MGT 641

The challenge with the Japanese concept of kaizen, which is to continuously make small incremental improvements, is that you can get on an improvement path that will never lead to a quantum leap in your process. For example, a team following the agile lifecycle may never identify the strategy of continuous deployment (CD) on their own because having a two-week iteration may preclude the idea of releasing several times a day into production. Yet, if people on your team were to hear about other teams in your organization working that way, they might soon choose to start experimenting with CD techniques. This in turn could lead to the "radical" process improvement of abandoning the idea of time-boxed iterations and moving to something much closer to DA's Continuous Delivery: Lean lifecycle available online at "Disciplined Agile Posters and Pamphlets" located in the Course Materials.

Review "Lean" and "Using the Theory of Flow to Find Your Impediments," both located in the Topic 8 Resources.

Directions: In 750-1000 words, complete and submit a proposal for a change (or changes) in procedure to increase the opportunity for radical improvement in product development within your "enterprise." Using flow theory as a guide, focus directly on your Topic 7 "Project Retrospective Report" as well as the sections indicated below for reference from A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) and The Standard for Project Management. Submission should clearly demonstrate both understanding and application of flow theory concepts.

Topic 7 "Project Retrospective Report"

• Section 2 "A System for Value Delivery" from The Standard for Project Management portion
• Section 3.6 "Diagnostics" from A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide)