Problem Definition

​

Though many factors contribute to a project’s failure, nothing is more certain to cause a project to fail than solving the wrong problem or realizing too late that the problem was misunderstood.

 

Projects succeed when teams solve the right problem and solve the whole problem. We help teams to resist the urge to speed toward a solution, and spend more time upfront, identifying and defining the problem.

​

We help teams to:

​

• Be selective on which problems they choose to take on.

• Identify the users that will be impacted or have an influence over the success of the projects

• Assess if there are enough people that will benefit from this project to make it worthwhile.

• Do a root cause analysis to break down fuzzy large problems into multiple well-defined smaller ones

• Identify and visualize the multiple causes of a problem

 

Before embarking on solution design, we assist teams to:

​

• Understand why the problem hasn’t yet been solved, and

• Where in the network of causes is the hardest part of the problem to solve

• Validating the project’s economics by understanding the cost, the benefits and the return on investment.

• Uncovering at an early stage, who declares success and what criteria will be used to determine success.

Solution Design

​

A Good Solution is a direct antidote to a problem — it completely solves the problem.

​

We help teams to design solutions that are effective control systems - solutions that do not rely on, or wait for people to change, but instead work by changing the environment around them to make good habits easy to engage in, and bad habits difficult to engage in.

​

We help design solutions that:

​

• Reduce the choices that people must make

• Routinize tasks that are repetitive

• Promote desired behavior by rewarding good habits and making it harder to engage in poor habits

• Compound the benefits — few things happen overnight; success is often the result of the compounding effect of consistently executing tasks

• Grow and get better over time

 

We help teams to get better at using techniques such as Design thinking to systematically approach all stages of the journey especially the tipping point stage.

​

We also help teams to breakthrough the struggles of knowing when a solution is Good Enough to be considered an MVP to start collect the maximum amount of feedback in the quickest time possible.

Budgeting & Roadmaps

 

Developing a good plan is critical to successfully implementing a solution.

 

We help organizations develop technology roadmaps - these are a visual diagrams and charts that communicate how the solution will be implemented. They provide a detailed view when capabilities will be implemented whilst avoiding costly mistakes.

​

We help executive teams to develop roadmaps that adopt a primary emphasis on either cost control or on schedule control.  

​

For projects where cost-control is critical we organize the roadmap into expense categories with associated costs. We help teams control the urge to over invest by doing cost–benefit analysis and encouraging them to find solutions to problem within constraints.

​

For projects where the schedule is critical, we focus roadmaps on the proper sequence of tasks (the critical path) and efficiently using the the available resources. We do this by :

​

• Defining the work tasks,

• Estimating the the required resources and durations for individual tasks

• Identifying any interactions among the different work tasks

• Developing the critical path

• Efficiently using internal resources, specialists, contractors and vendors over time

​​

For more complex projects that require consideration of both cost and schedule, we help organization integrated both schedule and budget and establish monitoring and course correction controls to keep projects on trac​k.

Implementation Oversight

 

The purpose of implementation oversight is to ensure that the work being performed is consistent with the architecture, scope, budget and schedule as planned. We understand the potential exposures, expected outcomes, and the means and methods to make course corrections to keep projects on track.

​

Supervision includes the management of the contract and implementation across all parts of the construction including the technical and the financial. This may include managing multiple contractors, suppliers, and client stakeholders and making sure that all are aligned, and the project is going smoothly

​

Below is a description of the main activities that are included:

​

• Creating statements of work for the implementation contracts

• Interviewing and selecting specialists for each project

• Evaluating the overall project status, performance, costs and schedule

• Analyzing the root cause of risks and issues and recommending corrective and preventative actions.

• Evaluating project deliverables and progress

• Ensuring that adequate testing is performed. Evaluation of defects, bugs and the root causes

• Analyzing cashflow, cost to complete, change orders and delays and implementing course corrections