Six Sigma is one of the most recognized methodologies for the continuous improvement of business processes quality. Its philosophy is based primarily on a genuine customer focus and the use of facts and data to generate creative solutions to process improvement areas.
Generally, improvement creates not only dramatic reductions of cost but also greater opportunities to retain customers, capture new markets and create a reputation for offering high quality services and products.
This white paper shows how to achieve the goal proposed by this methodology, which requires major advances in all areas of business operation.
Iraima Alvarez Franco holds a degree in Industrial Engineering and a specialization in Process Engineering. She possess an extensive expertise and experience in Management Consulting that includes an outstanding exposure of consulting support to management, administrative and operational teams of the PDVSA - Petróleos de Venezuela SA - at Paraguaná Refinery Complex (second largest Oil Refinery in the world) in areas such as Strategic Planning, Leadership, Total Quality Management and Continuous Improvement, Process Reengineering, Balanced Scorecard, Change Management, Benchmarking, Project Management, Quality Assurance, and Team Building. She has successfully participated as a facilitator and change-agent in the implementation of new organizational structures and merging, in performance studies of PDVSA’s domestic refining circuit and in the knowledge networking of PDVSA Refining and Commerce Department. Iraima’s experience in PDVSA also included the coordination of new petrochemical business developments (joint ventures) at Paraguaná Refinery Complex.
She is also a graduated from Dr. Michael Hammer’s Center for Reengineering Leadership (Boston, USA) and has received numerous specialized training courses from international recognized institutes as Covey Leadership Center, Bureau Veritas, University of Texas and the American Society of Quality (ASQ).
Iraima is an avid advocate of social entrepreneurship; she has volunteered for numerous non-profit organizations where she can use her experience and expertise to help them to make a difference and serves as a mentor for entrepreneur and professional women. She is also a columnist for Management and Entrepreneurship in various Hispanic printed media; her goal is to promote the culture of excellence among entrepreneurs and professionals.
One of the most important decisions for any business, project or individual is how much risk to take. The phrase “risk appetite” is often used to describe the level of acceptable risk, but there is no accepted definition for this term. In seeking to answer the “How much risk…?” question, this paper considers a range of risk terms, showing how they relate to one another. This reveals that two risk-related factors are particularly influential when individuals or organisations decide how much risk can be taken in a risky and important situation. These two key factors are risk appetite and risk attitude, which have central and complementary roles. Putting both risk appetite and risk attitude together into a single framework provides a practical approach that enables individuals and organisations to take the right risks safely.
Known globally as The Risk Doctor, Dr. David Hillson is an award-winning thought-leader and expert practitioner who consults and writes widely on risk management. His ground-breaking work in project risk management was recognised by honorary fellowships from both the Association for Project Management (APM) and the Project Management Institute (PMI®). He was also named “Risk Personality of the Year” in 2010-11. David is an active Fellow of the Institute of Risk Management (IRM), and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) to contribute to its Risk Commission. He is also a Chartered Fellow with the Chartered Management Institute (CMI). He can be reached at www.risk-doctor.com
Since its revision in the year 2000, the ISO 9001 standard for Quality Management Systems has placed a significant emphasis on “Measurement, Analysis and Improvement”. This emphasis (like many other elements of the Standard) reflects the growing maturity of quality management experience around the world. There is a strong trend amongst the better companies towards the integration of the quality system and the management system. The resulting “Business Model” is firmly based on the collection and analysis of appropriate metrics in significant areas of the company’s activities. In this article we explore the opportunities and challenges involved in using the ISO 9001 standard as a framework for implementing an effective metric management system.
Rody Ryan established Goldcert Management Systems Ltd. in 1999 to provide training and consultancy on best practice in the design, implementation, maintenance and improvement of documented management systems. He has wide international experience in helping organizations overcome the phenomenon of “compliance fatigue” and is currently writing a book on the subject. With a strong background in modelling systems, he was a Lead Assessor and trainer at the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) from 1993 to 1999. He has lectured at Trinity College Dublin, the Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, ITESO University in Guadalajara, Mexico and Externado University in Bogotá, Colombia. He is a member of Ireland’s national committees which liaise with ISO on the development of new and revised standards for Quality Management Systems and Social Responsibility.
Performance Appraisal, Individual Performance Review, Personal Performance Development Plan. There are numerous names for this artifact of the post-1990's organisation, but they are names for basically the same concept: the measurement, review, evaluation and management of the performance of an employee. .
In this White Paper, Stacey Barr describes why measuring individual people's performance is one of the most contentious management processes of all.
Stacey Barr is a specialist in performance measurement, helping people to move their business or organisation’s performance from where it is, to where they want it to be. Sign up for Stacey’s free email newsletter at www.staceybarr.com to receive your complimentary copy of her e-book “202 Tips for Performance Measurement”.
The future asset, maintenance and reliability success of a business is mostly decided in the Boardroom. People at the top of a company deeply influence enterprise asset performance. Company Boards make good asset management and maintenance choices by setting life cycle strategies and policies that reduce risk of operating equipment failure. Little can be done to correct bad asset maintenance strategy and policy once a business is in operation except to throw them out and start again. In this article, Mike Sondaline shows with good examples the importance to maintain the CEO involved on corporate asset management policy.
With more than 35 years of experience, Mike Sondalini is a consultant and trainer in Industrial Asset Management, Maintenance Management, Quality Management Systems and Lean Manufacturing. His career extends across original equipment manufacturing, beverage production, steel fabrication, industrial chemical manufacturing, quality management, project management, industrial asset management and industrial training. Mike has authored numerous maintenance and industrial asset management publications. He is a past Chairman of the Western Australia Chapter of the Maintenance Engineering Society of Australia and is a confident and exciting presenter at Australian and international conferences and workshops. His professional qualifications include B Eng (Hons), MBA and Chartered Professional Engineer.
The International Organization for Standardization released a new standard in the autumn of 2003. Referred to as the, “ISO 10006:2003, Guidelines for Quality Management in Projects”, it is creating the next wave in our understanding of the management of projects and is of benefit to consider when planning projects. This article intends to compare the two guidelines as follows and provide an interpretation for successful planning of projects.
As President and CEO of Business Improvement Architects, Michael works with executives and senior managers around the world to help them improve operational effectiveness through strategic planning, leadership development, project management and quality management. He has been instrumental in helping his clients reduce waste and increase efficiencies and profits with his clear processes and quality approach. For more information about this article, please contact bia™ at info@bia.ca. Michael Stanleigh is author of the global report: “2010 PMO Global Study: How a Project Management Office Can Improve Organizational Effectiveness”. For more information about this report, please contact bia™ at info@bia.ca.
What is the difference between Internal Auditing and Risk-Based Internal Auditing? Mrs. Vacca believes that is not the question to be answered. Effective audit and monitoring activities will assist in the identification of weaknesses in controls, management’s action to correct those weaknesses, and follow-up to ensure that timely mechanisms have been put in place to strengthen controls for mitigating the business risks. Additionally, risks will be detected, deterred and/or prevented with effective auditing and monitoring activities.
According to Mrs. Vacca, effectiveness in the development and execution of the risk-based audit and monitoring plan will be determined by the integrity and characteristics of the overall audit and monitoring process. Read this article and improve your knowledge about the current best practices in Risk-Based Internal Auditing, or simply Internal Auditing.
Sheryl Vacca is the senior vice president/chief compliance and audit officer at the University of California (UC). Previous to UC, she served as the West Coast practice leader and national lead for internal audit, life sciences and healthcare. She was also the vice president of internal audit and corporate compliance officer for a large healthcare system in northern California. Vacca has published and presented nationally in the fields of healthcare compliance and internal audit to professional organizations such as the Institute of Internal Auditors, Health Care Compliance Association, Healthcare Financial Management Association, and the Practising Law Institute.
Experienced project managers dedicate 75% to 90% of their time to communication management. They acknowledge the importance of this issue and know that effective communication is an important factor for project success. Since the early stages of planning to the final stages of project closing, communication is crucial to align expectations and to keep all stakeholders informed about work progress, and also serves as the basis for important decisions that often need to be taken to ensure project success. This article details the importance of communication as a critical success factor in project management, describes key challenges and barriers to successful communication, and introduces techniques that assist and facilitate communication management in projects of any kind.
Market and Product Manager at SoftExpert for PPM / HDM solutions, Adalberto Pupp has over 27 years of experience in IT working for major companies of the segment as a Systems Analyst, Business Analyst, Development Manager, Support Manager and Processes Manager. He was also involved in the implementation, structuring and development of company management systems projects. Adalberto is presently working for the management excellence software industry and has a degree in Company Management Systems Consulting from UDESC/SC and can be contacted using the following e-mail: adalberto.pupp@softexpert.com.
Why measure process performance? Because, if you don’t, all of your process analysis and management efforts are a waste of time, you don’t have control over the things that really matter, and organizational decision-making can only be suboptimal.
Business processes are the way an organization delivers value to its customers. On that basis alone, the argument for measuring process performance is easily made. Are we delivering value to customers in a way that impresses them and is sustainable for us?
In this White Paper, Roger Tregear details the importance, benefits, roles of stakeholders, and gives an overview of how to implement a consistent methodology for measuring processes in your organization.
