Tech 101

Chapter 6-

Starting Out

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Chapter 6 Roadmap

• A statement about Teamwork

• Identifying the Requirements

• Assembling the Team Members

• Organizational Form• Apprenticeship and

Mentoring

• Culture of the Group• Incentive for the

Development Group• Management

Reporting• Communication

Systems• The Program Initiation

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A Statement About Teamwork

• Ideally, the team should be selected long before the program is funded

• The term teamwork is an expression often misused in an organization.

• In reality, a team is a work in progress, in which the objective focuses the actions of the individual.

• In a team, the needs of the corporation outweigh the needs of the individual.

• A team is a forum for individual contribution to an aggregate goal.

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A Statement About Teamwork continued . . .

• Most managers fail to understand the concept of a team as a work in progress.

• They expect to have a disjointed group of people with differing agendas suddenly perform as a cohesive unit.

• It is integral to the entire program, not just to its beginning stages.

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A Statement About Teamwork continued . . .

• Teamwork doesn’t happen naturally. Groups are comprised of people who often have differing agendas and different perceptions of urgency.

• The manager must convert the energy of the individuals into directed energy focused on group progress—a very difficult task.

• The key to achieving this goal is to foster group progress with individual recognition and group rewards.

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A Statement About Teamwork continued . . .

• The leader of the group must be respected by the group, not solely for technical capability but also by virtue of being the guiding force in prosecuting the development.

• The leader must provide the tools, the resources, and the uninterrupted time to allow progress to occur.

• The leader must verify that the progress made is appropriate to the initial objective and also ensure that the original objective is still valid.

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A Statement About Teamwork continued . . .

• The group leader must foster enthusiasm, provide continuity during trying times, and protect the momentum of progress toward development.

• If you are the leader of a development group, you hold the primary responsibility for success or failure of the group.

• It is in your best interests to understand the dynamics of a group of people and to become proficient at managing them toward a goal.

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Identifying The Requirements

Identify the resources• What are the resources required to initiate and

complete the program? • What is the mix of internal and external expertise

that will be needed? • What are the capital resources needed, and

when will they be required? • Is there a learning curve for the capital

equipment? • All of these essentials must be sequenced and

coordinated.

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Identifying The Requirements continued . . .

Planning the requirements• Alterations in corporate finance philosophy

have forced changes in the procurement of equipment and resources.

• Without external controls, most managers probably would spend all their capital expenditures in the first quarter.

• There is a natural tendency to gather the resources even before they are needed in order to ensure availability.

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Identifying The Requirements continued . . .

• In the ideal situation, not all the resources are required on day one of a program.

• In fact, however, they need to be scheduled to minimize financial impact and to allow the corporation and the team to absorb them and use them effectively.

• To the extent that the company can make a commitment and see it through, then, plan and execute the resource procurement accordingly.

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Organize The PERT/CPM Chart

• Break the project down into its component stages and identify the subtasks for each stage.

• Each task will require personnel resources and, possibly, equipment resources.

• Note the requirements for each type of resource under the task. Figure 6-1

• The next step is to graph the manpower and resource requirements during the run of the development.

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Review Process Questions For Planning

There are several planning questions that

must be considered as part of the process

of identifying resources. A. Write the planning statement.• What is the desired result or outcome? Be very

specific.• What are the measurements of success? • What do we want to accomplish? Who, What,

When, Where, How, and Why?

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Review Process Questions For Planning continued . . .

B. List the action steps in the plan,

identify timing, and assign responsibility.

• Develop the chronological list of action steps to be accomplished. Who is accountable for each task, and what is the realistic starting and ending time for each task?

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Review Process Questions For Planning continued . . .

C. Review each step in the plan and

identify the critical areas.

D. Identify and list likely causes of key

potential problems.

• What are the specific influences or events that can cause these potential problems?

• Test each problem listed, to determine whether it represents a cause-and-effect relationship with the corresponding potential problem.

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Review Process Questions For Planning continued . . .

E. Develop preventative and facilitative actions.• What can be done to prevent each likely

problem from occurring? What action should be taken now to facilitate the opportunity or to prevent the obstacle that could stand in the way of the opportunity?

