The Afterburners has a seminar titled High Resolution. Their tag line is
Without high resolution, an organization can not align its tactics and strategic plan. High resolution details ensure the organization can execute and provide results that align with the expectations of those that developed the strategic plan.
In the project and program management domain, this means several things, that are many time missing. Missing means the probability of success is reduced. Missing means the project participants have to return to just doing work. Here's what's missing - the the Afterburners guys provide in ways that are rarely found in the PM world. They spoke at a Rocky Mountain PMI Symposium and I attended a training session. It's not for everyone, but if you want a clear and concise approach to getting things done, they're the one.
Here's where to take their quote:
- The Plan is the strategy.
- The strategy is a hypothesis, that must have some means of testing the hypothesis.
- This Plan must describe how the products and services move from left to right and how their maturity is increasing.
- The Plan's measures are of increasing maturity in Measures of Effectiveness (MoE).
- MoE's are operational measures of success that are closely related to the achievements of the mission or operational objectives evaluated in the operational environment, under a specific set of conditions.
- The MoE's are stated in units meaningful to the buyer, focused on capabilities independent of any technical implementation, and are connected to the mission success
- The Tactical Schedule must be developed.
- This Schedule shows the work needed to move the products and services forward, following the Measures of Effectiveness.
- The Measures of Performance describe how the sequenced work produces tangible outcomes
- The Schedule's measures are of compliance with the Measures of Performance (MoP).
- MoP's characterize physical or functional attributes relating to the system operation, measured or estimated under specific conditions.
- The MoP's are attributes that assure the system has the capability to perform and are assessments of the system to assure it meets design requirements to satisfy the MoE's.
- The Execution of the Schedule starts with partitioning the work into chunks that have singular outcomes that can be measured as physical percent complete.
- These are packages of Work or Work Packages, that span short periods of time - 4 to 6 weeks - and have outcomes traceable to the needed capabilities.
- The Work Packages are arranged in a logical sequence that provides a clear and concise path to reaching DONE with minimal risk.
This all comes together in the Integrated Master Plan and Integrated Master Schedule.