Roger Tregear is the Manager of Education and Manager of Leonardo International in the Leonardo Consulting team. Roger began his involvement with design and management of business processes, information, technology and communications 32 years ago. He spends his working life talking, consulting, thinking and writing about analysis, improvement and management of business processes. Often working as a "thinking partner" and mentor, he provides business process and problem analysis consulting services. Roger is one of a handful of people accredited as a global BPTrends Instructor and has delivered courses in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE, UK, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. A frequent writer on BPM topics, Roger is a regular BPTrends columnist and has contributed a chapter to the book, The International Handbook of BPM (Springer 2010). He is also the author of the book Establishing the Office of Business Process Management.
By definition Enterprise asset management (EAM) means the whole life optimal management of the physical assets of an organization to maximize value. It covers such things as the design, construction, commissioning, operations, maintenance and decommissioning/replacement of plant, equipment and facilities. "Enterprise" refers to the management of the assets across departments, locations, facilities and, in some cases, business units. Additional definitions and categories of assets covered by the scope of this discipline include: information, finance, competence and other intangibles insofar as they relate to asset management decisions. In this article, Mike Sondaline shows a brief and simple point of view about EAM and the principal interfaces for successful physical asset management.
With more than 35 years of experience, Mike Sondalini is a consultant and trainer in Industrial Asset Management, Maintenance Management, Quality Management Systems and Lean Manufacturing. His career extends across original equipment manufacturing, beverage production, steel fabrication, industrial chemical manufacturing, quality management, project management, industrial asset management and industrial training. Mike has authored numerous maintenance and industrial asset management publications. He is a past Chairman of the Western Australia Chapter of the Maintenance Engineering Society of Australia and is a confident and exciting presenter at Australian and international conferences and workshops. His professional qualifications include B Eng (Hons), MBA and Chartered Professional Engineer.
‘ISO 26000 – Guidance for Social Responsibility’, is the first ISO international social standard. Some see it as an unrivalled revolution designed to frame the activities of market and non-market players in society, in a determined step towards sustainable development. Others see it rather more as a game of deceit, in terms of the confusion established between legal responsibility and social responsibility. In this white-paper, Isabele Schöman discusses the aspects of ISO 26000 and helps us understand the purposes and limitations of this standard.
Isabele Schöman is a Senior Researcher in compared labour law and European social legislation at the European Trade Union Institute, Bélgica (http://www.etui.org).
The traditional view that has predominated in the industrial world has been that of a total clash between economic activity and the protection of the environment. This perception has evolved somewhat and currently environmental considerations have become a fundamental part of business practices. The first step that may help organizations to face these new challenges lies in recognizing the competitive advantages that environmental management systems, EMSs, can bring. This article presents the findings of a recent survey of Spanish firms. The results suggest that a positive relationship exists between the effects of EMSs and improving firms’ competitiveness.
Dr Gerusa Giménez (corresponding author) is Assistant Professor of Environmental, Quality and Production Management at the University of Girona, Spain; Dr Martí Casadesús is Assistant Professor of Quality and Production Management at the University of Girona, Spain and Dr Jaume Valls is Professor of Business Administration, also at the University of Girona, Spain.
Businesses from all links in the food chain are increasingly challenged to implement a structured food safety management system (FSMS) that is incorporated into the overall management activities of the organization. This challenge comes from the requirement to comply with a growing number of regulations, as well as pressure from customers and the ethical obligation to protect consumers from illness and injury by providing safe food. Many business owners understand this and want to get started, but a newcomer can easily get lost in the plethora of standards, regulations, and requirements —and overwhelmed to the point of inactivity. But implementing an FSMS need not be so daunting, as you’ll see in this article.
Does competency based approach at workforce performance management really work? This is a question that arises in many organizations when they figure that their talent management system does not really live up to their expectations. Organizations are becoming more interested in management and appraisal of competence - the “how” of performance. They are seeking more qualitative assessment, oriented to the future and focused on development. This white paper will discuss aspects of competency-based performance management and help your organization to bring a different perspective to performance management capabilities.
Ed Cripe has over thirty years of experience in organization development, training, executive coaching, performance management, competency systems, service and quality improvement, human resources and management consulting. His experience includes positions as President of Workitect, Inc., Director of the Institute of Entrepreneurship and Executive Education for Nova Southeastern University; President of Merit Performance, Inc.; Senior Consultant with Kaset International (Achieve Global); Principal of McBer & Company/Hay Group; Group Director, Training and Organization Development and Quality and Director, Customer Focus Center with Ryder System, Inc.; Corporate Director, Shared Services and Corporate Director, Training and Organization Development of Bendix Corporation (Allied Signal); Corporate Director, Recruitment and HR Director with Carborundum Company; and Presidential Exchange Executive, National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Ed received his undergraduate degree in business from the University of Toledo, an M.B.A. degree from Indiana University and has completed doctoral level courses at the University of Michigan plus the Program for Specialists in Organization Development at the NTL Institute. He has developed and facilitated numerous training programs, including Building Competency Models, Enhancing Employee Value, Attracting and Retaining Talent, EXTEND Consulting Skills, Managing Performance – With Competence and The Competent Leader. He is the co-developer of the FOCUS Coaching program and author of “Competency Planner: a Resource Guide for Developing Competencies", and "The Value-Added Employee" (Butterworth-Heinemann) released in 1999. Ed's clients have included companies in a wide range of manufacturing and service industries, including Cable and Wireless, ConAgra, Nortel, American National Can, the Limited, ICL-Fujitsu, NCR, Ford, NYU Medical Center, Pacific Gas & Electric, Ashland Oil, DaimlerChrysler Services, Bessemer Trust, GMAC-RFC and CIGNA Dental Health.
The biggest impediments to an effective project risk management are: the inappropriate definition and quantification of risks, and ineffective mitigating strategies due to the lack of documentation about their effectiveness.
In addition, the risks are something so nebulous that, if they occur, they will not be welcome. Because of their confusing nature, many people find them difficult to effectively manage.
This white paper presents a number of techniques that will help Project and Risk Managers to make project risks less nebulous in order to effectively manage them.
Mr. Mayo is a PMI certified Project Management Professional (PMP), PMI certified Risk Management Professional (RMP), and Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC) by the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA). Mr. Mayo’s career has spanned more than 27 years and includes 13 years of hands-on software development and 16 years of Project and Program Management. Mr. Mayo has spent 17 of the past 27 years as a consultant for a number of companies including CSC, Keane, ManTech International, and NTT DATA. Mr. Mayo has conducted more than 60 IT project assessments with emphasis on PMBOK compliant project and risk management processes. Mr. Mayo holds a BS/IT degree and a Masters in Information Systems from the University of Phoenix. Career highlights include: Managed the end-to-end assessment of an Enterprise application in less than 50 days. The assessment identified 27 risk areas and 13 categories of improvement opportunities with a total of 1,463 unique findings. Program Manager for #7 of InfoWorld’s Top100 IT Projects of 2006. Developed PMO governance, the collaboration workspace, and Executive level dashboards to divest a $20 billion International conglomerate. Program Manager for the Air Force Supply Modernization. Utilized the Rational Unified Process (RUP) and the Evolutionary Process for Integrating COTS (EPIC) to deliver new capability that dramatically improved the efficiency of the Air Force supply chain resulting in a ROI calculated at 6:1 in the first 12 months alone. Mr. Mayo can be contacted via e-mail at jwmayo@north-country.net.
Organization´s leaders face many complicated questions each day. How can they maximize their organization's profits without sacrificing superior customer care? How can they increase customer and employee satisfaction? How can they recruit and retain talented professionals? How can they meet regulatory demands effectively? How can they make sure the goals of the organization are realized by everyone in the organization?
Most organizations rely on the execution of manual, human-centric processes when delivering the majority of their products and services to customers. SoftExpert Suite simplifies and standardizes excellence and compliance management processes with an industry-specific automated solution. By eliminating inefficient manual processes, SoftExpert Suite helps organizations improve productivity and lower costs.
Is there a ‘Stairway to Asset Management Heaven’? Since the late 1980s maintenance and asset management managers and consultants have used the DuPont Chemicals ‘Stable Domain’ asset management model to describe the steps to world-class operational performance.
From its beginning companies and consultants made the incredible presumption that it is right and tried to use it to improve business performance. But is this correct?
In this article, Mike will tell us that the model’s veracity is scrutinised. It does not work for all situations and so is not a model to heartily follow but a theory to deeply question.
With more than 35 years of experience, Mike Sondalini is a consultant and trainer in Industrial Asset Management, Maintenance Management, Quality Management Systems and Lean Manufacturing. His career extends across original equipment manufacturing, beverage production, steel fabrication, industrial chemical manufacturing, quality management, project management, industrial asset management and industrial training. Mike has authored numerous maintenance and industrial asset management publications. He is a past Chairman of the Western Australia Chapter of the Maintenance Engineering Society of Australia and is a confident and exciting presenter at Australian and international conferences and workshops. His professional qualifications include B Eng (Hons), MBA and Chartered Professional Engineer.
The issues and interests surrounding process-based business change have become significant for information professionals and business stakeholders alike.
Therefore, this article provides a broad review of an introduction to the topic, covering the reasons why a business process perspective is almost unavoidable, looking at a framework for managing business/process change as well as how it fits with information management practices.
