DPPM5

Project Management National Conference 2011 PMI India

Achieving Delivery Excellence

D John Peter PMP
Associate Director, Mind Tree Limited

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Application of Select Tools of Psychology for Effective Project Management


Contents

1.1 ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................4
2 KEYWORDS.....................................................................................................................5
3 EXCUTIVE SUMMARY..................................................................................................5
4 QUALITY JOURNEY .......................................................................................6
5 JOURNEY TO EXCELLENCE.........................................................................................8
6 CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS....................................................................................9
7 KEY METRICS & MEASUREMENT............................................................................11
8 WAY TO DELIVERY EXCELLENCE..........................................................................12
9 DELIVERY EXCELLENCE...........................................................................................13
10 CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................15
11 REFERENCE.................................................................................................................15
12 Author Profile.................................................................................................................18

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1.1 ABSTRACT

ACHIEVING DELIVERY EXCELLENCE

Practice leads to perfection and consistency brings stability. Perfection and
consistency will ensure Quality. Will quality ensure Excellence? It is difficult to
say ‘yes’ because quality means “Good” and excellence means “Extremely
Good”. So Delivery Excellence means much more than Quality.

Delivery Excellence is the keyword and a critical factor for achieving success. If
we closely look at the product and service industry, organizations are keeping
“Delivery Excellence” as part of organization goal and hence they are searching
an answer for the question “How to achieve Delivery Excellence?”

The only way organizations can be driven to achieve excellence is by keeping an
eye on competition and world best practice in all aspects of the business
(Bendell et. all, 1998). Several researchers (Pinto & Slevin, 1987 and 1988),
(Pinto and. Kharbanda, 1995) have identified the project success factors (Refer
Table-1). Similarly critical success factors that ensure “Delivery Excellence”
should be identified.

Based on the current project management scenarios and the research data (refer
Table-1), we have further analyzed and identified the set of critical factors (Refer
Table-2) and techniques (refer table-4) that predominantly ensure “Delivery
Excellence”.

Delivery Excellence techniques have already been implemented companies like
Apple and Godrej. These companies achieved the highest level of success.
Innovation co-creation is one of the techniques helped them to achieve delivery
excellence. “The Power of Co-Creation” author Venkat Ramasamy has described
how organizations could turn around their business from a low margin to high
margin and loss making to profit making organization.

So this document will discuss about the best practices, tools and techniques
available for “Achieving Delivery Excellence”.

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2 KEYWORDS

Delivery Excellence, Project Success, Techniques, Innovation

3 EXCUTIVE SUMMARY

ACHIEVING DELIVERY EXCELLENCE

Excellence is the quality of being outstanding or extremely good. This is the
definition from dictionary. Delivery Excellence of an organization is the quality of
delivering outstanding or extremely good deliverables.

Quality means “Good” but excellence means “Extremely Good”. Delivery
Excellence means much more than achieving Quality. So Delivery Excellence is
much more than delivering projects within cost, time, effort or reducing defects or
merely meeting expectations or reducing complaints. Nevertheless, these factors
are critical for project management success but Delivery Excellence is crucial for
project success. Project Success ensures Organizations success. Net effect
“Delivery Excellence” ensures Organization success.

Project Management
Project Success Organization Success
Success

Delivery Excellence

So today, organizations are investing in innovations and new initiatives to
achieve “Delivery Excellence” and most of them are searching an answer for the
question “How to achieve Delivery Excellence?” Apple is the best example to
know about “achieving Delivery Excellence”. Apple delivered much more than
product quality by bringing rich user experience features in iPods through
innovation co-creation with customer which brought them breakaway success.

Sony products are famous for their quality but today Apple products are the most
preferred. How can Apple compete with Sony – a market leader and gadgets
giant? The logic is simple; Apple has the “Delivery Excellence” capability which
has the power to go beyond Sony’s Quality.

