO FIX VARIANCES Corrective actions are the valid and necessary reactive management actions to correct unacceptable variances detected (usually through statusing techniques) (Figure 16.15). Assessing status without fol- lowing through with corrective action is meaningless. Therefore, the process described in this section—corrective action—usually takes place as a result of statusing. Data have finally come to light that might explain the mysteri- ous sinking of the USS Scorpion submarine. The evidence is strong PMBOK ® Guide The PMBOK ® Guide differenti- ates between corrective actions (bringing future perfor- mance in line with the plan) and preventive actions (actions to manage the probability and/or impact of issues— something we treat in opportu- nity and risk management). Project Requirements Opportunities and Risks Corrective Action Organization Options Project Team Project Planning Project Control Project Status P r o j e c t L e a d e r s h i p P r o j e c t L e a d e r s h i p P r o j e c t L e a d e r s h i p P r o j e c t L e a d e r s h i p P r o j e c t L e a d e r s h i p P r o j e c t L e a d e r s h i p Project Visibility Management Element 9 cott_c17.qxd 6/30/05 4:02 PM Page 312 CORRECTIVE ACTION 313 that a battery in a Mark 37 torpedo burst into flames when a tiny foil diaphragm, costing pennies, ruptured in the battery. The crew of 99 died when the sub sank in May 1968. Earlier that year, a bat- tery diaphragm failure occurred in a torpedo battery in a test lab and six people were sent to the hospital. Tracing back to 1966, the Naval Ordnance laboratory had bypassed its own safety and accep- tance procedures in order to meet the demand for torpedo deliver- ies (with their batteries installed) to the fleet. The diaphragm was known to be a poor design and was difficult to make. Yield from one supplier was so low that 250 batteries had to be “accepted” despite failing required verification tests. One of the 250 batteries exploded in the laboratory. The ongoing “corrective action” was to deny that a problem existed, to continue with deliveries to the fleet, and to dis- cipline anyone who tried to link any operational problems to the procuring command. It is presumed that one of the 250 exploded aboard Scorpion. 1 A safe diaphragm design was introduced in 1969. Commercial products also find their way to the marketplace with design defects. Children’stoysareoften subject to recall for choking hazards, cars are recalled for mechanical or safety defects, software products are released for sale—followed shortly by bug fixes. Many of these defects are discovered in the development or verification process, but timely corrective action is often not taken in order to be first to market. However,producers of consumer prod- ucts are increasingly being held accountable for consequential dam- age caused by defects, suchaspoorlydesignedcarseatsforchildren. Future investors will not be silent about an online trading com- pany’s liability when Internet trading is shut down for four days due to the online company’s software problems. This happened in 1999 when incomplete testing of software changes caused the shutdown. In another situation reported by the Associated Press, “sports equipment maker Shimano American Corporation agreed to pay a $150,000 civil penalty to settle allegations that it failed to report in a timely manner bicycle crank defects that caused 22 in- juries.” The cranks were put on more than 200 models of mountain bikes over a two-year period. Corrective actions may indeed have impact on project cost or schedule, especially if design flaws are not found until the product (hardware or software) is in final system verification or in opera- tional use. The objective is to find problems early and fix them swiftly and completely. Schedule pressures, optimism, and the pres- sures by customers or management for the project manager to “go along with the crowd” are real issues that make effective corrective action easy to talk about but sometimes difficult to do. Statusing is comparing current performance to the plan—cor- rective action is doing some- thing about the difference. PMBOK ® Guide The PMBOK ® Guide identifies corrective actions (and occa- sionally preventive actions) as outputs of the nine knowledge areas. The goal is to find problems early and fix them completely and correctly—the first time. cott_c17.qxd 6/30/05 4:02 PM Page 313 314 THE TEN MANAGEMENT ELEMENTS IN DETAIL In theory, if there is sound visibility and a solid plan, the only time a project status meeting would be required is when corrective action is necessary, as determined by a continuously available status system. Generally, those team members who are on plan would not need