Roger Burlton is the founder and Chair of the Process Renewal Group, a management consulting and training consortium committed to helping organizations manage change and improve performance through the renewal of business processes and the innovative application of technology. He has worked as a practitioner in Industrial Engineering, Information Technology, and Strategic Planning. He has authored papers and methodologies in Prototyping and Rapid Applications Development, Project Management, BPR and Process Modeling. He can usually be found somewhere in the world, teaching, coaching or leading business and change programs. Currently, he is involved with the automation of the Process Renewal Group’s offerings. His book entitled “Business Process Management: Profiting from Process” was released in May 2001.
He can be reached at Process Renewal Group, 2901 Paul Lake Ct., Coquitlam, BC, Canada V3C 6A3; (604) 945-7352; Fax (604) 941-6975; E-Mail rburlton@processrenewal.com; web site www.processrenewal.com
The governance issue is a well-known topic today, but in practice, the desired changes are not so easy to obtain. How can the organization ensure that the data stewards adopt the new data governance policies and processes? This article presents three components, that when applied together, help activate people to adopt data governance: awareness, ownership and accountability.
As Founder and Managing Partner of First San Francisco Partners, Kelle O’Neal manages specialist data governance and data management consulting services to complex organizations that deliver faster time-to-results. Kelle can be reached at kelle@firstsanfranciscopartners.com or through the First San Francisco Partners website (www.firstsanfranciscopartners.com).
Enterprise wide large scale process modeling initiatives are becoming increasingly common among enterprises in all industry domains. Since such initiatives are operationally cumbersome, it becomes essential to assess the maturity and implementation of enterprise wide process modeling program on a regular basis.
Though there are numerous research reports relating to maturity assessment for business process management (BPM) initiatives, there is very little published relating to the assessment of enterprise wide process modeling initiatives.
This article attempts to propose a practitioner’s toolkit for assessment of enterprise wide process modeling initiatives using the seven basic components of CEProM framework namely motivation, governance, architecture definition and modeling, tool administration, library management, stakeholder management and stakeholder training.
Eswar Ganesan is a Business Architecture Consultant with Infosys Technologies Limited. Eswar has consulted clients across the globe in engagements related to business/process architecture and requirements engineering and has 5+ years of experience in Business/IT Consulting. His core research interest is in the subject of Enterprise Business Architecture (EBA). His other areas of interest include process modeling, process analysis and industrial B2B research. He has developed Composite Enterprise Business Architecture (CEBA) methodology, a practical approach for EBA and has multiple research publications to his credit. The author can be reached at eswar_ganesan@infosys.com and e.ganesan@gmail.com.
To achieve due diligence, environmental considerations must be thoroughly integrated throughout an organization's management and operations. Implementing an environmental management system (EMS) is one way to achieve this integration. However, having an EMS does not guarantee regulatory compliance or a successful due diligence defense to a prosecution. Moreover, a poorly designed or maintained EMS has significant downside potential. This article describes benefits and limitations of EMS, and debunks some common misconceptions.
P. Douglas Petrie is a partner in the Toronto office of the environmental law firm of Willms & Shier. He provides environmental management advice and defense counsel to manufacturers and municipalities. His book, Storage Tanks In Ontario: The Guide To Environmental Regulation and Compliance, was recently published by Templegate Information Services, publisher of Canadian Environmental Regulation and Compliance News. Petrie is a member of the A&WMA Ontario Section Board of Directors.
Help Desks often face a barrage of complaints that typically include:
"I had to describe the problem to more than one person before it was solved."
"Sometimes I received rapid service and sometimes it took way too long.”
"Before I could speak to a human being, I had to go through a long and tedious (interactive voice response) menu."
Lean Six Sigma can help overcome these issues through the use of an efficient, effective process to review and improve Help Desk functions.
This article will explain how to identify and eliminate non-value-added activities from the Help Desk processes and describes what is necessary, at the organizational level, to ensure a successful Lean Help Desk implementation.
About the author Nari Kannan is CEO at appsparq, Inc., a Louisville, KY based company specializing in Mobile Experience Design and Development with branches in Singapore and India. He has more than 25 years of experience in information technology. He started out as a senior software engineer at Digital Equipment Corporation. Mr. Kannan has since served variously as vice president of engineering or chief technology officer of five Silicon Valley start-ups. Bootstrapped and built Ajira Technologies, Inc., a software products company that designed and developed Business Analytics Software. He Bootstrapped and built Zelos technologies, Inc., a software development outsourcing company developing software on contract. M.S. Computer Science, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, M.B.A, B.Sc. Physics, University of Madras, India. He can be reached at nari@appsparq.com.
Many large work initiatives run as projects would be more successful if they were managed as programs. Such misdiagnosed projects include dimensions of size, complexity and duration that challenge the project perspective and lead to a higher likelihood of failure.
This paper makes the case that program management has a very specific set of principles, processes and best practices. Even the skills required to manage programs are quite different than those required to manage projects. Therefore, adopting an appropriate program management methodology would improve the success rate for many of these ”projects.”
About the author Lynne Hambleton, co-founder of Magee Management Advisors, LLC, specializes in strategic process improvement planning, execution and change management for organizations. Hambleton guides businesses through transformations and new offering commercialization, drawing upon a variety of approaches and competencies. Publications include Treasure Chest of Six Sigma Growth Methods, Tools & Best Practice, and Six Sigma in Marketing Processes - An Overview for Executives, Leaders and Marketing Managers, both with Prentice-Hall.
Program management is project management on steroids. There is some truth in this statement from an executive. The roles and skills required of program managers far exceed those of the project manager. The role of a program manager is oriented toward business success, while the role of a project manager is more on execution within time, cost, and specifications.
See how this paper will help you become a better program manager by requiring you to be a more holistic general manager, building such skills as team building and collaboration along with basic process skills such as time, cost, metrics, risk, and cross-project integration and governance.
About the author Cliff Gray, DBA, Professor Emeritus from Oregon State University, has long been a project management advocate. Cliff taught undergraduate, graduate, and executive development classes. He wrote numerous researches and applied management papers and served as a project management consultant to large and small industries. He has published three project management texts. The latest book is Project Management: The Managerial Process 5th edition, is co-authored with Erik Larson of Oregon State University and is printed in five languages. This text is a careful balance of the technical processes of project management and the socio-cultural environment in which managers operate. Cliff has been active in the PMI organization for decades; he was one of the founders of the Portland, Oregon, chapter. Cliff also headed a project research study (“International Comparison of Project Organization Structures: Use and Effectiveness”) for the International Journal of Project Management. Dr. Gray can be contacted at graymail2468@comcast.net.
Regarding the establishment of an organization’s strategic objectives, project managers usually do not get involved. However, there are cases where they can, and must get involved, for example in fully projectized organizations, and sometimes in organizations that provide project management services to external customers.
This paper argues that it is difficult to see how a portfolio manager could perform an effective job of selecting and prioritizing programs and projects without heavily involving the relevant project managers in these processes. This paper also discusses barriers to be overcome for this to become a rule.
About the author Alan Stretton is currently a member of the Faculty Corps of the University of Management and Technology, Arlington, Virginia, USA. In 2006 he retired from a position as Adjunct Professor of Project Management in the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), Australia, which he joined in 1988 to develop and deliver a Master of Project Management program. Prior to joining UTS, Mr. Stretton worked in the building and construction industries in Australia, New Zealand and the USA for some 38 years, which included the project management of construction, R&D, introduction of information and control systems, internal management education programs and organizational change projects. He has degrees in Civil Engineering (BE, Tasmania) and Mathematics (MA, Oxford), and an honorary PhD in strategy, programme and project management (ESC, Lille, France). Alan was Chairman of the Standards (PMBOK) Committee of the Project Management Institute from late 1989 to early 1992. He held a similar position with the Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM), and was elected a Life Fellow of AIPM in 1996. He was a member of the Core Working Group in the development of the Australian National Competency Standards for Project Management. He has published over 100 professional articles. Alan can be contacted at alanailene@bigpond.com.au.
Reliability is a philosophy that strives to achieve a
competitive advantage through enhanced asset
performance. This philosophy focuses on processes and
systems that reduce the overall cost to maintain and
operate new and existing assets and extend the life of
aging assets.
The primary problem of the asset reliability is to identify and manage risks that could adversely affect plant or business operations. One of the key decisions in any reliability management program is when to repair and when to replace a given asset.
In this article, Mike Sondaline shows a simple checklist of 31 simple maintenance management tips that you can use to improve your operation.
About the author With more than 35 years of experience, Mike Sondalini is a consultant and trainer in Industrial Asset Management, Maintenance Management, Quality Management Systems and Lean Manufacturing. His career extends across original equipment manufacturing, beverage production, steel fabrication, industrial chemical manufacturing, quality management, project management, industrial asset management and industrial training. Mike has authored numerous maintenance and industrial asset management publications. He is a past Chairman of the Western Australia Chapter of the Maintenance Engineering Society of Australia and is a confident and exciting presenter at Australian and international conferences and workshops. His professional qualifications include B Eng (Hons), MBA and Chartered Professional Engineer.
There has been an increased emphasis in corporate governance and its derivatives, IT governance and IT project governance, since several corporate scandals in the early 2000s. The importance of good governance is evident when one considers that organizations with above average governance earn higher returns on their Information Technology (IT) assets than those with little governance. This report focuses on governance of IT projects by using the recently published interim standard AS/NZS 8016(Int):2010 - Corporate Governance of Projects Involving Information Technology Investments as a reference to understand what is required of project governance and offers practitioners insights into formulating a system of governance.
