Three stages to an FTTM Mindset

FTTM = Fast-Time-To-Market

There are three stages teams go through to get to the point where they are consistently accelerating development schedules, which include Looking Back, Looking Forward, and Influencing Forward. Each step requires skill and commitment from all team members.

Stage 1 is to Look Back. This means that the team has created an accurate end to end schedule and on a weekly basis is recording progress against the tasks in that schedule. Setting out a plan and recording what was done, not done, and what remains allows a team to know where they are today. We call this after-the-fact control. It is an essential first step in the FTTM process. And it’s not easy because it means the team has discipline to plan and track their progress, most don’t.

Stage 2 is to Look Forward. Looking forward permits a team to identify problems in advance or as we say before-the-fact. Time to mitigate a future problem permits a team avoid problems. Problem avoidance is like canceling out a negative before it happens. Knowing where you are going and what is critical permits the team to focus today and mitigate future problems before they happen.

Stage 3 is to Influence Forward. Not only are you looking ahead, but you are changing things in the future to cause the schedule to go faster. The critical path provides the focus on what to change. Fast Teams identify these opportunities and create actions to influence future events. The result is a pattern of acceleration and/or time-banking for when it is needed later on when unknowns hit.

Each stage increases the speed of the project. The fastest teams deliver on time or early by influencing future events and changing them before they happen. It all starts with an accurate schedule and knowing where you are at any given point in time. Slow teams typically lack knowledge about where they are in the project, have no idea what is coming, and when it does come they become victims of “circumstances out of their control.”