FTTM System
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This is an overview of the FTTM System (fast-time-to-market) used by fast teams. It is based on best practice research developed by lateralworks.
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FTTM Team Maturity
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Stages a team goes through while learning the Refresh Planning Process.
Read MoreAccelerate Before You Slip
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It seems counter intuitive. To make a project go faster when you don’t have to, because you are already on schedule. That is the point.
Read MoreIgnore Constraints
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How do we practice the "Planning with no constraints" philosophy during the build/model session?
It seems counterintuitive not to consider constraints when planning.
Constraints are real and should be a factor, shouldn't they?
Read MoreNo Risks, No Schedule
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How do risks get reflected in a development schedule?
Risks are unknowns. How does one incorporate the impact unknowns could have on a schedule if they don't know what they don't know? What "is known" is that risk or uncertainty will cause a schedule to move to the right (expand in duration), especially when it is missing from the baseline schedule.
Read MoreRefresh Planning Cycle
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There are four areas associated with Refresh Planning, these are: Update, Analysis, Pull-in, Reporting.
Read MoreLearning Cycles
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Many projects we work on involve bleeding edge innovation. The most common push-back to planning these projects is that, “Innovation can’t be managed.” The proponents of this notion believe that, “Ideas happen when they happen, and that it is impossible to program these out over time with any reasonable degree of confidence.” Therefor, it is a “waste of time” to plan.
Read MoreInnovation Can't Be Predicted
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Of course everyone knows it is impossible to plan when a breakthrough will happen. Planning requires some certainty about what is being done, how long each step might take, and some idea of when a solution will be achieved. But innovation is different. By definition innovation requires solutions to problems that don’t have known solutions, so how can one accurately predict when a solution will be found? How can the unknown be planned.
Read MoreFTTM Managers
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We have characterized a series of common skills over many years of coaching and working with high performers that successfully manage new product development projects. We outline these qualities below.
Read MoreExecutive time versus Engineering time
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Estimating how long something takes is always a problem, especially when you factor in the external "influences" the person doing the work has to navigate within the organization. The other factor is the overriding culture of the organization. Is it a learning culture that stimulates open and honest discussion or is it a punishing organization where it is better not to fail, rather than taking risks that might lead to failure (i.e., playing not to lose vs playing to win)?
Read MoreMy schedule keeps slipping every week
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This is a question we have heard countless times. The schedule is constantly slipping. The PM is blamed for not managing the team. The team is blamed for not sticking to the schedule. The management is blamed because people are working on too many projects and there's not enough time in the day to do them all. The most important project is the one that's the latest.
Read MoreHire Self-managing People
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This video is not dated, but it must be from around the late 1980's-1990 time frame when Steve Jobs was at NeXT. I met Mr. Jobs at NeXT at about this time (1989) when they were working on the NeXTCube. We were trying to persuade him to participate in our Best Practice Study we had initiated a few months earlier.
Read MoreWhen will it be done?
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Psychology and human behavior are interesting to study. Permitting people to "take longer" and to factor risks into their plan tends to free them up to creatively think of ways to make it take less time - to find technical solutions that also accelerate the schedule.
Read MoreWhen to Stop Dreaming?
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When inventing pathfinding technology (something that has never been done) you have to ignore reality. Steve Jobs called it “reality distortion.” To create, you must refuse to accept current thinking that what you are doing can’t be done. You are told that there are laws of physics, principles of chemistry and material science that should inform you that your problem can’t be solved. You are told you don’t have enough time or money and to accept the reality of your business and technical constraints. The people that conform to this thinking rarely make anything new.
Read MoreDo It Now!
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Do it now
Pay to save a day
Act versus talk about it
Schedule is king
Creative thinking - finding solutions to make it go faster
Don’t accept no for an answer
Get in people’s faces (in this case their suppliers)
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