Define stage:

Why is the change necessary?
What is the proposed scope of this project?
What if we do nothing?
What alternatives have been looked at?
What will be the key objectives for this project?
What is out of scope?
Who is the sponsor for this project?
Who are the key stakeholders?
What are the principal risk to success?

Measure:

What specific benefits of this project deliver?
How will this project contribute to our goals?
What budget and resources will be required?
What assumptions and constraints should be considered?
What dependencies or interfaces should be considered?
What are the major project deliverables and milestones?
Who will manage this project?

Analyze:

How will all the work is scheduled?
Who will be responsible for each work package?
How will identified risk be manage?

Improve:

How are we progressing against our schedule?
How are we doing against budget and resource requirements?
What issues do we face?
What new risk have been identified?
What changes do we need to make to the plant?

Control:

Have we completed our handover to the users?
Have we closed the project and communicated where needed?
Have we captured useful knowledge and lessons learned?
Have we evaluated the results that we have achieved?

P.S. Implementation is a great book to have as a companion before, during and after providing the leadership in a project management process. It is on my trashy section on my bookshelf with other highlighted, written in and dog-eared page books.

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The benefits of A3 are :

1. It helps define a standard for all to use.
2. It provides a clear and concise method of reporting information.
3. Method of operation is visible and accessible to all.
4. It can promote communication, and team working.
5. It leads to a reduction of waste.
6. A continuous improvement activity.
7. It creates an efficient working environment.

So what is so special?

1. I think it has several qualities:
2. It makes you think graphically.
3. It forces you to make the story flow logically.
4. It makes you condense words.

To go about laying the A3 Report out, I have included a diagram from Systems2win for you to use as a guideline. However, another format to follow for the A3’s can vary as long as your story line stays intact. The value comes from the thinking that goes into generating the A-3 reports (as Tim Berry says, “It’s the act of creating the plan that has value”, not conformance to a specific template. If you’re familiar with the Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control (DMAIC) process it can make a great story line for most problem solving A3’s. However, using the DMAIC process you can:

Define how a particular problem was identified and why it is a problem.

Measure the current state of the problem and how the problem was investigated and Analyze what solutions were considered.

Improve the plan for solving the problem and how the Control or follow-up will be done.

The reason I encourage using the A3 in the marketing process is it demonstrates and recaps the thoughts, efforts and actions that took place for a particular campaign, such as advertising or public relations or even a launch. This report can really highlight the value that marketing supplies. However, always remember that the A3 report is meant to tell a story.

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Technorati : A3, DMAIC, Lean, Lean Sigma, Marketing Reports, Six Sigma

Use the Metrics that you Collect: You don’t want to collect metrics just for the sake of collecting them. If they are required by your organization, collect them. Also collect any other metrics that are needed to validate whether the project was successful. However, if you don’t have a purpose for the metrics, or if the project is not long enough that you can use the information for process improvement, they are not worth collecting for that particular project.

Compare the Cost of Collecting a Metric Vs. the Benefit: Just as there is some cost associated with most project management activities, there is a cost to collecting and managing a metrics process. In the case of scope management or issues management, this is a cost the project needs to invest in to be successful. Managing metrics, however, is more under the discretion of the project manager and the overall organizational culture. In many cases, the cost to collect and leverage a certain type of metric is prohibitive. These metrics should not be pursued. Other metrics are interesting, but do not provide the type of information that can be leveraged for improvement. The bottom line is that the cost to gather each metric must be balanced against the potential benefit that will be gained. When you think about project metrics, start by gathering metrics that are required by the organization. Then add metrics that have the lowest cost and effort and can provide the highest potential benefit.

Link Team Performance with Individual Performance: This old adage about “what gets measured gets done” is true on projects. If communication is important on your project, then build some metrics around communication. For instance, survey the clients and stakeholders on a quarterly basis to see how effective they think your communication is. If you are encouraging teams to reuse existing components, then track the instances of reuse and the hours and cost savings.

Manage Metrics – Beware Unintended Consequences: Metrics will drive certain behaviors. When you are establishing a metric, think about how the metric might drive unintended consequences and be sure that you set up the process in a way that clearly drives the desired behaviors.

Source of information: Ten Step Project Management archive of Newsletters.

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Technorati : DMAIC, Lean, Marketing, Measure, Metrics, Performance, Project Management, Six Sigma