It is not companies like Apple can achieve excellence or companies from Japan
or USA can achieve excellence. Excellence can be achieved irrespective of the
sector and country. After all excellence is a habit not an activity. “Super 30” of

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Anand Kumar from Bihar, India is a great example for delivery excellence. By
2011, 236 of the 270 had made it to IITs and Discovery Channel showcased his
work in a documentary. Today Japanese “famous for Quality” are coming all the
way from Japan to meet Anand Kumar and learn the delivery excellence
techniques.

So it is natural for organizations to learn “Delivery Excellence” techniques and
move from the tag of “traditional organization” to “delivery excellence
organization”. Hence this paper explores the new tools and techniques for
“Achieving Delivery Excellence”.

4 QUALITY JOURNEY

FROM QUALITY TO EXCELLENCE

Japanese equipment is very good, very accurate, and very well maintained. In
the 1950s and 1960s, Japanese goods were synonymous with cheapness and
low quality, but over time its quality initiatives began to be successful. Fig-1
shows Japan’s quality journey from 1950 to till date.

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Fig: 1: Quality Journey
Quality

SPC

TQM

SQC
2000
QM 1980
QM: Quality Management SQC: Statistical Quality Control
1960
TQM: Total Quality Management SPC: Statistical Process Control
1950

Period in Year
Japan has been dominating in implementing the quality processes and
procedures that provide them the highest quality and reliability in today's
electronics markets. How Japan has taken lead in quality initiatives? Japanese
companies have invested their time, effort and cost heavily on quality initiatives
which brought them quality tools and quality gurus like Deming, Juran, Ishikawa,
Keizan.

As Japan continuously worked on quality initiatives, they could reach a matured
level in quality and thereby their products are extremely good and reliable. Their
investments are giving returns today.

How Japanese achieved quality in their products starting from small products like
calculators, music players and TV to big motor bikes and cars? Accordingly, it is
the time for the industry to go beyond Quality that is excellence. In project
management, it is Delivery Excellence.

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5 JOURNEY TO EXCELLENCE

WHY DELIVERY EXCELLENCE?

When products have the desired quality then why delivery excellence? Is it really
a matter for high quality product organizations to go for delivery excellence? It is
a trivial question but one of the Japanese Organization has seen the answer for
this question when their leading electronics product “walkman” has to be phased-
out when Apple’s iPod came into the market. Though walkman is the highest
quality product, it lost its position completely against Apple’s iPod. So what is the
ground reality here? That fact is delivery excellence, which can go beyond the
quality. During this period companies started looking for something beyond
quality. From that time onwards movements started for “Achieving Excellence” in
one or another forum:

Tom Peters and Robert Waterman were deeply involved in the movement and
came out with the landmark book “In Search of Excellence”. They mentioned that
organizations in every imaginable area of business, government and the social
sector have been restlessly seeking the formula for success. The “excellence
movement” created an appetite for management systems but still searching the
process for achieving excellence.

Success of the project is no more depending on triple (Ref. Fig-2) constraint
(Shenhar et al., 2002).

Fig-2: Triple Constraint - Triangle Model Fig-3: NTCP – Diamond Model

TIME

COST SCOPE

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Shenhar et al. have been reinventing project management and identified a new
NTCP diamond model which talks about adaptive project management more
than triple constraints. Over the years, following “movements” have started and
took center stage, attracted their share of advocates and practitioners but still in
evaluation stage for achieving delivery excellence.

1. Factors ensure Project Management Success – Cost, Scope, Time,
Quality (triangle model)

2. Factors ensure Project Success – Customer Satisfaction (diamond
model)

3. Factors ensure Organization Success – Delivery Excellence (circle
model)

6 CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS

FACTORS ENSURE PROJECT SUCCESS & DELIVERY
EXCELLENCE

Sydney Opera House is one of the typical
examples of Project Success but Project
Management failure. As for as project
management success it had 1500% over budget
and 250% time overrun however in terms of
Project Success Sydney Opera House turned to
be an amazing success project. So project
success and project management success should be distinguished clearly and
defined accurately. Since 1980, many researches have been done and identified
different set of critical success factors. As per G.U. Prabhkar (2008) “the only
agreement seems to be the disagreement on what constitutes project success”.

