Job Shadowing the Daily Work Routine

Job Shadowing in the Project Initiation Phase will provide a good view of a day in the life of a department. Business Analysts use job shadowing to gather requirements and document the workflow processes. You don't have to be a Business Analyst to job shadow; project team members need to wear many hats at times. 

Process Improvement is the goal of job shadowing when you are replacing a system. Information that is collected from job shadowing will be used to compile your project requirements to achieve the defined deliverables. This is also a good time to start defining Key Performance Indicators that will be used to validate that process improvement is being achieved. Start making notes on Test Cases that will be used to validate the KPIs.

The Project Plan should have the defined KPIs evaluated at the appropriate time in the project timeline when results can be measured in a controlled environment. If all KPIs meet expectations, then a project Milestone is truly earned. If KPIs do not meet the expectations, then it's time to stop moving forward on the project so an evaluation can be done to address the failing KPIs. That's why you need good Test Cases to flush out any possible issues. 

My Final Thoughts on Job Shadowing that is a valuable project activity that should be used as much as possible to avoid disappointed Stakeholders after a project is delivered and it cosmetically looks good, but that's it, no improvement achieved. 

(Note - this article was originally written by Drake Settsu and published on projectmanagement.com/blogs/419316/Project-Management-in-Real-Life in May 2020)

Project Management the Kaizen way

Today's Project Manager is faced with many challenges to deliver projects on time within the budget. They need to work smart with so much responsibility on their shoulders. Do they have time to get involved in continuous improvement? Yes.

The open minded Project Manager can use Kaizen to bring additional value to Project Management. What is Kaizen? It is a Japanese word. KAI = CHANGE and ZEN = GOOD, so Kaizen =  continuous improvement. Never be satisfied with a process or procedure. Always be on the lookout for opportunities to make improvements, whether it's a suggestions for the organization or the way you manage your projects. Make changes with an incremental approach to gradually yield results immediately rather than going for it all at one time. Just keep your goals on the radar and be patient while you work towards the goals. Quality outcomes is the reward.

Goals have been achieved, but we are never done with continuous improvement. There is always opportunities to make something better. Never be satisfied, always be hungry to make something better one day at a time. Project Managers get a good view of what is going on in the organization, so they need to speak up when they see something that could be improved and they also need to keep tuning their tools of the trade to operate efficiently.

(Note - this article was originally written by Drake Settsu and published on projectmanagement.com/blogs/419316/Project-Management-in-Real-Life in June 2018)

Bring in the Business Analyst

We live in a world with technology to give businesses the ability to run an efficient operation. Well that's not going to happen if the wrong components and processes are in place or it's time for a technology refresh.  

The Business Analyst is the person that needs to understand how the business operates to meet their objectives now and into the future. A good Business Analyst needs to roll up their sleeves and get dirty digging for information. A Business Analyst needs to work with the business units by documenting the process flow by observation and asking a lot of questions. Spend a week with the business unit that is targeted for improvement to get a good feel on how they operate.

Something to remember when you work on improving a process. I was told by an instructor in a class I attended on process improvement, "If you can measure it, you can manage it."