F. Design contingent actions.• What contingent actions should be planned for

each potential problem so as to minimize the impact? If the potential problem occurs in spite of preventative action, what must be done to mitigate the circumstances?

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Assembling The Team Members

• 1. Canvassing and interviewing team members

• The technique of putting a team together to suit the needs of a program is an acquired skill.

• It takes several years of operating in a team environment to understand the potential pitfalls and the ingredients for success.

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Assembling The Team Members continued . . .

• To assess accurately a potential team member’s ability to execute a program, you need to conduct performance-based interviewing.

• Performance-based interviewing is the interviewing technique whereby the candidate is given the opportunity to draw parallels between his or her past accomplishments and the proposed program for which he or she is interviewing.

• It focuses on specific skill set requirements of the position and looks for those skills demonstrated in the candidate’s previous work.

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Makeup Of The Team

• The makeup of the team is critical to the team’s success.

• Certain personalities can enhance success or contribute to failure.

• Members with exceptionally strong personalities can undermine the team leader.

• The selection and complexion of a team must be geared toward the program at hand.

• Each team needs a blend of creative people and pure implementers. There should be individuals with enthusiasm and also naysayers.

• Each type complements the other to create balance in the decision-making process.

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Aligning The Team

• The alignment of the team is crucial to get off to a productive start; however, teams do not arrive in place and aligned.

• In fact, all teams when first assembled are disjointed, fragmented, and somewhat ineffective.

• They are a loose collection of people with differing goals, agendas, biases, and allegiances.

• In some cases, several projects might be required to cement the team together.

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Model For Program Management

• The management of a program is an interdisciplinary, widely diverse activity.

• There are issues to manage that range from creative specifications to communication and security (both internal and external). Figure 6-6.

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Model For Program Management continued . . .

The overall project is comprised of six basic stages1. Market assessment and internal assessment

The first stage is the assessment phase, which involves internal introspection of company and direction and an external look at product opportunities.

2. PrototypingThe next stage is the prototyping stage. It leads to the physical

embodiment of a product concept as a startingpoint.

3. Core development and testingThe third stage is the core development of the product. This is the stage in

which the product is developed andtesting takes place.

4. Industrialization– Next is the industrialization stage where the product is made

manufacturable and the manufacturing processes are developed

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Model For Program Management continued . . .

5. Commercialization– The fifth stage is the commercialization stage where the product

is rolled out to the marketplace and units are placed in the hands of consumers.

6. Optimization

– The final stage is the optimization stage, when feedback and improvements are incorporated.

Throughout the entire program, each stage has all therequired deliverables, finance, and managerial approvalsfor proceeding to the next stage. Program management isthe coordination and the execution of all of these tasks inan effective and timely manner.

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Internal, External, And Combination Resource Management

• Not all of the resources to be managed are internal to the organization. Besides vendors and advice gathered from others, there could be an arrangement by which outside resources are required because they are not available within the constraints of the company.

• In such cases, there must be a contractual means for obtaining the resources.

• The program manager must have the power to effect results for the program.

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Managing Uncertainty In A Program

• Oxymoron is the term that first comes to mind when referring to the management of uncertainty.

• By its very nature, uncertainty is “uncertain” in terms of degree, duration, severity, and extent. To suggest that it can be managed in some deterministic, scientific manner is somewhat naïve.

• The idea is to mitigate the impact of uncertainty and all that it brings with it.

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Follow-up System

• With any program, there is an enormous number of details associated with specific tasks, and these details require follow-up.

• So numerous are these details that it would be impossible to schedule all of them on PERT or CPM

• Items such as scenario development, “what if” investigations, logic and schedule manipulations, all require follow-up.

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Follow-up System continued . . .

To best keep track of these details, implement an action item follow-upsystem. Regardless of which method is used, be sure that the selectedsystem includes thefollowing components:_ Item number_ Description_ Action required_ Assignment date_ Responsibility_ Completion date_ Running status

• An example of a format for a follow-up system is shown in Figure 6-9.

• To be effective, this needs to be managed every day.

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Set Up A Good, Accurate, Easy-to-use Reporting System

• Program management is not about sophisticated management reporting systems; it’s about getting results.

