Quality management is a key knowledge area in project management. To deliver high-quality projects, you must consider the cost of quality. An important component of the cost of quality is the cost of conformance which is the cost incurred to…
For Lean and Six Sigma professionals, you probably know that a control plan is a key component of process improvement. As part of the control phase in the DMAIC approach, it allows you to sustain gains made during your Six…
When initiating a project, two important concepts that frame and guide the entire project management life cycle are project scope and project requirements. Now it’s common to see these terms used interchangeably, but they are actually different. In this post,…
When using the DMAIC approach in the Six Sigma methodology, having an effective well-crafted data collection plan is crucial for the Measure phase. Having this enables you to focus your data collection efforts on gathering the right information to answer…
Cost of quality is an important concept to understand when managing projects. Specifically, cost of nonconformance which refers to the costs incurred when project deliverables fail to meet quality standards. As a project manager, having a solid grasp on nonconformance…
Lean and Six Sigma are two of the most popular process improvement methodologies used in business today. With origins in manufacturing, both focus on reducing waste and defects, albeit with different approaches. Lean aims to optimize workflow and maximize value,…
While non-functional requirements (NFRs) are crucial to delivering high-quality products, dealing with them in an Agile environment such as Scrum teams can be challenging as they don’t map cleanly to specific product features and are often poorly understood by the…
Ceremonies or events play a crucial role in aligning teams and maintaining cadence when it comes to Agile development. The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) defines various ceremonies that provide structure and synchronization for multiple Agile teams working together. From planning…
When creating a project schedule, it’s important that you understand the different dependencies and relationships that exist between the project tasks and activities. One of these relationships is the start-to-finish relationship. While not as common as finish-to-start relationships, this relationship…
As a project manager or business leader, understanding the distinction between projects and operations is key to effective resource allocation as well as achieving organizational success. These two concepts can be quite confusing and it’s not uncommon for operations to…