About the author David Procak is committed to exploiting the synergies between the business, information, people and technology to create capabilities to meet company objectives. He has over 20 years of experience in IT in the manufacturing, banking and transportation industries and is nearing completion of a Masters in Technology in Enterprise Architecture. David is currently researching into the Enterprise Architecture perspective of the impacts of climate change in the transport industry and would be interested in any feedback (drprocak@gmail.com).
To get the most value from a business quality system, such as an ISO 9001 Quality Management System, you ought to intentionally make use of its capability to hold and distribute corporate knowledge, wise experience and hard won learning. This white-paper describes how your quality system could hold the best practices to apply, contain all your corporate knowledge, and be used to transfer correct information and right advice. This article will also help you to understand how to build your quality management system in order to provide all the right answers and behaviours you want your people and management to use.
About the author With more than 35 years of experience, Mike Sondalini is a consultant and trainer in Industrial Asset Management, Maintenance Management, Quality Management Systems and Lean Manufacturing. His career extends across original equipment manufacturing, beverage production, steel fabrication, industrial chemical manufacturing, quality management, project management, industrial asset management and industrial training. Mike has authored numerous maintenance and industrial asset management publications. He is a past Chairman of the Western Australia Chapter of the Maintenance Engineering Society of Australia and is a confident and exciting presenter at Australian and international conferences and workshops. His professional qualifications include B Eng (Hons), MBA and Chartered Professional Engineer.
Power at work is like power in a battery-more voltage, more impact. Yet, today, almost one-half of working professionals say they are dissatisfied with their jobs, according to a recent survey by consulting firm Accenture. Only 30 percent, however, have any plans to switch employers. The rest, seven out of ten, say they want to power up-increase their voltage-and pursue better opportunities in-house.
According to the author's research-a study of power and influence among leaders worldwide-there are 11 sources of power available to you at work, some stemming from your position in the company and others from your personal attributes and abilities. Here are five such power sources and, wherever you're at on the org chart, how to plug in and up your professional voltage.
Terry R. Bacon, Ph.D., is a Scholar in Residence at the Korn/Ferry Institute and the author of numerous books on leadership, management, and personal development. His new book is The Elements of Power: Lessons on Leadership and Influence (AMACOM, 2011). To learn more, see www.theelementsofpower.com or www.terryrbacon.com. Contact him at terry@terryrbacon.com.
To achieve business value and relevance, IT managers must understand the goals of the company, and then understand how IT activities can assist in realizing them. The objective is to have IT systems or services that contribute value to the enterprise and help attain those business outcomes deemed important by the business.
This can be satisfied by a Service Request Management process with the appropriate subject matter expertise to use the process, technology to accommodate it, and information to measure, manage, and report on it.
This white paper will help IT organizations develop a clear, well defined, responsive, and reliable Service Request Management Process to best meet customer needs.
Mr. Leopoldiis a Managing Business Consultant having more than 40 years experience in IT. For the past 30 years he has developed and delivered process, methods, and technology infrastructure consulting solutions for major organizations worldwide and specializes in ITIL and ITSM best practices. Rick is a certified ITIL V2 Service Manager and V3 Expert. Rick has held senior consulting positions at various global consulting organizations developing effective solutions to meet specific customer business requirements. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics from Lehman College in New York and a Master's degree in Business Administration from the University of Hartford in Connecticut. Until recently, Rick was a Business Consultant at HP and a Vice President, Executive Advisor at Computer Associates. He can be reached at RL_Consulting@ITSM.info
Reliability is a philosophy that strives to achieve a competitive advantage through enhanced asset performance. This philosophy focuses on processes and systems that reduce the overall cost to maintain and operate new and existing assets and extend the life of aging assets.
The primary problem of the asset reliability is to identify and manage risks that could adversely affect plant or business operations. One of the key decisions in any reliability management program is when to repair and when to replace a given asset.
In this article, Ricky Smith will tell us 10 things we can do today to improve reliability at our plants.
Ricky has over 30 years in maintenance management, maintenance engineer, maintenance training specialist, maintenance consultant and is a well known published author to include his latest book “Rules of Thumb for Maintenance and Reliability Engineers”. Currently, he works for GPAllied and helps companies to achieve operational and reliable excellence driven by sustainable transformation.
The conceptual journey on a TQM path is rather straightforward; but the TQM execution is quite difficult. At times the concepts appear so simple that one is unlikely to grasp the need for strategic choices to be made once the TQM conceptual journey is over.
Without leadership from the top, it is not possible to choose between two equally appealing options at the juncture point between TQM concepts and execution. This white paper briefly describes choices to be made on 15 critical issues at the juncture point along with recommendations for success on TQM implementation.
Dr. Hans Bajaria established Multiface, Inc., an engineering and management consulting firm, in Detroit in 1978. His global client base was interested in topics such as Six Sigma, ISO 9000, and Pareto analysis. Prior to Multiface, Dr. Bajaria was an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Lawrence Technological University in Michigan and also held engineering positions with major manufacturing companies. Dr. Bajaria also co-authored a book on Statistical Problem Solving: A Team Process for Identifying and Resolving Problems and presented numerous papers for professional organizations such as the American Society for Quality, the Society of Reliability Engineers, and the Society of Automotive Engineers (available at www.multiface.com). He was awarded many honors including the ASQ Grant Award in 1993 and the ASQ Edwards Medal in 1999.
The introduction of formal ITIL processes into an organization is in general a very time-consuming, expensive and sometimes organizationally exhausting task. To address this practical and operational issue, the current version of the ITIL framework defines a service lifecycle stage - Continual Service Improvement - intended to measure and improve processes and services.
A basic premise of Six Sigma is the focus on improvement efforts surrounding process, product or service performance that impacts the final customer. This relationship is very similar to that of services to the business, as well as the way those services are managed via the ITIL processes.
This paper reviews some basic ITIL principles, discusses how those principles apply to Six Sigma and how Six Sigma can be practically applied to Continual Service Improvement efforts. Finally, it offers some practical tips for applying Six Sigma to improve ITIL processes and services in general.
Jack Probst has a diverse management, business and technical background, and he delivers strategic process consulting and advanced ITIL training and education programmes as a Principal Consultant for Pink Elephant. An ITIL Expert, Jack previously served as the leader of an ITIL implementation initiative at a Fortune 100 organization. He also possesses decades of experience in IT process development and implementation, IT and business strategic alignment, business operations and general management. Additionally, Jack is a seasoned speaker and graduate-level educator, and is a member of the (itSMF) Academic Subcommittee that was recognized with the 2007 Industry Knowledge Contribution Award.
Gary Case
Gary Case is the co-author of ITIL V3's Continual Service Improvement core volume, and is an IT professional withmore than 30 years of experience. As a Principal Consultantand ITIL Expert, currently the highest ITIL V3 certification, Garyspecializes in providing strategic process consulting, businessalignment, project management, and training to IT professionalsacross all industries. He also presents ITSM and ITIL-relatedsessions to audiences at major events worldwide. Gary joinedPink Elephant after successfully running his own consulting andtraining company, and serving as the Director of Training forHelp Desk Institute (HDI).
This already is the last quarter of the year and organizations should be focusing on preparing the risk management strategy plan for 2011. Managers and executives know that risk management has become complex and critical in the present economic environment. Globalization, technology, economic environment, regulators, competitors, and speed of change, all have contributed in making business operations more complex. Risk management departments need to gear up and develop annual strategy considering these aspects in mind.
In this article, the author defends the adoption of skilled risk management departments in organizations to face multiple disaster scenarios and proposes five suggestions for preparing a comprehensive annual strategy.
About the author Sonia Jaspal is a risk management and corporate governance professional with +15 years of work experience. She is a Chartered Accountant from India, a Certified Internal Auditor from USA and has also cleared Certified Public Accountants examinations from Delaware State (USA). Sonia can be contacted at soniajaspal@sify.com.
One of the biggest challenges involved in adopting ITSM is going beyond just the technology or process needed to solve the problem, i.e. deliberately working to change behaviors to make the change stick. IT organizations are quick to purchase a new tool or develop new operational processes, but they seldom complete the last mile with a focused effort to change both organizational and individual behaviors. As a result, they often fail to attain the full benefits that they sought when they began their ITSM journey.
This white paper focuses on changing behaviors from the inside out to reset the cultural biases, habits and attitudes that hinder IT organizations from achieving IT Service Management Improvements.
About the author Headquartered in Newport Beach, CA, CastlePointe is a premier provider of strategic IT consulting services to Fortune 2000 firms. Uniquely focused on leading its clients through successful IT transformation initiatives, CastlePointe operates nationally from offices in California, New Jersey and Tennessee. Using our proprietary DeepRoots methodology, we help large IT organizations reduce costs, improve service levels, drive efficiency and build operational scalability. For more information go to http://www.castlepointe.com
During these tough economic times most companies have reduced cost in order to survive, shutting down equipment, lay off staff, extending time between rebuilds and preventive maintenance without thinking about the preparation they should be taking in order to take advantage of the economic turnaround.
Once the world economy turns around there will be winners and losers. Companies who are prepared will win by shutting down their competition, demonstration profits never heard of before.
