Process Improvement Flashcards
Kaizen
1) constant improvement of all company functions
2) change happens one time or is constant, big or small, as long as it is a change for the better
3) making little changes, monitoring the results and then readjusting
the Five WHYs
1) “Why?” five times
2) it would point us towards a root cause and a solution
retrospectives, intraspectives
1) What worked well for us?
2) What did not work well for us?
3) What actions can we take to improve our process going forward?
process tailoring
1) Process tailoring is about roles and procedures
2) Identifying which individuals perform which roles
3) Identifying which individuals do which approvals
4) Where each work product is stored.
5) Creating project plans with work items that reflect the process.
value stream mapping
1) Value stream maps can be used to map the flow of work from the start of the delivery process (ex: client request) to the end of the delivery process (ex: system delivered to the client).
2) They are similar to process diagrams, but meant to be much less detailed, but getting things into process areas
control limits
1) Three-sigma (σ) limits are generally used for control limits
2) probability the false-alarm risk, the α-risk, or the probability of a type 1 error (process really is in control)
3) control charts by hand were set up for 25 subgroups
pre-mortem
With a pre-mortem you try to think about everything that might go wrong before it goes wrong
fishbone diagram analysis
1) Agree on a problem statement
2) main causes and sub causes leading to an effect (symptom)
3) focus attention to places on the chart where ideas are few
hybrid models
Implementing Agile-Waterfall Hybrid allows software teams to work “agile”, while hardware development teams and product managers can use traditional PMP/waterfall approach
Project specific process tailoring
1) Adding/removing work products and tasks
Changing milestones, and what work products will be made available at each milestone, and their state of completion
Tool and/or format used for each work product
2) Responsibilities for review and approval
3) Detailed procedures for reporting progress, performing measurements, managing requirements, managing change requests, etc.
Process instantiation
1) process instantiation is about specific individuals and specific work products
2) Sometimes projects will combine process tailoring and process instantiation
3) you can create a RACI table that includes both individuals and roles, and create a table that says not only which work products will be produced, but also where the specific instances will be stored
waterfall-agile hybrid
1) dependency tracking and clarity of Waterfall
2) flexibility and transparency necessary to adapt to the fast changing requirements of stakeholders
why pre mortem
1) surveys the group and compiles a consolidated list of why the project failed.
2) ask everyone in the room to think up one thing that they could do to help the project. 3) Ideally the team is more attuned to what could go wrong and willing to engage in risk management.
focus of value stream mapping
The focus of value stream mapping is on discovering the positive values provided by the activities of the organization, enhancing those values and removing any performance robbing waste.
focus of process mapping
1) The focus of process mapping is on discovering the current processes of an organization, establishing the root cause problems with those processes, and looking for solutions.
2) While improvements can be made using this approach, it is difficult to align the problem/solution pairs so that each cycle of problem/solution implementation builds towards a strategic objective.