Researchers like Pinto & Slevin (1989), Chua et al (1999), PMI (2004), Turner &
Muller (2007), Walker et al (2004), Hyvari (2006), Khang & Moe (2008) have
identified the critical success factors (Refer Table-1) that significantly determine
project management success.

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Table-1: Project Success Factors

Based on the research data, analyzed and identified the below set of critical
factors and criteria that predominantly ensure “Delivery Excellence” refer Table-
2.

Table-2: Delivery Excellence Factors

Delivery Excellence Score
Performance Benchmark
Critical Factors ensure Card
Sl. No.
Delivery Excellence Performanc Projec BU MindTree Industry Competitor
Planned Actual
e t Level Level Level Level Level
Customer Satisfaction
1 100+%
Level
Employee Satisfaction
2 100+%
Level
Business/ Revenue
3 100+%
Growth
4 Effort Variance 100+%
5 Schedule Variance 100+%
6 Review Effectiveness 100+%
7 Defect Density 100+%
Business / Increase
8 100+%
Profit
Best Practices /
9 100+%
Innovation

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7 KEY METRICS & MEASUREMENT

MONITOR AND TRACK KEY DELIVERY EXCELLENCE
METRICS

Managing critical factors is part of
the process of achieving Delivery
Excellence. As per Quality
Management System, without
measurement things cannot be
managed. So Project Success and
Delivery Excellence critical success factors should be measured, monitored and
tracked. Following table shows the list of metrics to be measured and monitored
through productivity tools and measurement system.

As discussed in the Journey to Excellence section, metrics collection also can be
done at different level. Representatives from Project Management, Project and
Organization are responsible for collecting the metrics at each level. Table-3
represents the metrics related to Delivery Excellence. Delivery manager and
Senior Management members are responsible for Project and Organization level
metrics.
Table-3: Key Metrics List

Long Term Short Term Measures Target
Increase Revenue Revenue growth % Increase
Financial % Increase
Increase Customers Number of Customers
Growth
Innovation: % of revenue from new
Increase Projects % Increase
projects
Increase Satisfaction Customer Satisfaction Level % Increase
Increase Referrals Frequency of referral % Increase
Customer
Satisfaction # of project managed triple
Increase Confidence % Increase
constraints within threshold limits
Improve Relationship # of commitment/milestone missed % Reduction

Increase Core Skills Training % Increase
Learning &
Growth Increase Systems
% Unavailable % Reduction
Availability
Increase Review
Review Efficiency % Increase
Efficiency
Internal Reduce Escalations Number of Escalations % Reduction
Business Reduce Cycle Time Cycle Time % Reduction
Process and
Employee Turnover Reduce Attrition % Reduction
Quality
Reduce Defects Defect Density % Reduction
Reduce Costs Waste, Rework, Warranty Costs % Reduction

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Above list of metrics are indicative and Organization can have a modified version
of metrics list based on their project and business model. Typically organization
can have a Balanced Score Card with above metrics. Delivery Excellence team
members should evaluate Organization project performance against industry
bench mark data for scoring. Teams exceeding the bench mark performance are
eligible for getting the “Seal of Delivery Excellence”

8 WAY TO DELIVERY EXCELLENCE

TOOLS & TECHNIQUES TO ACHIEVE DELIVERY
EXCELLENCE

Munns & Bjerimi (1996) identified and shared the
distinction between project success and
project management success. This
differentiation helped project managers
to identify the focus area and achieve
success. Similarly, the distinction
between achieving Quality and
achieving Excellence should be
identified.

