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With the speed of change in business today, project management must be continually improving to stay practical and relevant. This includes both correcting problems and adopting new approaches.

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Quick reference

Continuous Improvement

Continuous improvement programs have become widely adopted in industry including those for project management.  The programs should be structured and focused on fixing real problems associated with project management.

When to use

Continuous improvement initiatives are always appropriate for an organization.  They can be used within a project by applying improvement actions after each major milestone and they can be used across projects by applying the lessons learned that are normally collected near the end of a project.

Instructions

The principles behind continuous improvement programs were established by Walter Shewhart and Edwards Deming.  They can be summarized in the four step cycle of PDCA:

  1. Plan – Plan the improvement based upon identified problem
  2. Do – Create a solution for the problem that should improve the situation
  3. Check – Perform tests with the solution to make sure it works and does not introduce new and bigger problems
  4. Act – If the check is positive, implement the solution.  If the check is negative, go back and start over

Continuous Improvement programs are normally action focused.  The goal is to get some improvement quickly, even if it does not totally and completely solve the problem, if it improves the situation, implement it.  Then assess what is now the biggest problem and start to take action on that issue. 

There have been many different continuous improvement methodologies introduced to industry over the years.  These include: Total Quality Management, Quality Circles, 8-D Processes, Kepner-Tregoe, Six Sigma, and Kaizen.  These programs have several common themes.  Different programs will emphasize one or more of these, but all include some aspect of these four themes.

Continuous improvement initiatives can be implemented within a project or across multiple projects.  When implementing within a project, it is often best to assess project and project team performance after each major milestone or toll gate and immediately implement an improvement based upon the most significant weakness or problem.  That should improve that project’s performance over time.

A challenge when trying to implement continuous improvement activities across projects is that every project is unique.  Therefore, an improvement for one project may be irrelevant on the next project.  Cross-project improvements are normally managed by the Project Management Office (PMO) since they administer the project management methodology and often can direct the use of certain tools or techniques.  Normally the PMO will use the results of a project’s Lessons Learned assessment to determine what improvements are needed.

