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High Tech Product Development |
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The unreliable performance of a team that produced silicon chips was impacting this Fortune 100 company's ability to bring its flagship products to market. After failing to improve performance with a new process flow document, we helped the team implement commitment-based project management. |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 01 October 2009 )
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High Tech Software Development |
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A company that designs and produces internet routers wanted to perform as well as possible to customer requirements and delivery request dates in this rapid changing market. They agreed to pilot the No Surprises approach on a software intensive release. After team planning meetings were held at both the overall release level and for several component projects, each team began using the commitment-based monitoring tools. Initially, teams had challenges following the method to the letter because requirements were relatively unstable and because of the technical uncertainty associated with debugging the software before it goes into production. |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 01 October 2009 )
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Process Management with Bottom Line Impact |
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A private educational institution had been successful both as a university and as a business; but in late 1998, problems in its accounts receivable process were becoming pparent. The two primary measures of success of this process are total accounts receivables (AR) and the percentage of total AR that is over 90 days old. Both of these measures had been trending upwards substantially disproportionate to growth in university enrollment, and the university felt that something needed to be done to get AR back in control. |
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 18 April 2007 )
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Small Engineering and Repair Company |
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This company with about 100 employees (though growing fast) involves all employees in a bonus system tied to profitability and has grown from under $1 million to over $5 million annual revenues in the last 4 years. In August 1998, Ensemble Management Consulting was asked to assess the tracking and reporting of information on the shop floor. EMC found that although work was adequately tracked, goal setting was weak, especially at the individual performer level. Individuals were given a task at the beginning of a shift. When that task was finished, most needed to find a team leader to determine what to do next. Everyone was pretty good about staying busy, but nobody was sure what needed to be completed today to stay on schedule. As a result, there was often a mad rush at the end of the week and end of the month and On-Time delivery performance was hovering at about 60%. |
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 18 April 2007 )
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Global Information System Conversion |
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Team responsible for converting to an upgraded World-wide HR information system, in support of an enterprise level system upgrade, used commitment-based management to ensure that they did not impact the larger system conversion. The conversion was global, involving 250 system managers and superusers world-wide. The team was given a drop dead date of November with a request to finish on October 19. |
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 03 September 2008 )
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Leading Edge Electronics Product Development |
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A team chartered to develop a new product that combined broadcast technology with personal computer technology decided to adopt commitment-based product development during the definition stages of their project. The first team planning meeting was attended by a large marketing contingent with representatives from the design and test engineering functions. A commitment-based plan and deliverables matrix was defined based on current assumptions about the market and direction of the technologies. |
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 18 April 2007 )
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Supplier Software Development |
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A group responsible for supporting and accepting strategic equipment from suppliers decided to use the commitment-based approach. After holding a joint team planning meeting to clarify deliverables, the software acceptance team held weekly reviews where both the supplier team and the acceptance team reported on due and upcoming deliverables using the reporting groundrules recommended in "No Surprises Project Management". After both teams were unprepared in the first review meeting, the acceptance team leader challenged her team to absolutely follow the groundrules so that the supplier could be held accountable. This strategy paid off, and 85% of all the deliverables were ready on or before their scheduled dates (the others were recovered quickly). The supplier was also pleased with the result. They said it was the first time that the software team had beaten the hardware team on a major product delivery. |
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 03 September 2008 )
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