Apple is one of the organizations, who achieved Delivery Excellence by their
breakthrough innovation of iPods. Apart from western countries, In India, Godrej
has introduced a new Refrigerator with radio. This innovation has helped them
achieving 150% revenue growth. Here Godrej has been relying on innovation to
overcome the large multinational competitions in consumer durable market.
Many more examples and case studies can be discussed but the inference is the
same, there is a gap between the traditional way of achieving quality and
excellence way of achieving Delivery Excellence.

Based on the industry experience, identified certain initiatives for moving
organizations from their traditional ways to excellence ways. Following are the
high level list of transformational initiatives to be performed for achieving Delivery
Excellence. Gold and Diamonds are glittering after going through different paths
and changes. Organizations also need to take initiative to go through the
different transformation process.

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Table-4: List of Initiatives

MOVE FROM
MOVE TO EXCELLENCE WAYS ACHIEVEMENT AREAS
TRADITIONAL WAYS
Individual Co-Creation Innovation

Skill assessment, Interview,
Manual Process Automation Process
Project health, Revenue goals
Reactive Model Predictive Model
High Matured organization
Supply on Demand Predict Demand and Supply
Conservative/Delayed Open & Confident Culture,
Transparent/Quick Communication
Communication Creative environment

Quantitative Process (ensure to keep Certified team manages critical
Qualitative Process
certified Developers/PMs) projects better than others
Taking ownership to achieve
Ability Responsibility
Goals and Objectives
Refer best practices and lesson learnt Save TIME, COST and Show
Re-Invent & Re-Create
and Re-Use value addition to customers

Wait for Survey report Predict Customer Satisfaction Capability and Maturity

Resource Pool Competency Development Centre Right Talents Availability

9 DELIVERY EXCELLENCE

BENEFITS OF ACHIVING DELIVERY EXCELLENCE

Organizations with Delivery
Excellence capability can reap
many benefits from all angles.
Partial list of benefits includes
increase revenue, improve
performance, increase productivity
and reduce cost & time.

Unlike Quality Management, benefit of Delivery Excellence goes beyond project
management level, project Level and organization level. It also spreads across
present and future time period. Particularly it helps future growth of the
organization. Benefits achieved through innovations and different initiatives will
continue beyond the project level and will help organization growth. Partial list of
Delivery Excellence key benefits are as follows.

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Project Management Level Project Level Organization Level
On Time Customer Satisfaction Add new customers
On Budget Employee satisfaction Reduce Attrition
On Effort Meet Revenue Goals Improve Profit
Meet Quality goals Improve Productivity Reduce Cost & Time

For more clarity, Delivery Excellence benefits highlighted in Figure-4 as a
calculated comparison view between two scenarios where one is before
implementing Delivery Excellence Group and the next is after implementing
Delivery Excellence Group in an IT Service organization.

Fig-4: Delivery Excellence Benefits Chart

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10 CONCLUSION

SEAL OF DELIVERY EXCELLENCE

Organizations have to encourage
innovations and motivate employees
to implement new initiatives for
achieving Delivery Excellence apart
from monitoring and tracking the
delivery excellence key factors.
Organization can effectively
implement Delivery initiatives by
including subject matter experts to implement the process and award “Seal of
Delivery Excellence” to eligible projects. This process should encourage teams to
go for excellence, identify the innovations and share with internal and external
groups like Baldrige in USA, a National Program for encouraging Performance
Excellence.

Achieving Excellence process should be simple, so that everyone can achieve
excellence. In such case, better to know, “what is Excellence?” Is it like climbing
the Mount Everest or winning a medal in Olympic Games? How can everyone
achieve? Lior Arussy, the author of the book “Excellence Every Day” says
“equating excellence with heroism not only demotivates but also
discourages”. So the conclusion here is to change the mindset after all
“excellence is a habit not a heroic activity”.

“Everyone” is capable of achieving excellence in an organization by meeting or
exceeding stakeholder expectations. Stakeholder means not necessarily limiting
to customers; it can be internal or external team members.

