Value Stream Mapping for Software: Visualising Flow in Digital Delivery
June 11, 2023 · 6 min read
Value stream mapping (VSM), originally developed as a lean manufacturing tool, can be adapted powerfully for software delivery. A software VSM maps every step from idea to production deployment — including the wait times between steps that are invisible in a sprint backlog. What software VSMs reliably reveal is not slow coding, but long waits at code review, QA approval, deployment approval, and environment provisioning. Reducing those wait times, rather than pushing development teams to work faster, is typically the highest-leverage improvement available in a digital delivery system.
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Procurement Strategy in Projects: How You Buy Matters
June 10, 2023 · 5 min read
The procurement decisions a project manager makes early in a project — what to buy versus build internally, from how many suppliers, and under what contract type — shape the project's risk profile for its entire duration. A fixed-price contract transfers risk to the supplier but requires a well-defined scope. A time-and-materials contract preserves flexibility but transfers cost risk to the buyer. Getting these decisions right at the outset is significantly less expensive than correcting them mid-execution.
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Inventory Optimisation: The Right Stock of the Right Things
June 9, 2023 · 5 min read
Inventory is simultaneously an asset and a cost. It enables service — having the right product available when a customer needs it — while tying up cash, consuming warehouse space, and carrying the risk of obsolescence. Effective inventory optimisation means holding enough stock to serve demand reliably without holding excess that erodes financial performance. The three categories of inventory — cycle stock, safety stock, and anticipation inventory — each have different drivers, different calculation methods, and different levers for reduction without sacrificing service.
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The Measurement System Analysis (MSA): Can You Trust Your Data?
June 8, 2023 · 5 min read
A root cause analysis is only as good as the data it is based on. Measurement System Analysis (MSA) is the set of statistical techniques used to validate that your measurement process is accurate and consistent enough to support the decisions you need to make. Two studies form the core of MSA: Gauge Repeatability and Reproducibility (Gauge R&R), which examines whether measurements are consistent across operators and over time, and Bias studies, which determine whether the average measurement is close to the true value. Before you trust your data to drive improvement decisions, the measurement system that produced that data deserves scrutiny.
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Technical Excellence: Why Craftsmanship Matters for Sustainable Scrum
June 7, 2023 · 5 min read
The Agile Manifesto's principle that continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility is often the least practised. Technical debt raises defect rates, grows regression testing burden, and makes every feature take longer because the codebase is more fragile. Test-driven development, continuous refactoring, architecture fitness functions, and mob programming for knowledge sharing are the practices that sustain delivery speed over multi-year product lifetimes. Making the technical excellence argument to a product owner who only sees features requires translating debt into delivery consequences.
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Programme Management: Leading Groups of Related Projects
June 6, 2023 · 5 min read
A programme is a group of related projects managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits and control not available from managing them individually. The programme manager coordinates dependencies between projects, manages shared resources and risks across the programme, tracks interdependent benefits realisation, and governs the overall investment. Understanding when a programme structure adds value — and when it adds overhead — is the starting point for effective programme governance.
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The Sustainable Supply Chain: Turning ESG from Compliance to Competitive Advantage
June 5, 2023 · 5 min read
Environmental, social, and governance requirements in supply chains have moved from voluntary reporting to contractual and regulatory requirements. Organisations that treat ESG purely as a compliance exercise miss the competitive advantage that sustainable supply chain practices can deliver. Energy efficiency, packaging reduction, supplier diversity, and circularity each create business value alongside environmental benefit. Building a credible supplier ESG programme with a limited team means focusing on Tier 1 first, using industry standards, and setting science-based targets without greenwashing.
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Lean Six Sigma and the Future of Work: Continuous Improvement in an Automated World
June 4, 2023 · 6 min read
Automation and artificial intelligence are changing what people do at work, but they are not eliminating the need for continuous improvement. When a process is partly or fully automated, the quality of the algorithm replaces the quality of the manual step — but the DMAIC discipline is unchanged. Higher throughput amplifies the cost of each defect, standardisation enables broader automation, and human-machine handoff points become the new failure modes. The CI practitioner of the future needs data literacy and digital tools alongside the statistical methods that have always defined the discipline.
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Psychological Safety: The Foundation of a High-Performing Scrum Team
June 3, 2023 · 4 min read
Google's Project Aristotle found that psychological safety was the single strongest predictor of team effectiveness. For Scrum teams, it is the difference between retrospectives that surface real problems and ones that do not.
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Using AI Tools to Write Better Project Documentation
June 2, 2023 · 5 min read
AI writing assistants can draft project charters, status reports, and risk registers in seconds. Used well, they save hours. Used poorly, they introduce plausible-sounding errors. Here is how to tell the difference.
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Medical Device Supply Chain: Where Compliance Meets Logistics
June 1, 2023 · 4 min read
Medical device supply chains operate under strict regulatory frameworks that make a logistics failure far more than an operational inconvenience. Here is what sets them apart — and how to manage them effectively.
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How to Make Continuous Improvement Stick: Building a CI Culture
May 31, 2023 · 4 min read
Many organisations launch continuous-improvement programmes that produce early wins but fade within 18 months. Here is what actually makes CI stick — and what consistently does not.
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