to at- tend such meetings. In practice, however, periodic status meetings with key team members are valuable, even if visibility and status sys- tems appear to be sound and the project is on plan. Status meetings allow the team to see the project as a whole, and omissions—in project integration, for instance—can be identified and corrected early. The effective use of positive reactive management considers many of the same attributes as an automatic control system or servo- mechanism (depicted in Figure 17.1): •Fidelity—detection and accuracy. • Disturbances—irrelevant data. •Noise level—false input. • Time lag—timeliness and validity. •Lead time—early detection. •Gain versus stability—too much gain can produce overreaction. Corrective Action begins with periodic variance analysis to identify significant differences from the plan. The period and threshold for action is proportional to the criticality to the project. Near-term critical issues may need to be statused daily with tight thresholds while noncritical issues are relegated to monthly status- ing with broader thresholds. The business manager should determine the periods and thresholds. Cost thresholds should be expressed in both percentage and absolute terms—say, for example, 20 percent or $20 thousand for current periods and 10 percent or $40 thousand for cumulative measurements. Schedule thresholds could vary widely, depending on the time re- maining totaskcompletionandwhetherthetaskisonthe critical path,alow-slack path, or a high-slack path. A one-week slip is a rea- sonable threshold foracriticalmilestone with one year to completion. Figure 17.1 Corrective action closes the control loop. Budget underruns may be more critical than overruns. Repeated schedule slips require special attention, lest they become the critical path. cott_c17.qxd 6/30/05 4:02 PM Page 314 CORRECTIVE ACTION 315 DETERMINING THE CORRECTIVE ACTION Approach 1. Analyze the problem: •The current impact. •The impact growth if no action is taken. 2. Prioritize all projectproblemsfromthemostserioustothe least serious. 3. Determine the best approach for each using the analytical deci- sion process. In determining the “best” corrective action, classical root cause analysis is applicable. It consists of seeking answers to: • What has changed from before the problem to after the problem? •Were expectations unreasonable? •Was the plan wrong? •Were requirements ill defined? •Were resources insufficient? •Was there a lack of interest? •Was there conflicting direction? •Were communications faulty? Identify Corrective Action Candidates Cost overrun corrective actions seek to reduce: •Requirements. • Labor rates and/or hours. •Overtime. •Project length. More imaginative cost options are to: •Develop a more producible design. •Install more efficient processes. •Eliminate waste or superfluous tasks. • Assign work to lower labor rate areas. Schedule overrun corrective actions add: •Work shifts and /or overtime. •Personnel. and improve: •Tools. •Processes. •Network (shorten critical path). Problems may have several underlying causes. $ Corrective actions should deci- sively solve the problem. They may require outside-the-box creativity. cott_c17.qxd 6/30/05 4:02 PM Page 315 316 THE TEN MANAGEMENT ELEMENTS IN DETAIL More imaginative schedule options are to: •Overlap tasks. •Use higher skilled personnel. •Send work to high-efficiency specialty shops. Technical corrective actions seek to resolve shortcomings: •Add Tiger Team review. • Challenge requirements. •Reduce quantities. •Add skilled talent. •Add more capable tools. •Improve supplier(s). •Add training. Business corrective actions seek to improve the business process and eliminate bureaucracy. They involve: •Experts. •Consultants. • Executive management. •Customer involvement. Select the Highest Value Solution Selecting among alternatives, like any difficult decision process, may require an objective selection system. First, establish evaluation cri- teria (musts and wants). Then assign relative weighting factors and score the alternatives against the criteria. Figure 17.2 illustrates an approach for selecting schedule recovery action. The tentative choice is usually the highest scoring alternative. However, the evaluation criteria and weighting factors, being some- what subjective, may lead to a close, but biased, decision. A tech- nique to evaluate the tentative decision is to assess other factors not contained in the decision criteria. Compare that assessment of im- plementing the tentative choice with the closest alternative(s). The process should also consider the consequences of doing nothing dif- ferent—always an alternative worth evaluating. It is important to document the decision analysis