While project managers are responsible for project scope management, business analysts are responsible for product scope management.
Product scope represents the features of the product to meet business and user requirements, whereas project scope is defined as the work that needs to be accomplished to build and release the product with these specified features. Therefore, in order to define the project scope correctly, the project manager should assist business analysts in defining a clear and correct product scope aligned with business and user requirements. Otherwise resources are rooted in the wrong direction, and this results in project-level waste.
Output Trap
In addition to scope management, time and cost management are the other critical knowledge areas in project management. Sometimes the pressure to meet time and budget targets can lead project managers to focus more on generating outputs (deliverables) than on outcomes (value). However, if the requirements cannot be met, the project won’t be successful even if it is completed on time and within budget constraints. To prevent this “output” trap and assure the delivery of value-adding “outcomes,” project managers should always work in collaboration with business analysts to ensure value creation at every step of the project. They should keep all project stakeholders connected throughout the product development lifecycle.
To achieve this, project managers should manage the project in the field. Some project managers spend most of their time at the PMO (project management office) instead of attending requirements-gathering meetings, reviewing requirements documents, and participating in testing sessions.
In the lean approach, project managers should go to the gemba and have high bandwidth communication with project stakeholders and customers throughout the product development lifecycle.
Whole Optimization Instead of Suboptimization
The lean approach aims to remove the checks and balances within project stakeholders to ensure collaboration.
Although segregation of duties is important to manage accountability among team members, it should not result in silos.
Silos usually form due to micromanagement of separate teams such as business analysts, designers, developers, and quality assurance specialists. Micromanagement results in the suboptimization of each group’s objectives with output-oriented KPIs (key performance indicators), such as the number of requirements documented, number of defects found, or number of codes built. But in the lean approach, KPIs aim to optimize the objectives of the whole team. For instance, KPIs such as “the number of user requirements satisfied at a specific release” or “percent of business requirement targets met at first release” will help the project manager keep every project stakeholder motivated in the same direction to generate desired value for customers.
In applying the lean approach for the first time, project managers should remember that “it is not the strength of waves that shapes the rocks, but it is their persistence.” Thus, instead of giving up early, they should continuously motivate their teams to apply lean principles and techniques to their projects by managing any kind of internal resistance.
End of the Story at the CEC Company
Thanks to applying the lean approach to the CEC mobile application development project, the project team managed to be value oriented, customer centered, and iterative throughout the project. This helped the CEC company satisfy all of the below project objectives:
-Differentiate itself by having a mobile channel earlier than all other consumer electronics companies
-Be innovative in creating a mobile sales channel with features that were directly driven by CEC customer needs
-Prevent waste by only investing in features that were really necessary
-Improve scale that was once limited to the number and visibility of dealers
-Satisfy the marketing business unit by releasing the mobile application at the time they requested
-Be aware of risks early and mitigate them quickly
The project was completed on time to the high satisfaction of all project stakeholders. For this project, upper management realized the benefits of the lean approach and decided to apply this approach to all other projects.
