This one-half-day workshop covers the methodology for benchmarking best practices to assess and improve an organization’s product development environment using DRM Associates proven Product Development Assessment (PDA) methodology and/or the Product Development Best Practices and Assessment (PDBPA) software or IPPD Program Assessment (IPPDPA) software. The content of the workshop is as follows:
1. INTRODUCTION
- The Need for Improving the Product Development Process
- Improvement Approaches
- A Framework for Improvement – Gap Analysis
- Assessment Methods
- PDA Methodology
- Capability Maturity Model
- Benchmarking Against Best Practices
- When to Conduct an Assessment
- Enterprise Assessment vs. a Program Assessment
2. METHODOLOGY
- Organizing an Assessment and Improvement Project
- Who Should Perform the Assessment
- Obtaining the Data to Support the Assessment
- Interviews
- Process Walk-throughs
- Objective Evidence and Performance Measures
- The Best Practices Framework
- Developing an Understanding of Best Practices and the Supporting Concepts
- The Relevance of a Best Practice to a Company
- Tailoring the Assessment to Your Company/Program
- Assessing Company or Program Performance Against Best Practices
- Evaluation Scale and Considerations
- Summarization and Role-Up
- Gap Analysis
- Assuring Strategic Alignment – Mapping Strategic Levers Against Business Objectives
3. SOFTWARE TOOLS
- The Product Development Best Practices and Assessment Software (PDBPA)
- The IPPD Program Assessment Software
- System Requirements
- Review of Software
- Exercise – Assessing Practices Within Your Organization
4. IMPROVEMENT PROCESS
- External Benchmarking to Obtain Additional Data
- When to Obtain an Objective Third Party Review
- Developing an Improvement Plan
- Identifying High-Payoff Opportunities
- Structuring a Logical Plan for an Improvement Program
- What is the Proper Rate of Improvement – How Much Change Should You Undertake
- Presenting the Findings and Recommendations
- Obtaining Commitment to Change