Finally, achieving excellence should be a Daily Goal. Collective effort on the daily
goal across the organization will ensure “Delivery Excellence”.

11 REFERENCE

Azim Premji - (2005), Achieving global excellence through IT, Web Ref.
http://www.grass-roots.in/cache/index.php/1231

Basil Vandegriend – (2007), Achieving Excellence in Software Development,
web ref.

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http://www.basilv.com/psd/blog/2007/achieving-excellence-in-software-
development

BIS – Bureau of Indian Standards (1991), “Performance Criteria” for Rajiv
Gandhi National Quality Award
http://www.apeda.gov.in/apedawebsite/Announcements/Rajiv_Gandhi_Nat
ional_Quality_Award.pdf

BNQP— Baldrige National Quality Program – (2002) “Criteria for Performance
Excellence”

U.S. Department of Comme – National Institute of Standards and Technology

Retrieved from the World Wide Web: www.quality.nist.gov/bcpg.pdf.htm

Cesare Zanasi and Cosimo Rota - (2003) “Project Success Factors”, Reference
from web
http://centmapress.ilb.uni-
bonn.de/ojs/index.php/proceedings/article/viewFile/45/43

Donald Chrusciel and Dr. Dennis W.- (2003) Field "From Critical Success
Factors into Criteria for

Performance Excellence” (Vol. 19-4, Aug 2003)
http://atmae.org/jit/Articles/chrusciel073003.pdf

Guru Prakash Prabhakar Bristol Business School, University of the West of
England, “What is Project

Success: A Literature Review” International Journal of Business and
Management September, 2008

Harry V. Roberts, Bernard F. Sergesketter – (1993) “Quality is Personal” – A
Foundation for

Total Quality Management, The Free Press, NY, USA

History of Japanese Quality Movement, web ref.
http://www.wtec.org/loyola/ep/c6s1.htm

Japan celebrates Super 30 success - Giridhar Jha - 22 Jun, 2011 Web Ref.

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http://in.education.yahoo.com/news/yedumailtoday/japan-celebrates-super-30-
success-20110622

Lior Arussy - (2008), Excellence Every Day, Make the Daily Choice - Inspire Your
Employees and Amaze

Your Customers, Printed in NY, USA. Pp. 143-153.

Murali Chemuturi and Thomas M. Cagley, JR. – (2010), Mastering Software
Project Management,

Best Practices, Tools and Techniques, J. Ross Publishing, FL, USA

NTCP Diamond Model (SHENHAR, A.J., DVIR, D. 2004) web reference:
http://giorgiomartorell.blogspot.com/2010/08/ntcp-model.html

Singapore Government’s “Managing for Excellence” in CPIB

CPIB - Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau,
http://app.cpib.gov.sg/cpib_new/user/default.aspx?pgID=159

Super 30 - Anand Kumar, web reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anand_Kumar

Vasanthi Perumal, Abu Hassan Abu Bakar, Arman Abd Razak, Shardy Abdullah,
Aidah Awang – (2010)

“Critical success factors for sustainable housing: a framework from the project
management view”

Asian Journal of Management research, University Sains Malaysia, Pulau
Pinang, Malaysia

Web Ref. http://ipublishing.co.in/ajmrvol1no1/EIJMRS1007.pdf

Venkat Ramasamy., Francis Gouillaet (2010): “The Power of Co-Creation”, Build
it with them to boost growth, productivity, and Profits. Free press, NY.USA Pp.
38-39

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12 Author Profile

Peter has 18+ years of experience in information technology progressing
from development, project management and program management. He is
currently working with MindTree, Bangalore as Associate Director.

Peter is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) from PMI,
USA. He has experience in developing project management tools and
identifying techniques to improve overall performance and productivity.
His area of focus is achieving Delivery Excellence by using the right Tools
and Techniques.

John has done degree from Thyagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai
and MS from BITS, Pilani.

johnpeter_devesahayam@mindtree.com

peter2pmp@yahoo.com

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