In this white-paper, Ricky Smith explains how to optimize asset integrity and reduce operational costs, by applying best practices in asset maintenance and reliability.
About the author Ricky has over 30 years in maintenance management, maintenance engineer, maintenance training specialist, maintenance consultant and is a well known published author to include his latest book "Rules of Thumb for Maintenance and Reliability Engineers". Currently, he works for GPAllied and helps companies to achieve operational and reliable excellence driven by sustainable transformation.
It is a widely accepted business practice to use personality assessments during the hiring and selection process. The assessment uncovers aspects of the candidate's personality that may be hard to identify during the job interview. However, while using a personality assessment during the hiring process is widely accepted, using assessments for other aspects of employee development has been far less common.
In this paper, Dr. Herb Greenberg and Patrick Sweeney explore other areas of human development management and team building, succession planning, employee selection and development, and performance management and where the integration of different assessments is highly beneficial and can provide the organization with more opportunities to develop the potential of their people.
About the author Herb Greenberg, Ph.D. is the founder, and chief executive officer, and Patrick Sweeney is president of Caliper, an international management consulting firm, which, for nearly a half-century has assessed the potential of more than two million applicants and employees for over 25,000 companies around the world. The authors have spoken at scores of conferences on subjects ranging from "Hiring and Developing the Best People" to "The Qualities That Distinguish Leaders" to "How Professional Sports Teams Draft Outstanding Players." And they have written extensively on human resources issues including articles in The Harvard Business Review.
A management team distributes themselves around the board room table, the ritual of the monthly performance management meeting begins. Before too long, the first performance measure in the monthly report is under their scrutiny. It seems that supply costs have increased and now the procurement manager is under scrutiny. He deftly deflects the result with the explanation that a major supplier upped their prices. This process continues without a real analysis of the measures. In this article, the author writes about the basic reason of why you need performance review meetings in the first place: to improve organisational performance.
About the author Stacey Barr is a specialist in organisational performance measurement, helping corporate planners, business analysts and performance measurement officers confidently facilitate their organisation to create and use meaningful performance measures with lots of buy-in. Sign up for Stacey’s free email tips at www.staceybarr.com/facilitators and receive a complimentary copy of her renowned e-book “202 Tips for Performance Measurement”.
Black Belts must be aware of the ramifications of the changes that may be involved in a project, and be careful not to adversely affect any downstream operations or to miss out on opportunities to apply improvements. One tool to help focus on the risks and benefits associated with a process change is the Improvements, Challenges, Opportunities, Risks (ICOR) Analysis. This article introduce this tool, that puts in plain view not only the improvements expected, but also any challenges that will be faced, any opportunities to be realized elsewhere and any risks involved with the activity.
About the author Walter F. Brown is a quality engineer and certified Black Belt. His more than 30-year career has encompassed product design, reliability and maintainability, and quality management. Currently, he is involved with continuous improvement activities at C&H Die Casting. He may be reached at wbrown@chdiecasting.com
The healthcare industry faces many intense challenges, including rising costs,
declining profitability and widespread inefficiency. In addition, the industry has
to deal with a fast-changing regulatory environment and a constant pressure to
improve quality, safety and access.
Healthcare providers yet face the formidable task of optimizing costs without
lowering the quality of inputs. This at a time when maintenance cost of hospital
is increasing at an estimated 7% annually. In addition, the hospital
administration has to cater to the growing demand of patients for more and
better healthcare services.
There seems to be no end to the grinding and mashing of teeth when it comes to prioritizing projects into and within the IT project portfolio of an organization. Typically the pain found in many prioritization efforts is due to the lack of a consistent, objective and measurable method - thus leaving only persuasion and politics to guide the effort.
This whitepaper shows how to create simple weighted project priority matrix, and give 10 examples that you can follow or calibrate to reflect your organization's best thinking.
About the author Michael Wood is a CPA and is currently a freelance consultant. Prior to that, he was the President of The Natural Intelligence Group. In the late 1990s, Michael was the Executive Vice President of Outcomes Management for the Corporation for Standards and Outcomes (CS&O). His broad industry background and experience has positioned Mr. Wood as an expert in the field of business process improvement and reengineering, which is the focus of his new book The HELIX Factor: The Key to Streamlining Your Business Processes.
There is a consensus amongst CEOs that organisations are bombarded by change and that many are struggling to cope with the transformation. Therefore, managers have to blend agility with direction, creativity with control, and flexibility with structure. This means that the rate of change of pace now requires high levels of coordination and integration of strategy implementation, which can be achieved only through effective and efficient programme management. Moreover, as programme offices in the organisational structure grow in numbers the need increases for an executive position where portfolio managers in charge of the various programmes report. This is the emergent role of Chief Portfolio Officer.
In this set of forward looking ideas, Dr. Steyn describes his and others' efforts to comprehensively address the difficulty of developing and implementing strategy at the corporate, business and operational levels, and put modern thinking, including the emergent role of the Chief Portfolio Officer, into perspective.
About the author Dr Pieter Steyn is Founder and Principal of Cranefield College of Project and Programme Management. Professor Steyn holds an engineering degree (BSc Eng), MBA and Doctorate in business management and is a registered Professional Engineer. He is currently a member of International Project Management Association’s (IPMA) Research Management Board. Pieter can be contacted at cranefield1@cranefield.ac.za.
Much has been written about the increasing uncertainty enterprises face due to globalization, restructuring, changing markets and increased competition. An increased call for transparency is causing organizations to focus on the benefits of enterprise risk management (ERM). Leading companies are using the methods and tools of Six Sigma to improve existing processes so they can better incorporate and generate information regarding risk. This article shows the synergistic relationship between enterprise risk management and Six Sigma.
About the author Michael Young is a certified Master Black Belt, president of Strategic Business Transformation Resources LLC and freelance author. Young has more than 15 years of experience assisting international companies in deploying the methods and tools of Lean Six Sigma. He was formerly a member of the Global Risk Management Services group in a 'Big 4' accounting and consulting firm. He can be reached at k.michael.young@verizon.net.
Well-managed enterprises today utilize integrated strategic growth management processes to define, approve and control their current and future growth plans and the actions needed to achieve their agreed strategic objectives. These actions are translated in the execution of portfolios of programs and projects. However, the inter-relationship between the business processes used to manage the strategic growth of an enterprise and those used to manage the program/project portfolios within the enterprise are not well understood.
The aim of this paper is to define the inter-relationship, to clarify the boundaries, and to identify who holds primary responsibilities for these inter-related sets of management processes – strategic management processes and project portfolio management processes.
The saying "A picture's worth a thousand words" isn't always true. It's certainly not true when it comes to process modeling. Why?
Pictures are flat. They have two dimensions. Models have three dimensions. A process model can have many dimensions. A detailed process model is the result of comprehensive process discovery.
In short, process discovery can be defined as the action of understanding and documenting how a business process works.
This article describes the challenges and initial considerations of business process discovery and analysis from the perspective of a business analyst.
About the author Mike Purcell has worked with process oriented technologies for the past 15 years of his 29 year career. His focus is process analysis, simulation, optimization and re-engineering. He has also managed projects that include process automation and monitoring. Mike is experienced in multiple process oriented optimization techniques and methodologies.
There is a popular misconception by some senior executives and senior managers that compliance by way of a code-of-conduct, legislation or contract (or other such requirement) removes the need for risk management. Without a risk management framework in place, compliance management is a poor attempt to gloss-over the cracks in an organisation's corporate governance. This article shows you how to repair the cracks.
About the author Anthony Rowley is an executive with more than 20 years' experience in private and public-sector organisations, including eBusiness and IT advisory roles; political experience with executive positions on the staff of two Australian Prime Ministers; account management; marketing; procurement; and senior project management roles.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyrowley.
About SoftExpert:
SoftExpert is the leading global provider of software solutions for compliance and business excellence. The company is present in over 25 countries on the five continents, and has a portfolio of more than 1,700 customers. The SoftExpert Excellence Suite (SE Suite) offers a set of multilingual modules that are natively integrated and fully Web-based to automate the processes required to improve and optimize the different business areas at organizations, boosting quality of management, cutting operating costs and facilitating compliance with the main market standards and regulations. SE Suite also complements and optimizes Enterprise Resource Planning systems. The suite is integrated with the main ERP systems on the market through already available connectors, or through customized connectors developed based on the client's specific needs.
Business Process Management (BPM) and Workflow are not just about moving documents around faster. Today, the technologies and the business environment have reached the point where Workflow and BPM can play a real role in front line mission-critical business processes.
Business Process Management is a new term that covers a portfolio of funcions and approaches that includes techniques to integrate the processes within multiple applications, across companies, and between companies.
Workflow, as defined by the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC), is the automation of a business process, in whole or in part, during which documents, information, or tasks are passed from one participant to another for action.
To help people not to confuse simple Workflow automation with the more comprehensive, yet complex Business Process Management (BPM), this article describes each concept and offers a real world example.
About the author Mike Purcell has worked with process oriented technologies for the past 15 years of his 29 year career. His focus is process analysis, simulation, optimization and re-engineering. He has also managed projects that include process automation and monitoring. Mike is experienced in multiple process oriented optimization techniques and methodologies.
Corporate strategy remains just a pipe-dream unless projects are initiated to move the company towards its strategic goals. These projects must be coordinated with each other and with organizational realities and objectives.
