We’ve been involved with ISO management systems since 1987 since the first ISO 9001 standard was developed. We consulted and trained with the first NA ISO registrar (certification body).
A long time ago. We’ve see the growth of the certification industry and have a number of lessons learned. What’s one of our biggest lessons learned? Continue reading
It’s a tale as old as project management itself. Somebody works up a very detailed project schedule and even assigns specific resources to tasks. They even manage to do some basic allocation so Jake from Engineering isn’t working 120 hour weeks for the next five years.
But in their diligence and detail, they overlook a couple of things. They forget that everybody on the project has “a day job” they still have to get done and that recurring events like annual quality reviews or year ends or whatever still happen. In missing them, they put the project at risk of an overly optimistic timeline with unrealistic true allocation. Continue reading
I usually write about risk as related to projects, but several of the comments I received on my article on “Can Your Pacemaker be Hacked” made me realize that we are all faced with risk management in our personal lives.
Continuing on the medical topic, think about how many options you’re faced with when your doctor recommends a procedure, whether adding a pacemaker, replacing a joint or a prescription drug. Continue reading
From working as an expert witness in a number of lawsuits where large software projects were cancelled or did not operate correctly when deployed, five major problems occur repeatedly:
Let’s discuss the following scenario:
“I am a manager in a small tech company – bleeding edge type of company, with highly skilled people. We have a good reputation, and, of course we like to maintain and retain it.” Continue reading