By Suren
I’m sure you've heard of Fail fast systems and fail fast modules, where the system or module is designed to immediately report at its interface any failure or condition that is likely to lead to failure. Fail meaning to stop operation once there is a detected possibility of erroneous behavior and Fast means to report the failure as soon as possible.
Generally, in projects where there are delays the Project Manager steps in to identify bottlenecks and activities along the critical path, then undertakes activities that can be carried out faster either by putting in more resources or tweaking the outputs required in order to bring the project tasks back in line with the timeline. This kind of approach is in essence a variation of the fail-fast methodology.
Some of the Project management tasks that could be undertaken to build up a “fail fast” model in the context of a project environment could be to:
1.Have regular meetings on Project tasks but with an emphasis on time of completion as per the critical path, rather than simply of menial tasks.
2.Nominate, one single responsible person to keep track of tasks and deliverables that fall into the critical path, someone other than the project manager.
3.Have regular submissions from project team on plans for forthcoming deliverables, especially those within the critical path.
4.Empower project members to take on tasks relating to future deliverables which fall along the critical path.
5.Clear out "noise" resulting from previous tasks delays that are not within the critical path, doing this will allow time for resources to focus more on project deliverables tasks that are more important.
6.Clear identification of risks associated with each deliverables and appropriate assignment responsibilities to project individuals to manage these.
7.Build up a flat structure for project teams in order to encourage issues being highlighted to the top. In a tall structure, the bottom-up information flow takes longer which hampers the efficiency of an immediately reporting mechanism which is key to an effective “fail-fast” system.
8.Set up several checkpoints within tasks. Reporting could be encouraged at each checkpoint rather than tasks completion or progress.
9.Promote decision making at lower level meetings rather than escalating all decision making to higher ups. Responsibilities need to be well documented for those decisions taken on critical path tasks.
10.Create an effective culture within the project team, to encourage individuals to be able to identify those critical path tasks that precede their actual task, in order to be able plan for contingencies in their area in case of any delays.
A proper project methodology will tend to address the above, however following a structured approach in embedding these into project tasks will certainly help enhance the benefits of a ”Fail-fast” approach. This would in turn prove very useful in avoiding delays in critical paths and budget overruns.
Hope you found this post insightful. Your comments, suggestions are welcome on ssurenlk@msn.com.
