I was recently involved with an organisation that never finished its projects.
There were some really bright people in the business, doing things that I had to stand back to and say ‘wow’.
The only problem was that the specification of the system they were developing was never set in stone. Continuous Improvement only works if you can develop something that is currently working.
Agreeing what a good standard was for the specification and agreeing on how the disparate systems should speak was my job and it was a fun project to be involved with.
The lesson from this that I want to share however is that if you have projects that creep forward and never get finished off then define the standard (or specification) that makes sense to you right now and plan to make it a reality.
You can refine and improve it later, but for today – let’s get the new process / system working.
Giles Johnston
Author, Consultant and Chartered Engineer