This coordination is known as Project Portfolio Management (PPM). When used effectively, PPM ensures that projects are aligned with corporate strategies and priorities and optimizes resource allocation.
This paper will help your organization asses how mature your company is to do portfolio management and will guide you on how to create a Strategic Project Office to coordinate your project portfolio.
About the author Project Management Solutions, Inc. (PM Solutions) provides project management consulting, training, and resources to help organizations improve performance and deliver critical projects successfully. Core services include project and program resources; corporate training delivered through the PM College® (www.pmcollege.com); and management consulting services that directly support project portfolio management, organizational project management maturity, process and methodology development, project office deployment and enhancement, and project review and recovery. With corporate headquarters located just outside Philadelphia, Pa., USA, PM Solutions serves a diverse client base that includes some of the world's leading organizations. For more information, visit www.pmsolutions.com.
Executives play a pivotal role in making risk management work in a project-driven environment. They have to understand that risk management is a required discipline, even a profession. They have to understand what risk management can do for their projects and what might happen, or is already happening, without that formal risk management process. They need to know what they should do to make risk management successful in their organization and the barriers to such success, which they have to overcome. They will have to handle risk management externally, too, with artful and candid presentations to the customers and other stakeholders. In this article, author, consultant and project risk management expert David Hulett gives the executives responsibility for succesful risk management of enterprise projects.
About the author David T. Hulett, Ph.D., is internationally recognised as a leading expert in risk management, leader in risk management activities of the Project Management Institute (project manager of the Risk Management chapter of the PMBOK® Guide, 2000 and 3rd editions), deputy PM of the Practice Standard for Project Risk Management (ongoing) and frequent conference speaker. He is Principal of Hulett & Associates, a project management consultants company, and can be reached at info@projectrisk.com.
About SoftExpert:
SoftExpert is the leading global provider of software solutions for compliance and business excellence. The company is present in over 25 countries on the five continents, and has a portfolio of more than 1,700 customers. The SoftExpert Excellence Suite (SE Suite) offers a set of multilingual modules that are natively integrated and fully Web-based to automate the processes required to improve and optimize the different business areas at organizations, boosting quality of management, cutting operating costs and facilitating compliance with the main market standards and regulations. SE Suite also complements and optimizes Enterprise Resource Planning systems. The suite is integrated with the main ERP systems on the market through already available connectors, or through customized connectors developed based on the client's specific needs.
Recent research studies have shown that Quality Improvement efforts dramatically reduce an organization's internal costs by lowering the levels of product or service defects and therefore the expenditures needed to remedy them.
In competitive markets, organizations must take advantage of opportunities to reduce the costs of poor quality so they may reap the market share and revenue growth benefits that result from a growing reputation for providing high quality products or services.
Nevertheless, a quality improvement effort requires the conscious designing and molding of a company culture.
This paper introduces you a path for being successful in transforming an organizational culture by focusing on Quality Improvement people.
About the author Davis Balestracci is a senior member of the American Society for Quality. Currently he is Quality Improvement specialist at Harmony Consulting. Davis is the author of the 3rd edition of book, Data Sanity: A Quantum Leap to Unprecedented Results and during four years authored a column for Quality Digest reaching 70,000 people a month. Since 1992, Davis has been primarily involved with health care industry. He also has received corporate awards for innovative teaching and applications of statistical methods.
Standards that lay down requirements for quality management systems, internationally recognized determine that organizations shall ensure that any necessary corrections and corrective actions are taken without undue delay to eliminate detected nonconformities and their causes, and also realize the follow-up activities shall include the verification of the actions taken and the reporting of verification results.
Nevertheless, taking actions on problems is one of many responsibilities that people have and, unfortunately, it's not always top priority. That's why it's crucial that those actions are carefully verified. Verification is not an act of suspicion or disrespect; it's simply a necessary part of problem solving.
In this article the author clarifies the importance of verifying the effectiveness of implemented actions, and the best way to do it.
About the author Craig Cochran is the north metro regional manager with Georgia Tech's Economic Development Institute. He's the author of ISO 9001 in Plain English, Customer Satisfaction: Tools, Techniques and Formulas for Success, The Continual Improvement Process: From Strategy to the Bottom Line, and Becoming a Customer Focused Organization, all available from Paton Professional.
For information contact:
Georgia Tech's Enterprise Innovation Institute can be reached at http://innovate.gatech.edu.
There's a new wave of environmental consciousness rolling across the landscape of business. In certification circles, we refer to it as the Green Wave.
But companies are discovering that going green isn't easy, and getting green certified is even tougher.
Research data from the American Consumer Council (ACC) suggests that fewer than 22 percent of companies that apply for green certification would pass the bar in terms of earning ACC's Green C Certification, a tough standard that gauges a company's environmental compliance and corporate social responsibility.
In this article the author comments about this, and gives advice about what to do to get there.
About the author Thomas Hinton is president and CEO of CRI Global LLC, a San Diego-based international training and consulting firm that helps its clients create a culture of excellence.
Browse any major newspaper, industry journal or security blog today, and it is evident that the number of significant data breaches - from credit card information to health records - is rapidly increasing. Many organizations respond by throwing more technology and personnel at the problem. While this can help, John Linkous defends that the true answer lies in ensuring that the three core IT teams responsible for information assurance - network operations, security and risk operations and audit/compliance - have the necessary independence to identify, evaluate and implement the right solutions to reduce risk to the organization.
About the author John Linkous is the governance, risk and compliance evangelist at eIQnetworks, Inc. where he works directly with customers and industry peers to set the company's solution strategy. He has more than 15 years of technology management and consulting experience, specializing in enterprise systems management, information security and regulatory compliance.
Today we hear many companies say - Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is an important part of their business strategy or PLM has a big role in their corporate strategy.
In practice however, companies struggle with implementing PLM because it is a concept supported by an enterprise IT-system, and it is difficult to assess how far a particular company has proceeded on the road to full implementation or what the relative position is compared to other companies in the branch.
This paper describes how a PLM Maturity Model can be applied in order to take advantage of the strategic value of PLM and the undisputable benefits for corporate management.
About the author Antti Sääksvuori is an author, well known management consultant, and noted speaker in the field
of PLM. He has been helping dozens of companies in various branches of industry to develop
their business through the possibilities brought by strategical and well structured product and
service lifecycle management. Currently Mr. Saaksvuori is a partner in Talent Partners Ltd.
(Finland based management Consulting Company.)
He has published a number of books and articles on PLM and service productization. For
example the “Product Lifecycle Management”, the first book on PLM has been a great success.
He can be reached through his website www.plm-info.com or by mail antti.saaksvuori@iki.fi or
from his office in Helsinki (see contact details in www.talentpartners.fi)
In this article, author, management consultant and Balanced Scorecard expert Paul Niven focuses on the most challenging aspects of business - strategy. While the study of business strategy and its development has generated a wide range of perspectives and a wealth of material, the author points out that true success is entirely dependent upon the successful execution of strategy. This is where the Balanced Scorecard fits in, says the author.
About the author Paul R. Niven is an author, management consultant, and noted speaker on the subject of the Strategy Formation and Strategy Execution with the Balanced Scorecard. As both a practitioner and Consultant he has developed successful Balanced Scorecard systems for clients large and small in a wide variety of organizations, including Fortune 1000 companies, public sector agencies, and nonprofit organizations. Paul's latest book is “Roadmaps and Revelations: Finding the Road to Business Success on Route 101”, an entertaining management fable on the topic of Strategic Planning. The second edition of his very popular book “Balanced Scorecard Step by Step: Maximizing Performance and Maintaining Results” was released in September, 2006. The first edition has been translated into over a dozen languages. His other books include: “Balanced Scorecard Step by Step for Government and Nonprofit Agencies” second edition released by John Wiley & Sons in 2008, and “Balanced Scorecard Diagnostics” which was released in April, 2005. He may be reached through his websites: www.roadmapstrategy.com, www.paulniven.com and www.senalosa.com.
In the contemporary business context, knowledge is driving innovation and organisations are competing on knowledge intensive products in a knowledge based economy. Given the increasing importance of knowledge in economic activity, there needs to be a focus on managing this knowledge as a business asset.
To achieve this ambition, companies must establish a taxonomy to provide consistency of terms and concepts that underpins collaboration across the diverse portfolio of business interests.
To exploit knowledge embedded within the multiple and complex information systems and repositories, this taxonomy must be fully integrated with the technical architecture. This research paper Strategic Leverage of Engineering Knowledge through Taxonomy Governance explores the concepts that support this capability and discusses the approach taken to achieve the vision of consistency.
About the author Dr. Rod is the Managing Director of William Bethwey & Associates. He has wide experience in the private sector and at all levels of the public sector gained in Oceania, Europe and the Asia Pacific region. With over twenty years experience in information technology and business practices, he has led the development of over thirty-five Knowledge Management Strategies and has been involved across a broad range of knowledge management solutions. Rod is also an active thought leader in knowledge management. He has completed a Doctorate in Business Administration focussing on knowledge management and also holds an M.B.A. and post-graduate teaching qualifications. Rod is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Mebourne where he lectures in Knowledge Management in the Master of Knowledge Management and Master of Business Information Systems Degrees. He is also a regular speaker at conferences and workshops internationally.
IDC has estimated that the typical enterprise with 1,000 knowledge workers wastes $2.5 million to $3.5 million per year searching for nonexistent information, failing to find existing information, or recreating information that can't be found.