Hints & tips

  • Don’t try to be perfect when determining a solution to a problem, just be better than before. That way you can stay focused on quick actions and improvements.
  • If your organization has a defined methodology, use it.  There is little difference between the methodologies and any of them can create improvements.
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  • 00:04 Hi, I'm Ray Sheen.
  • 00:05 Let's look at a major theme in business and how it applies to project management,
  • 00:10 continuous improvement.
  • 00:13 Continuous improvement theory is based upon the Shewhart Cycle,
  • 00:16 which is sometimes referred to as the Deming Wheel.
  • 00:19 Shewhart and
  • 00:20 Deming were early gurus of the continuous improvement business discipline.
  • 00:24 In fact, Walter Shewhart was Deming's professor.
  • 00:27 This cycle is the plan, do, check, act cycle.
  • 00:31 Using the cycle, a team or individual will study and
  • 00:34 plan an improvement, do the work to create that improvement.
  • 00:38 Check to make sure it works in the intended fashion and
  • 00:41 does not create a worse problem.
  • 00:43 Then take the action to either make that change permanent or
  • 00:46 to revise the approach and try again.
  • 00:49 Either way the team or individual are off to work under the next problem.
  • 00:54 One key aspect to the PDA cycle is that it seeks to achieve improvement but
  • 00:58 it does not need to create perfection.
  • 01:00 Just something better.
  • 01:02 A problem when doing improvement projects is that regardless of the solution you can
  • 01:06 always think of something that might be even a little bit better.
  • 01:10 Rather than endless searching for perfection PDCA says,
  • 01:14 let's make it better and then go onto the next biggest problem.
  • 01:17 The PDCA cycle is simple way to organize any improvement activity.
  • 01:22 Rather than arbitrarily trying new things and just hoping something is working.
  • 01:26 It provides a simple logical way to constantly improve a product or process.
  • 01:32 Another principle with PDCA is the reliance on data.
  • 01:35 In fact, normally a team or individual will decide on a topic for
  • 01:39 PDCA, based upon data identifying the problem.
  • 01:43 And of course the purpose of step three in the cycle check is to create and
  • 01:47 analyze data from the improvement,
  • 01:49 to see if it is effective before spending the money for full implementation.
  • 01:53 PDCA is the foundation for continuous improvement but
  • 01:57 there are lots of initiatives that businesses have adopted.
  • 02:01 Things like Six Sigma, Eight Discipline, Total Quality Management and
  • 02:05 Kaizen are all continuous improvement methodologies.
  • 02:08 These methodologies have four things in common and
  • 02:11 each methodology may focus on one, but they all include all four.
  • 02:17 These four are process, people, customer and data.
  • 02:21 Let's look at each in a little more detail.
  • 02:23 The process provides a standard approach that takes a team or
  • 02:26 individual through the steps in sequence that are associated with identifying and
  • 02:30 implementing an improvement.
  • 02:32 The structure process guides the team.
  • 02:34 A key for success when implementing improvements is to trust the process.
  • 02:39 The eight discipline or eight D methodology emphasizes process.
  • 02:43 The aspect of people is that the best improvement ideas and
  • 02:46 success come about when all the right people are involved.
  • 02:50 Improvements that are created by cross-functional teams that include
  • 02:53 all effective organizations will experience less resistance to change.
  • 02:57 Than an improvement forced upon a team, with no opportunity for input.
  • 03:02 Second, the team will often include individuals with first-hand
  • 03:05 experience in the problem.
  • 03:07 This team will create the solution that will work and they're able to plan and
  • 03:11 implement the solution since they are fully aware of the business and
  • 03:15 processes involved.
  • 03:17 An improvement approach that focuses on engaging a cross functional team and
  • 03:21 often multilevel teams, is Kaizen.
  • 03:24 The third aspect of continuous improvement approaches is the customer focus.
  • 03:28 With this focus, we select a problem that has real impact
  • 03:32 on the organization because it has impact to the customer.
  • 03:35 That means that a change for better in this area will lead to more and
  • 03:39 happier customers.
  • 03:40 That usually translates into better financial performance.
  • 03:43 One point of clarification, the customers could be an internal or
  • 03:46 an external customer.
  • 03:48 But the point is that it is the customer of the product or process being improved.
  • 03:52 An improvement that only helps the process operators but has no effect on
  • 03:56 the customer of the process has limited potential for a positive business impact.
  • 04:01 So the viability of the solution is based upon the impact to the customer.
  • 04:05 An example of a process that emphasizes this
  • 04:08 is the total quality management initiative.
  • 04:10 The final one to discuss is data.
  • 04:13 All the methodologies rely on actual data, to define the problem and
  • 04:17 to evaluate the solution.
  • 04:19 The methodology will include data collection and analysis when creating and
  • 04:22 selecting a solution.
  • 04:24 And an improvement approach that relies heavily on data is Six Sigma.
  • 04:29 Well, let's finish this discussion, by looking at continuous improvement and
  • 04:32 project management.
  • 04:34 Of course, projects are a temporary endeavor undertaken to achieve a unique
  • 04:37 goal or objective.
  • 04:39 As such, continuous improvement activities, as they apply to project
  • 04:43 management, must focus on the process of project management, not on the outcome or
  • 04:48 result of the project since that's always changing.
  • 04:51 And because each project is already unique,
  • 04:54 continuous improvement must be proactively implemented to have any lasting effect.
  • 04:59 Continuous improvement within the life cycle of a given project
  • 05:03 requires regular assessment and rapid implementation
  • 05:06 of improvements if they are to take effect before the project completes.
  • 05:10 This means conducting lessons learn reviews periodically
  • 05:13 throughout the project.
  • 05:15 I like to do these after each phase or major milestone.
  • 05:18 And then following a rapid analysis a trial or
  • 05:20 prototype of the improvement is used while working in the next phase of the project.
  • 05:26 Continuous improvement between projects will require an organizational response to
  • 05:30 the problem and solution.
  • 05:31 Since one project manager normally cannot dictate to another project manager,
  • 05:36 what they should do.
  • 05:37 This is where a project management office is very helpful.
  • 05:41 They can analyze problems that are common across multiple projects, create and
  • 05:45 test solutions on one project and then implement it across other projects.
  • 05:50 Even if there is no PMO, the use of a standard methodology that
  • 05:54 is periodically reviewed and updated is needed.
  • 05:57 To create an effective, continuous improvement approach across projects.
  • 06:01 But with the speed of business today,
  • 06:03 an effective continuous improvement approach is needed.
  • 06:07 To ensure that the project management methodology is
  • 06:11 contributing to project success and not inhibiting it.

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