for later justification. Once the decision is made: 1. Develop an implementation plan. 2. Get the commitments. The project manager approves the decision and is responsible for the timely implementation of the corrective action. In some cases, taking no cor- rective action may be the best of the alternatives. cott_c17.qxd 6/30/05 4:02 PM Page 316 CORRECTIVE ACTION 317 Expensive expert consultants may be a real bargain if they eliminate schedule slips during high “burn-rate” periods. SUCCESSFULLY IMPLEMENTING CORRECTIVE ACTION The most prevalenterrorinreactingto variances isthatcorrective ac- tion is usually applied too little, too late, and with insufficient vigor. Problems must be dealt with promptly, decisively, and completely. •Problems prevented are least expensive. •Problems solved quickly are cheaper than delayed solutions. Other common errors are: •Corrective action is insufficiently imaginative to consider all vi- able options. •Theeffect of labor burn rate and schedule slippage is usu- ally ignored. Problems that occur during high burn-rate periods are expen- sive (Figure 17.3). Extraordinary action may be justified to elimi- nate high burn-rate slippages. If too many critical path activities are in variance, or if the burn rate renders the variances nonrecover- able, it may be necessary to redefine the baseline plan since the cur- rent plan may be unachievable. Figure 17.2 Evaluating alternatives by weighted scoring. Some problems require major actions. cott_c17.qxd 6/30/05 4:02 PM Page 317 318 THE TEN MANAGEMENT ELEMENTS IN DETAIL To ensure that all viable corrective actions are considered: •Identify the total problem and impact. •Develop alternative courses of action as straw man solutions. •Select the highest value alternative. Finally, to ensure that the plan is successfully implemented: •Seek team consensus for the solution. •Develop the implementation plan. •Announce the plan. •Status and control the corrective action plan along with the baseline plan. CORRECTIVE ACTION ELEMENT EXERCISE Considering your current or recent project experience, list all of the corrective actions you observed. Try to identify some in each of the categories of business, budget, and technical. Also critique how suc- cessful they were. Figure 17.3 The high costs of schedule slips. Activity Level (burn rate) Time Implementation OperationsStudy SCHEDULE SLIPS HERE ARE COSTLY Re-baselining the project is often the first task of the “new” project manager. CA Technique Objective Success Rating Tiger Team Problem solving 9 Overtime Shorten schedule 10 cott_c17.qxd 6/30/05 4:02 PM Page 318 319 18 PROJECT LEADERSHIP “We all need to be ready for those moments when our leadership is on the line and the fate or fortune of others depends on what we do.” 1 With this introduction to The Leadership Moment, Michael Useem tells nine gripping leadership stories and draws out the following principles: Know yourself: Understanding your values and where you want to go will assure that you know which paths to take. Explain yourself: Only then can your associates understand where you want to go and whether they want to accompany you. Expect much: Demanding the best is a prerequisite for obtaining it. Gain commitment: Obtaining consensus before a decision will mobilize those you are counting on after the decision. Build now: Acquiring support today is indispensable if you plan to draw on it tomorrow. Prepare yourself: Seeking varied and challenging assignments now develops the confidence and skills required for later. Move fast: Inaction can often prove as disastrous as inept action. Find yourself: Liberating your leadership potential requires matching your goals and talents to the right organization. Remain steadfast: Faith in your vision will ensure that you and your followers remain unswerving in pursuit of it. PMBOK ® Guide The PMBOK ® Guide Sec 1.5.5 Interpersonal Skills identifies leadership as a skill needed for interpersonal relationship management along with: • Effective communication. • Influencing the organization. • Motivation. • Negotiation and conflict management. • Problem solving. Project Requirements Opportunities and Risks Corrective Action Organization Options Project Team Project Planning Project Control Project Visibility Project Status P r o j e c t L e a d e r s h i p P r o j e c t L e a d e r s h i p P r o j e c t L e a d e r s h i p P r o j e c t L e a d e r s h i p P r o j e c t L e a d e r s h i p P r o j e c t L e a d e r s h i p Management Element 10 INCOSE The INCOSE Handbook Sec 1.7 Systems Engineering Has a Human Orientation cites lead- ership as essential for systems engineering, but does not expand further. cott_c18.qxd 6/30/05 4:01 PM Page 319 [...]