Once upon a time, a wise corporate trainer devised an exercise for a class on agile principles.  As you might know, reducing risk by “failing faster” is a core principle of any agile method … but that’s getting ahead of my story.

The exercise was pretty simple in nature – take 25 pennies, flip them heads-up/tails-up/heads-up in succession and make sure they ended up in date order with Mr. Lincoln facing the same way.  There were a couple of other rules designed to leverage lean principles and the goal was to progressively beat the time it took to complete the exercise over the course of three iterations of the tasks.

The teams took some time up front to plan their work.  One team chose to do the date sorting and orientation tasks pretty early in the process.  This did point out an issue I hadn’t anticipated where the pennies were so dirty and used that you couldn’t read the date.  That added a little time to the first pass but it also avoided risks of guessing and then having to deal with those bad pennies again later.  As the exercise unfolded, both teams learned some valuable lessons on planning and sequencing the work, especially selecting what step could be done last.

In this compressed exercise, it became evident that the placement of the “quality check” operations was critical to cutting time out of the process.  One team, frankly, took way too long with their checks and ended up with redundant processes they should have never inserted.  Over the course of the three iterations (did I mention I added 5 pennies to the last one?), they consolidated how they viewed “quality” and were quick to make decisions such as which pennies were not easily read (date order was one of the final state criteria).  Checking quality closer to the end state when it really mattered allowed them to reduce their execution time from a little over four minutes on twenty-five pennies to less than ninety seconds on thirty pennies.  Quite the improvement, if you were watching the process.

Call it the “Goldilocks Principle” if you will … finding the right balance to approach your project and analyzing how to get maximum value with the least reasonable effort.  Both teams learned that in the class exercise.  I think it’s often unique to organizations (based on methodology) and projects (based on applied methodology and the actual project being executed).  But that sweet spot is definitely there if you take the time to look for it.  But that takes a focus as much on HOW you do things as the doing itself.

SECRET OF METRICS
The secret is in the metrics.  Mature organizations don’t just measure progress; they measure specific points of progress that really tell them how they are doing.  They’ve found their “just right” and they leverage it to the hilt.  Look back a couple of decades and you’ll find it at the center of the lean manufacturing movement.  You drove out waste until it just wasn’t worth it to press any farther because you’d maximized the effort.

Today’s projects need to run leaner and smarter – and that means a laser focus on value delivery.  That’s exactly what the players in my “lean penny SCRUM game” did.  Learning as they went, both teams reduced their throughput time and were very successful.  As we wrapped the exercise, the feedback was nearly unanimous as to how they could apply it to their own projects.

So, how about you?  Are you measuring the right things the right way the right amount of times?  Do you know what “quality” looks like for your organization and profit?  It isn’t simple, but it doesn’t have to be complex either.  It just takes hard work and a willingness to change the way you work your project.  Do that, and I’m sure your “Goldilocks” will make itself known.

Bio:

Mark Moore has held multiple professional positions in IT and business for nearly three decades serving organizations both small and large, public and private.  With over half that time as a project manager, he has successfully managed major initiatives
spanning multiple years with a cost of over $3 Million and teams of over 250 people.  He has been a Project Management Professional since 2002, served as President of the PMI Western Michigan Chapter, and presented at multiple NCPMI Annual Events.  Mark holds a Masters of Education degree from Colorado State University with a concentration in Adult Education and Training.  He is an experienced writer, speaker and presenter on project management and team building topics.  Mark is the Principal Consultant for Broken Arrow Associates, LTD.  He and his family live in a rural area outside of Raleigh, North Carolina.  To contact Mark for opportunities or questions, send an e-mail to info@baa-ltd.com.