CONTACTS 

SUBJECTS
Planning & Oversight
Methods (e.g. MBO, TQM, CPM, Benchmarking)
PM, Fundamentals & Overview
WBS Planning Methods
Managing High Tech Projects
Engineering Life Cycle
Usability Engineering

1009 -    ..
1010 - Summary/Objective
1011 -
101101 - Followed up work at ref SDS 5 line 406.
101102 -
101103 - This is to look a little closer at the ideas offered by CSM.  In sum
101104 - both the Commercial Project Cycle and the Technical Aspect...Cycle
101105 - documents reflect a comprehensive WBS for product development.  I
101106 - expect CSM would be a good source of expertise to support a project
101107 - launch effort, like hiring a CPM guy, per...
101108 -
101109 -     Here is our baseline of stuff to think about.  Now let's think
101110 -     through what is needed for this particular project.
101111 -
101112 -
101113 -
101114 -
1012 -
1013 -
1014 - Analysis
1015 -
101501 - Here are some comments and questions.
101502 -
101503 - Repetitive Activity Names Need Clarification
101504 -
101505 - Generally there appears to be a lot of activities with the same name
101506 - that have no clarification of qualitative or other distinctions.  It
101507 - is not clear from the chart how the results, including deliverables,
101508 - are applied by succeeding steps.  Presumably these are details to be
101509 - developed for each project, but there are likely some major and common
101510 - dependencies.  These dependencies and the communication that
101511 - accompanies them are generally the source of problems.
101512 -
101513 -
101514 - CSM's Cycle Reflects PMBOK and ISO
101515 -
101516 - The term "cycle" often implies something will be done over and over,
101517 - like picking fruit from a tree, pouring lifts of a concrete wall, dam,
101518 - or floors in a building, or subroutines in computer coding that are
101519 - sequenced steps called when needed.  The CSM charts do not show
101520 - identifiable sequences of steps that are used over and over, execpt as
101521 - between different products, which are in this context entirely
101522 - different projects.
101523 -
101524 - This use is consistent with PMBOK and ISO, per ref SDS 3 line 302.
101525 -
101526 -
101527 - CPM
101528 - ---
101529 - In addition to listing the activities as the WBS chart does, there
101530 - should baseline template CPM's showing the dependencies between
101531 - activities.  There could be several for different scenarios.  The
101532 - relative task durations show the manager the level of effort that is
101533 - typcially entailed by such a task, and illustrate the critical work.
101534 - Each project could then use the baseline CPM as a template to do a new
101535 - product.
101536 -
101537 -
101538 - Deliverables Seem Unconnected to Activities
101539 -
101540 - It is not clear how deliverables, called "Products" in this scheme,
101541 - are determined.  Some phases have a few deliverables for a lot of
101542 - activities, and others list a deliverable for every activity.  My
101543 - general feeling is that many more "deliverables" are generated by the
101544 - activities than is shown in the chart.
101545 -
101546 -
101547 -
101548 - Commercial & Technical Cycle Interface
101549 -
101550 - I had difficulty understanding where the details in the Technical
101551 - chart connected and expanded on the Commercial chart.  Maybe there is
101552 - an accompanying manual that provides this information; or, possibly
101553 - CSM markets their services to perform this task.
101554 -
101555 -
101556 -  ..
101557 - Usefulness???
101558 -
101559 - The most notable missing phase and/or activity in the CSM WBS is an
101560 - analysis of "usefulness."  This does not appear in any CSM document.
101561 - The CSM WBS calls for obtaining ideas from customers, sales staff,
101562 - competitors, but does not seem to have anyone go out and analyse work
101563 - to see how it can be accomplished faster, better and cheaper with
101564 - automation, under empathetic design criteria at ref SDS 1 line 72, and
101565 - Tom Landauer's book at ref SDS 2 line 793 and ref SDS 2 line 274.
101566 - Landauer says reliance on customer feed back through market forces is
101567 - cited as a slow way to create useful new technology, ref SDS 2 line
101568 - 755.
101569 -
101570 -      [See manufacturer's lack of interest in usefulness, ref SDS 7
101571 -      line 203, and concerns by financial markets.
101572 -
101573 - The Technical Aspect chart requires a little dialog with CSM.  It
101574 - shows a lot of multiple tasks with frequent iteration, reflecting
101575 - interaction among people, which require explanation.  I would like to
101576 - see the thing done in an actual CPM and then see the as-built of that
101577 - CPM on an actual project, in order to determine the practicality of
101578 - this part of CSM's approach.
101579 -
101580 -  ..
101581 - Testing for Usefulness
101582 -
101583 - I don't see this step which is called for by Tom Landauer, ref SDS 2
101584 - 0585  There is testing to see that the product works.  But, where is
101585 - the testing that the new product does something worthwhile and
101586 - improves productivity relative to existing methods, and original
101587 - expectations?
101588 -
101589 -      [See manufacturer's lack of interest in usefulness, ref SDS 7
101590 -      3883, and concerns by financial markets.
101591 -
101592 - Some feel the market place tests usefulness by the number of sales.
101593 -
101594 - Tom Landauer notes this is not true for computers.  People buy the
101595 - stuff because it is assumed to be useful based on the mystique of the
101596 - future, e.g., the space program showing a correlation between personal
101597 - computers and projecting power, ref SDS 4 line 112 and, ref SDS 2 line
101598 - 311.
101599 -
101600 -
101601 -
101602 -
101603 -