The ability to manage explicit information is the key to address the challenges associated with knowledge management. Moreover, the capability to manage information is increasingly recognized as a core organizational need. Contemporary organizations are driven by the need to improve productivity and to mitigate business risk.
The article “Enterprise Content Management: Supporting Knowledge Management Capability” establishes an understanding of ECM as an enabler of knowledge management capability.
About the author Dr. Rod is the Managing Director of William Bethwey & Associates. He has wide experience in the private sector and at all levels of the public sector gained in Oceania, Europe and the Asia Pacific region. With over twenty years experience in information technology and business practices, he has led the development of over thirty-five Knowledge Management Strategies and has been involved across a broad range of knowledge management solutions. Rod is also an active thought leader in knowledge management. He has completed a Doctorate in Business Administration focussing on knowledge management and also holds an M.B.A. and post-graduate teaching qualifications. Rod is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Mebourne where he lectures in Knowledge Management in the Master of Knowledge Management and Master of Business Information Systems Degrees. He is also a regular speaker at conferences and workshops internationally.
In consulting engagements we often find organizations struggling with the lexicon of Performance Management. What you call an objective I may refer to as an initiative. What passes for a measure in your shop, may be a key performance indicator in another. Far from an exercise in "semantics", these differences can have a profound impact on the success of your Scorecard implementation. If you're unable to find a common language it will be exceedingly difficult to determine a set of measures to which you hold yourselves mutually accountable. In this article, Paul Niven, management consultant and Balanced Scorecard expert, will describe the issues associated with terminology and help you surmount the obstacles words may present by any organization using, or contemplating, a Balanced Scorecard system.
About the author Paul R. Niven is an author, management consultant, and noted speaker on the subject of the Strategy Formation and Strategy Execution with the Balanced Scorecard. As both a practitioner and Consultant he has developed successful Balanced Scorecard systems for clients large and small in a wide variety of organizations, including Fortune 1000 companies, public sector agencies, and nonprofit organizations. Paul's latest book is “Roadmaps and Revelations: Finding the Road to Business Success on Route 101”, an entertaining management fable on the topic of Strategic Planning. The second edition of his very popular book “Balanced Scorecard Step by Step: Maximizing Performance and Maintaining Results” was released in September, 2006. The first edition has been translated into over a dozen languages. His other books include: “Balanced Scorecard Step by Step for Government and Nonprofit Agencies” second edition released by John Wiley & Sons in 2008, and “Balanced Scorecard Diagnostics” which was released in April, 2005. He may be reached through his websites: www.roadmapstrategy.com, www.paulniven.com and www.senalosa.com.
If you know what to look for and what questions to ask, key EHS governance issues can be identified at major facilities - or even entire corporations - in a few hours. As described in the article, the framework for Fast Governance includes the evaluation of seven key areas. Fast Governance can be a useful, inexpensive, and independent cross-check for determining whether EHS staff may have overlooked some key issues - a sanity check, as it were. It is also a good technique for raising management's awareness by highlighting key issues without spending a fortune on detailed independent audits. Learn more about this technique in this recent paper.
About the author Richard MacLean is president of Competitive Environment Inc., a management consulting firm established in 1995 in Scottsdale, Arizona; a principal at Independent Perspectives, a virtual consulting network supporting business management; and executive director of the Center for Environmental Innovation (CEI), a university-based nonprofit research organization. He can be reached via e-mail at maclean@competitive-e.com
The Six Sigma methodology maximizes efficiency in measuring, analyzing, improving and controlling critical processes, eliminating non-value added activities, and increasing employee and process productivity. This will invariably reduce costs and increase profitability of existing products or services.
At a conceptual level, many of the "management best practices" advocated by Six Sigma and PMBOK have a great deal in common - e.g., identify and communicate with stakeholders; have a sound plan; conduct regular reviews; and manage schedule, cost and resources.
Therefore, interest in Six Sigma is growing rapidly within the professional project management community, and the most common question coming from that group is "How does Six Sigma relate to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK)?"
This article will show the connections, similarities and distinctions between Six Sigma and PMBoK.
About the author Gary A. Gack is President of Process-Fusion.net, based in Fleming Isle, Florida (USA). He has an MBA from the Wharton School, is a Six Sigma Black Belt, an ASQ-certified software quality engineer, ITIL-F certified, and is a Certified Scrum Master. Process Fusion provides training and coaching related to business and software process improvement, with emphasis on “best of breed” integration of proven best practices and models, including Lean Six Sigma, CMMI, PMBoK, ITIL, and Agile methods. Mr. Gack can be contacted by e-mail: ggack@Process-Fusion.net
Public companies that do not adopt a compliance management architecture will spend 50% more annually to achieve Sarbanes-Oxley [SOX] compliance. (Gartner)
Managing and archiving financial information and related content is central to the mandates of Sarbanes-Oxley. Several sections of SOX have a direct bearing on the manner in which the digital documents and records of the enterprise are created, reviewed, approved, stored, retrieved, transferred, and destroyed.
With their ability to control and track the flow of information, Document Management Systems provide the critical capabilities to help meet SOX requirements and reduce overall document-related costs by 40%, according to Gartner.
The article “Need of Document Management System (DMS)” discusses the various sections of SOX that a document management solution might help in complying with.
About the author Dr. Gupta is the Founder & President of Istrat. He is a B.Tech. from IIT, Bombay & did his M.S. (Engineering) & Doctorate in Engineering Science (Ph.D.) from Columbia Univ., New York. Following his doctorate he has worked at University of California, Irvine as a Research Scientist and as an Asst. Prof. at IIT Kharagpur. Currently, he provides a global perspective to the company (Istrat) and provides a bridge between Indian IT resources and global clients with IT requirements.
Once early adopters of the Balanced Scorecard started seeing results, organizations were convinced that more objectives and measures would make performance management even more effective. This led to overcrowded Strategy Maps and Balanced Scorecard Maps that failed to offer a coherent picture of strategy and strategy execution. In this article, author, management consultant and Balanced Scorecard expert Paul Niven sounds a strong note of caution against overloading Balanced Scorecards with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Strategic Objectives and alerts organizations to the number one rule of strategy and strategy execution - focus.
About the author Paul R. Niven is an author, management consultant, and noted speaker on the subject of the Strategy Formation and Strategy Execution with the Balanced Scorecard. As both a practitioner and Consultant he has developed successful Balanced Scorecard systems for clients large and small in a wide variety of organizations, including Fortune 1000 companies, public sector agencies, and nonprofit organizations. Paul's latest book is “Roadmaps and Revelations: Finding the Road to Business Success on Route 101”, an entertaining management fable on the topic of Strategic Planning. The second edition of his very popular book “Balanced Scorecard Step by Step: Maximizing Performance and Maintaining Results” was released in September, 2006. The first edition has been translated into over a dozen languages. His other books include: “Balanced Scorecard Step by Step for Government and Nonprofit Agencies” second edition released by John Wiley & Sons in 2008, and “Balanced Scorecard Diagnostics” which was released in April, 2005. He may be reached through his websites: www.roadmapstrategy.com, www.paulniven.com and www.senalosa.com.
One of the most important characteristics that differentiates human beings from machines is their capacity to create, innovate and adapt to changes. With today's challenging economic scenario, it crucial that those organizations that want to survive and occupy a privileged position incorporate such characteristics.
Taking as a base the theories of Gary Hamel, recently classified by The Wall Street Journal as the greatest global strategist of our times, this article explores how the topics of risk management, innovation, company biology and leadership, if put into practice simultaneously and founded on BPM/BPO paradigms, can support the implementation of these initiatives, promoting the due and necessary organizational transformations.
About the author Jorge Silva received his license in Engineering (Electrotechnical and Computer Engineering) from the Lisbon Superior Technical Institute (IST) in the area of Systems and Computers. He currently serves as IT director of the FICOSA and Huf groups in Portugal. With a diversified career, he has worked on a range of different projects, from artificial intelligence to the management of a PME. Over the past eight years, he has dedicated part of his time to organizational transformation projects. He has also developed projects associated with knowledge management, BSC (Balanced Score Card) design and BPO organizations with a focus on the IT area (ITIL). He is currently focused on understanding how to create the organizational capacities for innovation through flexible, adaptable and efficient organizations based on knowledge-intensive process management. He worked at Alcatel, Digital and Siemens. Over recent years, he was invited by different institutions to present seminars and co-teach seminars for executives (Porto Management School - EGP).
Today, the capture, control, storage, and timely destruction of records have more impact on the success or failure of a business than ever before. A record is essential for the business. According to AIIM (The Enterprise Content Management [ECM] Association), records management initiatives need to be more than just a plan for meeting regulatory compliance.
In such case, what is the key item that records managers should consider when starting their RM initiatives?
The key to successful records management program is to assemble the right team with the right skills. We are not talking just about hiring people who have prior records management experience or know a specific technology.
Instead, the article “The Team Factor in Records Management Implementations” describes about real life team skills that determine whether a Records Management program is setup for success or not.
About the author Ganesh Vednere works with a global financial services consulting company and is experienced in implementing enterprise wide content and records management programs. He has been involved in all aspects of records management including program strategy, policy, retention, research, and technology implementation. He has bachelor's degree in Computer Science and over 12 years of industry experience in various business and technology areas.
