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Volume X - Issue II - February 2008

Case Studies

 

Project and Program Retrospectives:
Achieving organizational buy-in

Part 2 in a series

By Debra Lavell & Russell Martinell

Editor’s note: While the paper below may not meet the academic definition of a case study,
it is based on the experiences of the authors at Intel Corporation in the USA.  We feel that this series comfortably fits in the case studies category of PM World Today better than in other sections.

Okay, you have read the first paper in this series and have decided to try using the retrospectives method for capturing key learnings within your organization.  However, other post-project audit methods are used within your organization, and many teams feel that they are completely adequate.  Because of this, you know that you will encounter resistance to change to a new methodology.  How do you proceed? 

Although there are many ways to introduce change into an organization, having a defined approach and plan is fundamental in order to overcome resistance to change and to gain senior stakeholder buy-in.  This paper describes the approach that was used for introducing the retrospectives methodology into Intel, as well as the factors that were beneficial in gaining organizational buy-in for broad deployment. 

Start with a Problem, Not a Solution

Many times change agents become so enamored with the latest process, tool or practice which they are championing, that they try to sell the solution to the organization for the sake of the solution.  In effect, it becomes a solution in search of a problem.

Read complete paper in English

 

About the Authors:


Debra Lavell

Debra Lavell works as a retrospectives expert in the Corporate Platform Office at Intel Corporation, and has delivered over 80 program and milestone retrospectives over the past 5 years.  She also designed the “Facilitating Effective Retrospectives” training course which she has delivered to over 50 program and project teams.  In addition to her work in retrospectives, Debra is also a recognized expert in requirements engineering, is a member of the Rose City Software Process Improvement Network Steering Committee, and president of the annual Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference. 



Russ Martinelli

Russ Martinelli is the Manager of Program Management Methods within the Corporate Platform Office at Intel Corporation, where he focuses on the implementation of program management practices across Intel.  Additionally, Russ is the chairman of Intel’s global Program Management Community of Practice, an adjunct professor at the University of Phoenix, and co-founder of the Program Management Academy.  Russ has held a variety of positions at Intel and Lockheed Martin in the areas of systems engineering, general management, operations management, and project and program management.  Russ has recently published the book titled “Program Management for Improved Business Results” (ISBN: 0-471-78354-4).  Contact Russ at:  russ.martinelli@programmanagement-academy.com

 

 

 

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Young Engineers at Work

By Anthony DeMarco

Wide-scale and widely-publicized project failures across the public and private sectors require project managers to gain and retain the knowledge necessary to avoid overruns in the future.  Since schedule, cost, or risk overruns account for most failed projects, successful project managers need access to a full arsenal of background information and best practices examples to avoid unsuccessful projects and ensure the project comes to fruition within budget and on time.  While younger engineers or those new to the engineering space are often viewed as lacking the experience, knowledge, and judgment of their elders to make the critical decisions to keep their projects on track, one group is taking the project management field by storm. 

Only five years out of undergraduate school, this group of young engineers successfully ran a System-of-Systems “Review Your Training” cost exercise during a past International Society of Parametric Analysts-Society of Cost Estimating and Analysis (ISPA-SCEA) International Conference.  Despite lacking the years of experience of their senior conference goers, this group was the only team to solve the cost exercise problem’s complex hardware, software, and IT estimating challenges with a single, integrated solution.  Their unique story follows.

Read complete paper in English

 

About the Authors:


Anthony DeMarco

Anthony DeMarco is President and Managing Member of PRICE Systems, Inc. For more than two decades, Mr. DeMarco has been a pioneer in cost forecasting and analysis technology.  He has led PRICE both in its former incarnation as a division of Lockheed Martin and since its inception as a successful independent company in 1998.  Among DeMarco's credits are the design and implementation of the first application-specific integrated circuit cost-estimating tool. He soon added enhancements that produced the first parametric electronic module estimating system, which is still an avionics industry standard.  He holds a patent on the PRICE labor and materials cost estimating model and, for the PC market, he designed XPERT/H™, a desktop version of the PRICE Hardware Model.  In 1997, DeMarco received the highest honor bestowed by the International Society of Parametric Analysts (ISPA), the Freiman Award.  In 2001, he was appointed by then–NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin to serve on the International Space Station Management and Cost Evaluation Task Force (IMCE).  DeMarco helped NASA to address cost growth on the program by assessing the quality of the ISS cost estimates as well as program assumptions and requirements and by identifying high-risk budget areas and potential risk mitigation strategies.  Using PRICE modeling, DeMarco found that the program was underestimated by more than $20 billion. For information about PRICE Systems, visit www.pricesystems.com.

 

 

 

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