Tips for Prospective PMPs - Edition 11
Eddie Merla
PMO Consultant | PMP Trainer and Coach | Co-author of "Communicate, Lead, and Transform" | Speaker | #pmptrainer #projectmanagement
Welcome to the 11th edition of Tips for Prospective PMPs. This newsletter provides tips, advice, and lessons for those project managers pursuing the PMP?.
Included in this edition is an article on a brief introduction to Lean project management, an article on hybrid methodologies, and access to 5 practice questions and mini-lessons.
Article 1: Lean Project Management - A Short Intro
Are you familiar with the lean project management approach and lean principles? This short article provides a high-level introduction to lean project management.
Definition
Lean is a project management approach that emphasizes delivering value while reducing waste in time and materials.? Organizations using lean project management leverage this approach to increase profits while increasing value to the customer.
Five Principles
Lean is based on five primary principles:
Let us explore these five principles in more detail:
o?? Overproduction or unnecessary features. This can lead to added costs, unnecessary inventory, and wasted material. Unnecessary features in software development projects, for example, lead to extra time and additional resource costs.
o?? Inventory waste or incomplete work. This can lead to unnecessary costs for storing and managing inventory. Incomplete work can extend lead times and introduce unnecessary management costs.
o?? Motion or task switching.? This is the unnecessary cost of internal motion by people or machines. Tasks that require excessive motion should be analyzed to determine the minimum effort required to complete the tasks. Waste is introduced when people switch between multiple tasks rather than focusing on one task at a time.
o?? Defects. Defects can lead to unnecessary costs required to fix the defect or loss of time or materials.
o?? Over processing. This is waste caused by doing more work or having more steps in the process than required. This can also include using more expensive equipment than required.
o?? Waiting. This is the cost associated with delayed time to complete the process or deliverable.
o?? Transport. Transport waste is caused by unnecessary movement of people, equipment, tools, product, or materials. For example, a project team working in close proximity, is more efficient than a team that is disbursed.
o?? Skills. Skills waste is associated with underutilizing the talent of the team members. This can result from not having the right tools to perform tasks, the misallocation of work, insufficient training, or not providing growth opportunities to team members.
Examples
The following are examples of using lean project management:
Benefits
The benefits of lean project management include:
Disadvantages
The disadvantages of lean project management include:
Summary
Even if you do not formally use lean project management practices, you can benefit from understanding the lean principles and adapting them to your projects.
Effective project management is all about delivering value in the most efficient manner possible. Lean fits the bill.
Article 2: What are hybrid methodologies?
As agile methodologies have become more popular and attractive to organizations due to their iterative and incremental approach to providing value, hybrid methodologies that merge waterfall and agile have begun to emerge. Hybrid methodologies are a blending of waterfall and agile approaches.
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Hybrid Defined
Hybrid methodologies may incorporate the following aspects of waterfall approaches:
Hybrid methodologies may incorporate the following aspects of agile approaches:
Reasons for Using Hybrid
The primary reasons for using a hybrid methodology are:
For example, a project with high uncertainty can benefit from the incremental approach which allows the return on investment to be reevaluated after an early incremental delivery of value. A predictive approach to the same project would require a considerable investment prior to delivering value. Another fit-for-purpose example would be a project that can benefit from the structure of a waterfall approach but leverages the iterative and incremental approach of agile during a product development phase.
Factors to Consider
The following factors should be considered when tailoring for a hybrid approach:
Advantages
The advantages of a hybrid methodology include:
Disadvantages
The disadvantages of a hybrid methodology include:
Summary
With the popularity of Agile, organizations and project managers should assess whether a hybrid approach to their projects makes sense. Depending on the project, the team, and the organization, a hybrid approach might be the answer to take advantage of the benefits of agile without compromising the structured traditional waterfall approach. If done right, you get the best of both approaches.
Article 3: Five Practice Questions and Mini-Lessons
Eddie Merla, PMI-ACP, PMP
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