The vast majority of botched document review errors are comprehendible. Even the best document review teams can and will make wrong review decisions at time. Most document reviewers lose focus when dealing with mountains of emails, spreadsheets and memorandums on less than exciting subjects. As a result, documents may be improperly issue coded or falsely labeled as responsive and privileged.
How have companies avoided these dreaded pitfalls?
Answering the above question and boosting document review output quality, the article "Best Practices for Hassle-Free Document Review" presents 5 recommended best practices to help minimize, and hopefully eradicate, sloppy document review.
About the author Michael Swarz, J.D. currently serves as the marketing director for eClaris, Inc. Michael is well versed in the state and federal laws that relate to electronic discovery and has written extensively on the subject. His most recent article, The Evolution of eDiscovery Sanctions , provides a guide to the penalties a court can impose on those abusing the discovery process and has been published by the American Bar Association. Michael is a graduate of both Brandeis University and New England Law | Boston.
There has been an increased dissatisfaction with many efforts that have been initiated under the rubric of "risk management" over the past several years. The more fundamental complaint is that for all the focus on categorization of and mitigation against issues identified as "risks" there has been very little tangible positive impact on the bottom line. This paper presents a different vision about risk, worrying about the things that need to go right instead just in what could go wrong.
About the author Bill Sharon, CEO and Founder of Strategic Operational Risk Management Solutions (SORMS,) has 25 years of experience in the Financial Services and Marketing/Communications industry in a variety of “C” level positions and consultancies.
To stay healthy and competitive, an organization must continually reinvest in its project management infrastructure. And, it is equally vital to improve the project management discipline so that the organization can thrive. Project management practitioners refer to the current state of health of the project management discipline within an organization as its level of maturity. The more mature an organization's practices are, the more likely that organization is to successfully meet its project goals, including schedule, budget, resource allocation, and alignment to business strategies.
This paper shows what is Project Management Maturity, how to assess your maturity level and how to attain a higher level of maturity, ensuring the future success not only of your company's project management discipline, but of its strategic goals.
About the author Project Management Solutions, Inc. (PM Solutions) provides project management consulting, training, and resources to help organizations improve performance and deliver critical projects successfully. Core services include project and program resources; corporate training delivered through the PM College® (www.pmcollege.com); and management consulting services that directly support project portfolio management, organizational project management maturity, process and methodology development, project office deployment and enhancement, and project review and recovery. With corporate headquarters located just outside Philadelphia, Pa., USA, PM Solutions serves a diverse client base that includes some of the world's leading organizations. For more information, visit www.pmsolutions.com.
About SoftExpert
SoftExpert is the global leader in the field of excellence and compliance management software. More than 1,500 companies worldwide trust SoftExpert Excellence Suite to streamline their work processes, simplify tasks and manage information. The integrated and modular management solutions are directed to the following areas of application: Enterprise Content Management [ECM], Business Process Management [BPM], Corporate Performance Management [CPM], Enterprise Quality Management [EQM], Project and Portfolio Management [PPM], Product Lifecycle Management [PLM], Environmental, Health and Safety Management [EHSM], IT Service Management [ITSM], Governance, Risk and Compliance Management [GRC], Enterprise Asset Management [EAM] and Human Capital Management [HCM]. All of these solutions implement their internal controls in compliance with globally adopted regulations.
Within many organizations, the Information Technology/Information Services (IT/IS) department can often struggle to effectively manage the delivery of IT services to the business. The underlying challenges relate to complex technical environments, ever changing business and customer demands, not to mention resource management issues.
All of this has led successful IT/IS departments to shift from simply operating the IT/IS infrastructure, towards providing services that more directly link to providing business value, ensuring that IT/IS clearly demonstrates how it contributes to and supports the organization's corporate goals and objectives.
This paper depicts the key components for successful implementation of Services Portfolio Management, by adopting a Services Portfolio mindset, where IT/IS departments will change from being a provider of technology, to being a provider of ever evolving and continuously improving services, an organization that aligns itself with business and leverages standardized processes and controls.
About the author Mr. Thomas Lundon is an innovative professional with over 15 years of progressive IT management experience bringing a broad vision in use of best practice in support of improved operational efficiency for IT. Thomas is responsible for managing the delivery of services for the IT Governance practices including Service Management, Portfolio Management and Regulatory and Compliance for Manta's Eastern Region. Being an active member of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association, Project Management Institute and IT Service Management Forum, he keeps abreast with industry standard frameworks and processes, including CobiT, PMBOK and ITIL. Thomas's primary focus is ensuring that customer's needs are met according to their budget and delivery schedules.
Mr. Glen Notman is a seasoned management consultant with more than 18 years in the Information Technology industry. Glen started his career as a business systems analyst, creating solutions and training programs for business users and information support staff. His career has steadily progressed and now he performs in a senior role assisting clients in business and IT alignment; using IT Service Management best practices and CobiT to deliver business focused results. He is a leader and a facilitator who possesses the unique ability to liaise between both the IT and business areas. Glen holds certifications for CobiT, PRINCE2 Project management and ITIL at the Foundations, Practitioner, Service Manager and ITIL Expert levels. He is a contributor to the Continual Service Improvement and part of the review team for the Service Design volumes of ITIL V3.
This paper focuses on the best practices associated with Business Process Management (BPM) project success. It describes a recipe for success, from the creation of a governance oriented Steering Group and Project Selection, through Business Case Development, and on to gaining Executive Sponsorship. With business commitment to the project, the approach focuses on gaining a deep understanding of business processes, before identifying improvement opportunities and eventual implementation on a BPM Suite. Along the way, the paper highlights a wide range of best practice approaches and pitfalls to avoid.
About the author Derek Miers is a well-known, independent industry analyst, technology strategist, and accomplished author, publishing numerous white papers and product assessments on Business Process Management and process improvement. As Co-Chairman of BPMI.org (the leading BPM standards body committed to the development and introduction of open, royalty free, XML-based standards for business processes), he was instrumental in driving the merger of BPMI.org with the Object Management Group (OMG) and was one of the very early members of the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC).
You probably have found issues to deliver a product or service due to "communication issues" or "departmental priorities", haven't you? It's even harder when you aim to effectively achieve a customer oriented company. Organizations usually face issues amongst interdepartmental relations and end up stimulating the creation of functional silos.
This article focuses on pinpointing the main characteristics and differences between two organization types: The old-fashioned, usual and well proven departmental approach versus the process-based approach that characterizes a Business Process Organization (BPO). Additionally, a framework for driving change is presented, aiming the goal of achieving a process oriented organization (BPO).
About the author Jorge Silva is the IT director in Portugal of the multinational groups FICOSA and Huf. With a diverse career, he worked in a wide range of project types from artificial intelligence to the management of a SMB company. In the last 8 years he has devoted part of his time to the subject of organizational transformation. Jorge has a degree in Engineering (Eng. Electrotecnica e Computadores) by the IST - Instituto Superior Tecnico de Lisboa - in the field of Computers and Systems. He also developed projects related with knowledge management, BSC (Balanced Scorecard) design and BPO organizations design focusing in the IT area (ITIL).
ISO 9001:2000 placed a new and significant emphasis on "Measurement, Analysis and Improvement". This emphasis (like many other changes in the proposed revision) reflects the growing maturity of quality management experience around the world. There is a strong trend amongst the better companies towards the integration of the quality system and the management system. The resulting “Business Model” is firmly based on the collection and analysis of appropriate metrics in significant areas of the company's activities. This paper explores the opportunities and challenges in implementing a metric management system in the context of the ISO 9001:2000 standard for Quality Management Systems.
About the author Rody Ryan is the Managing Director of Goldcert Management Systems Ltd. which provides training and consultancy on best practice in the design, implementation, maintenance and improvement of management systems. He is a member of Ireland's national committees which liaise with ISO on the development of new and revised standards for Quality Management Systems and Social Responsibility.
Service and product quality is directly associated with the implemented process quality for manufacturing and management.
Continuous process improvement is just as important as service and product improvement in the organizations. An improvement method, which companies are using in a large scale, is the CMMI model (Capability Maturity Model Integration). It establishes five maturity levels. This model defines the framework for processes institutionalization in companies and is being adopted as a standard for other important frameworks such as: COSO, COBIT, ITIL, PMBOK, and others.
This white-paper explains the five CMMI maturity levels and why the institutionalization is the reason for an effectively process implementation and improvement in the organizations.
For learn more about institutionalization read the complete article available in the web site.
Originally created as a way to boost efficiency, cut costs, and improve project delivery in terms of time and budget, the Project Management Office (PMO) has been expanded to assume a more strategic role and is widely viewed as the solution for ensuring better decisions, information and execution.
In order to implement a PMO, the company must have an experienced team with an implementation plan based on some initial requirements. Also, one must be prepared for some typical challenges, mainly of a cultural and technological nature. On the other hand, the rewards are highly tangible. This paper presents a clear vision and solid approach as to how to implement a successful PMO.
About the author TenStep, Inc. is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia (USA), and specializes in developing, consulting and training in business methodologies. The company's flagship product is the TenStep Project Management Process®, which has been licensed to thousands of companies and individuals around the world. In addition, TenStep has training, consulting and business methodology products covering Project Management Offices, portfolio management, software development and application support. TenStep services the needs of local businesses with a network of offices in the USA and around the world.