Product Based Planning: lean or not lean?

A recent survey of Prince2 users showed that Product Based Planning is their favourite part of Prince2 – without it, Prince2 would not be Prince2, they said. It's their favourite, but is it lean?

Product Based Planning is essentially lean for several reasons.
• It focuses on the end deliverable
• The product breakdown structure is a good means to get teamwork and consensus (I suggest to create the PBS using sticky notes in front of a flip chart, with the team all standing and participating)
• The product breakdown structure is a good communications tool
• It reduces the complexity of the planning process (typically there are 20 products but hundreds of tasks)
• It turns planning into a structured process
• It supports management by stages, which allows for late commitment (which is a lean keystone)
• Product descriptions help capture business requirements and quality criteria and therefore help to avoid rework
• Product descriptions can be written on a just-in-time basis (typically in the stage before the product will be produced)

Lean or not lean? Product Based Planning is decidedly lean.

How long does your project team spend writings powerpoints? And how long in meetings watching powerpoints?

Go lean... http://ping.fm/0PlSK

Reduce Powerpoint to reduce waste

Lean or not lean? How many hours per week does your project team spend on powerpoint?

Powerpoint generates waste in various ways.
• Team members waste hours and days writing powerpoints.
• Planners waste time reconciling powerpoint pictures with real plans
• Project teams waste time in meetings watching vacuous, brain-numbing powerpoints which don't generate clarity or new ideas.

Lean project management eliminates waste. If you want to go lean, you must attack waste, and that means a major review of how you use powerpoint.

Lean or not lean? Powerpoint ain't lean

In the coming months, we have some major programme deliverables. I'm working on a lean solution. http://bit.ly/bTQsCa. Lean or not lean?

Lean: multi-functional project teams

Lean or not lean? I'm struggling to get multi-functional teams working in our programme. Today, our programme organisation mirrors the current business teams (the BAU "silos"). In the coming months we have some major deliverables to produce, where all functional teams must cooperate. With today's organisation, the teams can't readily plan their work, as they each have a silo view - they are highly dependent on other teams for scheduling and decisions, for inputs and outputs.

The lean approach is to maximise cross functional team work. Each multi-functional team can then work back from the deliverable due date and manage its own work plan. The cross functional team produces a single, unified deliverable. It has its own internal communications (meetings, chats, virtual spaces...)

That's lean project management.

Another opposite to mgt by exception is mgt by detail. If senior managers
intervene in daily project execution, this undermines the PM role.

Management by meeting is the typical opposite of management by exception.
Too much short term detail, low focus on plans and deliverables