• Set up a management reporting system that is easy to use and effective at communicating essential information.

• Make it specific enough to be accurate and have depth. Make it general enough for a senior management overview.

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Lay Out The Program In Detail

Begin by laying out the project in total. Startingwith stage 0, include the following list in detail.Figure 6-10. 1. Funding• This is the stage’s financing package. Detail the

budgeted expenses and allocate them to tasks, performance, and deliverables. In this way you will have a good idea what the deliverables are costing the project.

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Lay Out The Program continued . . .

2. Logic• Lay out the project in PERT or CPM or Gantt (bar) chart

format showing interconnected tasks and milestones.• Take care to identify the connective logic.3. Timing• Lay in estimated times for each activity and task. The use of

development personnel’s estimates is the best choice here. 4. Resources• Identify the required resources, and schedule them on the

timeline.5. Equipment• Identify all of the capital and expense equipment required for

the project. Specify dates on the timeline when they will be required, and also factor in training time if it is required.

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Lay Out The Program continued . . .

6. Technology• List and schedule the technological

requirements for the project. Make sure to include collateral requirements to integrate the technology into the company.

• Allow time for absorption of the technology by the team members.

7. Deliverables• Schedule and lay in the list of deliverables for

the stage. This is the strict list of deliverables that must be completed in order to consider the task of the stage complete.

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Lay Out The Program continued . . .

8. Prequalifications• State clearly on the schedule (now

multidimensional) the prequalifications needed for the next stage that must be tended to now.

• An example of this type would be to start campaigning for funds needed for stage 3 during stage 2. Another example is the recruitment of talent required in the future, so that personnel are in place and functional when they are required.

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Development Time Management And Engineering Log

• The next area for consideration is the development time and engineering log.

• Development engineers’ time is used in many ways, even when they are assigned to a specific program.

• There is always danger of misallocation of time to nondevelopment activities.

• An example of a time reporting system is shown in Figure 6-11.

• Through the tracking log, the nondevelopment time can be accounted for.

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Regular Status Meetings

• The use of regular status review meetings is beneficial to maintaining the program on track. The status meeting accomplishes several things:

_ It establishes consistency in progress assessment._ It establishes accountability for the individual team

members._ It assists in identifying upcoming issues._ It provides a forum for discussion on resolving problems._ It focuses attention on critical path tasks.• Depending on the type of development project and the

group’s level of experience, the optimum time for these review sessions can range from every week to every two weeks.

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Product Maintenance Versus Development

• The issue of product maintenance versus development is an interesting one.

• As the product ages, there will be changes to the product driven by external factors to the organization.

• The support of these changes is referred to as product maintenance.

• As more products are added to the portfolio, the demand for development engineers’ time begins to grow. Figure 6-12a

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Periodic Management Reports: A Model

For objective communication of product developmentprogress the use of a standardized management report isessential. There are three sections that comprise the report, namely:A. Product Status Report• The product status report is a short synopsis of the

progress toward achieving functionality of the product and other specification items such as performance, size, form, and fit.

• The entire functional specification should be outlined in a tabular format, with check marks for parameter achievement. Also in this section of the report, the original target manufacturing cost is compared with current estimated projections.

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Periodic Management Reports continued . . .

B. Project Status Report

• The project status report summarizes the investment and exposure of the company in funding the program and compares the sunken investment to the total and remaining investments.

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Periodic Management Reports continued . . .

• C. General Business Condition

• Finally, the general business condition report gives senior management an idea of the outlook of the business in terms of forecast sales, incoming order rate, shipments, and profitability. Figure 6-13.

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Summary

• This chapter is a transitional chapter. It describes the point in the development program at which planning gives precedence to execution. Once the starting point is established, the balance of the effort is in producing tangible results.

• In this chapter, we reviewed several of the elements that comprise the formulation of the development team and the tools for making them effective.

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Summary continued . . .

• Mentoring and apprenticeship are more important than ever before as we move forward in new product development.

• Management of the group was also discussed, with respect to generating the results effectively.

• Tools for tracking and managing the time of the group were presented.

• An important element in developing a product is to organize and lay out the project in total.