7.2 Lean Principles

Typical problems of traditional project management

People tend to apply (technical, popular, etc.) solutions instead of understanding the current situation and identifying the root causes
Unexpected and sudden events (changes) during the project are typical and cannot be predicted:

Inappropriate application of project management methods
Project board, managers, teams and members focus exclusively on the deliverable(s) and miss the process improvement opportunities and the complete understanding of problems and processes that in turn generates significant risks for the project and its failure

Figure 7.1: Root cause analysis of typical project failures (5 Why)

Consider the three constraints of project management: time, scope, cost
We learned during the first chapter that if we change one constraint it will affect at least another one
Moreover, we have to choose: only two of the three constraint can be optimized, the third one will suffer

Applying Lean principles in project management

At this point can Lean principles help significantly:
- By reducing the overall time spent on the project (e.g. with the usage of value stream mapping) the other two constraints can be freely optimized and developed without any time delay
- By applying rapid iterative cycles (PDCA): value is generated early and continuously not only at the end; one cycle focuses on specific and tangible parts: less ongoing work results in easier and clear management
The most critical element from a Lean point of view beyond the triple constraint is:

“effective team engagement in root cause analysis and iterative problem solving”
Without team engagement appropriately planned projects (in terms of cost, time and scope) will fail
With team engagement badly planned projects have significant chance to succeed

Excessive project administration, reporting and documentation
Length and unproductive status meetings
Never referenced, used or applied documentations
Weekly status reports (which are usually not read by management except if problems appear)
Artificial separation of functionally different groups (communication and information frozen at higher levels)

Traditional project management states that if you can’t define the project goals and objectives clearly then your project will fail (“plan to fail”)

In Lean point of view it means dealing with symptoms instead of root causes
The first steps should be to examine the problem and identify the root causes in an iterative manner
Still, a first plan is absolutely needed but it should not be too detailed and considered as a “fix” plan: it is not completely predefined but expected to change and be improved during discovery of root causes
Traditional project management: do the right things, do the things right
Lean agrees but extends it: do the right thing at the right time

You should create value on daily bases not only complete your daily tasks: deliver value instead of delivering features

Reinterpreting the project management stages with the help of PDCA

Can be matched to the Plan stage of PDCA
It could be micro/fast preliminary PDCA cycles to initiate the project
Identify and validate customer needs and requirements iteratively through the whole project, not only this stage: customers can validate the understanding and refine the needs continuously
Involve not only the project manager and some others but the whole team to reach a common understanding
Meeting room is not the best place to discuss customer’s needs: perform gemba (actual/real place) walking regularly during the whole project, observing the customers/users

Corresponds to the Plan stage of PDCA
Significant amount of the project’s time should be invested into planning (analysis, understanding what is the value, etc.), while the others (Do, Check, Act) should share the rest.
Plan in short iterations with limited scope
Value Stream Mapping is applied at this stage
Set up countermeasures, baselines

Delivery and acceptance of the results by the user/customer
Traditional project management collects the lessons learned in the project
Lean prescribes continuous and iterative learning during the whole project and use it in the next (micro-)PDCA iteration

Figure 7.2: Lean Project Management with PDCA:
First lines show traditional steps, second lines show PDCA steps

Summary:

Traditional project management and Lean PDCA-based project management can be easily mapped.
The major difference is what to do at a given step and how to do it.

One difference is the iteration frequency, i.e. PDCA cycles are typically more frequent than Planning-Executing-Monitoring&Controlling traditional cycles to achieve rapid learning. It is especially good for uncertain projects.
Another difference is in decision making: Monitor and Control is the responsibility of managers, while Check and Act is the responsibility of all affected workers, participants.