... Verification for and Preparation and Component Verification and and Preparation for Verification and Preparation forand Subsystem Integration Verification Preparation for Subsystem Integration IV&V Preparation for Subsystem Integration Preparation for Subsystem Integration Subsystem Integration Subsystem Integration Arc hit ect u & V re In eri tegr fica ati tio on n Subsystem Verification and Verification and. .. Architecture, Design-to, Build-to, and Verification Architecture, Design-to, Requirements, Concept, Build-to, and Verification Build-to, and Verification and Architecture, Design-to, Validation Verification Build-to, and Plans and Architecture, Design-to, Validation Plans Build-to, and Verification and ValidationVerification and ValidationPlans Build-to, and Plans and Validation Plans and Validation Plans Lowest... to all 80 ,000 employees encouraging them to revisit the Intel culture and to reinstall “indicators, reviews, and management attention to start to turn these problems around by ensuring good planning, staffing and program management. ”3 These two situations highlight the role of organizational commitment, and its potential for misinterpretation, as ref lected by top management behavior During Andy Grove’s... that they “exert no effort over the minimum.” And only 23 percent believe they work to their full capacity The leader ’s motivation challenge is to tap that available discretionary effort The limitations of control and authority demand that project managers be able to differentiate motivational causes and effects and be able to accurately relate them to the specific project team and member needs Misplaced... credible The project leader ’s spoken words and body language, and especially job performance, can reinforce those points A leader’s spoken and body language as well as job performance can provide reinforcement Setting the Example Walk the walk, don’t just talk the talk if you expect others to follow It is less what you say and more what you do that inf luences behavior Your attitude and body language... Build-to, and Verification Architecture, Design-to, Build-to, and Verification Build-to, and Verification and ValidationVerification Build-to, and Plans and ValidationPlans and Validation Plans and Validation Plans Customer Confirmation Architecture Vee Customer Confirmation Requirements, Concept, Requirements, Concept, Architecture, Design-to, Architecture, Design-to, Build-to, and Verification Build-to, and. .. development For this discussion, lowest configuration item (LCI) is used to refer to the lowest level in the architecture from the perspective of the project s systems engineer As such, the item can be PRINCIPLES AND TACTICS FOR MASTERING COMPLEXITY 343 assigned to an individual and it will be designed and verified to its configuration item (CI) specification It will be statused by the project as a... respect All credibility factors • The project work itself—Work interest and challenge; future assignments • Rewards and penalties—Salary and promotion; coercion and penalties While the order varies somewhat among surveys and industries, most participants rank the project manager ’s authority and expertise at the top along with the work itself Surprisingly, salary and promotions are perceived only a little... performance Regardless of your reward philosophy or the details of your rewards, they need to be systematically aligned with the goals and values of your project, environment, and company Training Trying to do a job you haven’t been trained for is discouraging and demotivating This applies double to the project manager who needs to be trained to select appropriate project personnel, depending on the project. .. Subsystem Verification and Verification and Verification, Validation Verification, Validation Preparation for System Preparation for System and Preparation for and Preparation for Integration and Integration and System Integration System Integration Verification Verification Anomaly Verification and Validation Planning (all levels) Investigation n itio os mp co n De itio ure efin ect & D hit Arc Architecture . periods and thresholds. Cost thresholds should be expressed in both percentage and absolute terms—say, for example, 20 percent or $20 thousand for current periods and 10 percent or $40 thousand for cumulative. visibility and status sys- tems appear to be sound and the project is on plan. Status meetings allow the team to see the project as a whole, and omissions—in project integration, for instance—can. be demotivators. Effective meetings are no accident. They demand management skills for preparation and leadership skills for conduct. For example, people who are needed for decisions, but who arrive late or not