Project management is a discipline that has proven indispensable in today’s world. Different organizations rely on it to ensure that whatever undertakings they have go smoothly and that they are able to accomplish their goals. Governments around the world run multiple projects at any one time and that means there is a need for proper coordination and management of the initiatives to ensure that they succeed and achieve the desired impact. One of the things to know about government projects whether federal, state, or local is the fact that they will always face a barrage of challenges from the planning and inception stage all through the implementation and completion. With this in mind, it becomes necessary to come up with a way of identifying such hurdles and providing solutions to address them.
Problems Facing Government Projects
Undoubtedly, undertaking government initiatives requires a lot of work and has a lot of challenges. First, the organization carrying out the work may have to deal with poor institutional support from the relevant government agencies supposed to be part of the undertaking. The problem could lead to delays in getting the necessary permits or clearances and could derail progress. Secondly, working on government initiative could mean having to contend with a lot of uncertainty related to events such as elections which could have a significant impact especially when there is a change of personnel involved. Apart from that, working on public projects will inevitably mean having to deal with government bureaucracy (Heizer & Render, 2014). The authorities have a way of doing things and a system by which they operate and which anyone working with them has to follow. One thing to be wary of is that the pace at which the government works might not match what private organizations may want and that can be an issue at times. Consequently, there might be a lack of consistency and certainty which can be a problem at times. Further, the working of the government is always subject to annual budgets and fiscal years as well as Congressional approvals. One has to factor in all those aspects and that can prove to be quite a challenge.
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The DMAIC Process
When carrying out any undertaking, the aim is to ensure that the client or the owner receives the maximum possible value for money. It is worth noting that certain problems could prevent that from happening. Process improvement is all about picking a task, performing an analysis, and then improving on specific areas to guarantee better quality and more efficiency (Carroll, 2016). One of the premier process improvement models is the Lean Six Sigma which is primed on eliminating waste and reducing variation in an undertaking (Heizer & Render, 2014). The DMAIC paradigm is the data- driven component of the Lean Six Sigma and which seeks to implement a five- stage process of identifying a problem and implementing solutions meant to gradually improve a certain task. Each of the letters in DMAIC represents an action that needs to be done to ensure that there is more efficiency and better results. As a project manager working for the government, the DMAIC framework could prove handy in tracing an underlying challenge and then proposing and implementing solutions meant to enable a smoother execution of initiatives (Carroll, 2016).
Define
The first step in DMAIC is to define the problem and set the goal for what is to be achieved. It is at this stage where the stakeholders are identified and the initial assessment done (Pyzdek & Keller, 2015). For this particular case, the problem is that project management in government has been poor and that has led to missed deadlines, wastage of resources, and poor customer satisfaction. The goals in this regard include having a better customer satisfaction rate, fewer cases of repeated projects, and saving taxpayer money. The internal customers are the various government departments and agencies that will directly benefit from the new way of conducting projects. In any case, the initiatives aim is to lead to an improvement in the way the government carries out its projects. On the other hand, the external customers include the contractors, vendors, and the public that is to benefit from the projects.
Critical to Quality (CTQ) Elements
The aim of the undertaking is to improve the overall government project management. It is expected that the exercise should lead to savings in time and money spent on initiatives by the government as well as the overall efficiency. The champion in this case is the United States federal government which is also the process owner. The team working on the project is drawn from various departments including treasury, the state department, housing and urban development, and energy. The requited resources include money and personnel who will compromise both internal government staff as well as external consultants.
When undertaking any project, it is important to have the critical to quality (CTQ ) elements that will be used to gauge the success of the undertaking (Pyzdek & Keller, 2015). In this particular case, the expectation is to see improvements in several critical aspects. First, projects undertaken on time with few to no cases of missed deadlines. Secondly, there should be better planning which will reduce the need to repeat one or more steps in an initiative. Overall, there has to be better customer satisfaction for the projects that are undertaken.
Understanding the requirements for this undertaking as well as the processes involved will help in ensuring that is successful. A Suppliers, inputs, processes, outputs, and customers (SIPOC) diagram will help in this regard by mapping all the aspects and helping to paint a clear picture of the same.
| Suppliers | Inputs | Process | Output | Customers |
|
The government Contractors Vendors |
Government departments and agencies Contractors Quality assurance personnel Guidelines on government projects Project monitoring frameworks |
Government agency advertises a project Contractors bid Winning bid is selected and contract awarded. Project planning is done Project implementation is done Continuous monitoring of the project is done. Project is concluded and evaluation done. Final project approval. |
The government project is executed Contractor is paid |
Government agencies Suppliers and contractors. |
Measure Phase
Having defined the scope of work to be done, the next step is to quantify the problem and to collect the relevant data. Several steps need to be performed in this regard. First, one would need to perform an analysis of the output as well as the input for the current process (Weiss, 2011). Secondly, there is the need to define a plan for carrying out the measurement and the units to be used in that regard. The system would also require testing to ensure that it is working.
When dealing with this initiative, the defect or flaw can be seen as any instance where an aspect of the project did not go according to plan and where an estimate was either exceeded or not met. First, it could be that the undertaking took more time than was planned. Secondly, it is also a problem if it ends up costing more than what was budgeted. Apart from that, a problem also arises if the customer or owner of the project expresses dissatisfaction with the overall outcome. The specifics to be measured can be enumerated as follows;
Defect: Any instance where a project experiences delays, goes over the budget, or the customer expresses dissatisfaction with the outcome.
Opportunity: Each government project that is implemented.
Unit: Project cost, completion time, and customer satisfaction.
The Data Collection
The project will rely on both current and historical data. First, it will involve gathering information about projects that were implanted a year prior. For each project, one would check whether it was completed on time or there were any delays in the process, the cost incurred, and the comments expressed about the overall satisfaction with the project’s outcome. In this case, the projects of interest would be those for which at least one element of cost, time, or satisfactions failed to meet expectations. The data collection will go further and collect information for plan and design approvals, periodic monitoring reports, schedules for the disbursement of funds, and the necessary approvals. Apart from that, the team would also need to consider projects to be completed within the next one year and consider the same parameters. The the
Analyze Phase
After collecting the data, the next step is to analyze it in a bid to identify useful trends and patterns that can then be explored and form the basis for action. The aim of the initiative is to identify the factors that lead to government projects not meeting their targets. Therefore, the model to be developed will relate the failure of projects to meet their set parameters and the reasons for that. It will portray the correlation between the variables and the defect. In this case, the project team will need to come up with a list of key process input variables (KIPVs ) after studying the information for each project (Weiss, 2011). The end result should be a model in the frame of Y= f(X) which will be used to project the occurrence of defects that could be one or more of time delays, cost overruns, or lack of customer satisfaction.
Use of the 5 Whys
Ultimately, the nature of this undertaking calls for a deep probing that is to identify the problems and to come up with the necessary solutions. The 5 Whys process is appropriate in this regard as it will allow for questions to be asked in a bid to come up with the necessary answers. It would help to look at projects individually and to then develop the overall picture. An example of the 5 Whys framework is shown below;
Problem: The project was not finished on time
Why? – More time had to be spent because the project details had to be changed.
Why? - The local community went to court to protest the fact that the project threatened the areas biodiversity.
Why? – The project would cut through some local wetland areas.
Why? – The project planners did not do a thorough project impact assessment
Why? – The team did not have proper planning for the project.
Improve Phase
Having analyzed the information available, it would then be the time to propose improvements to be implanted. In this case, the first proposal is to have closer cooperation among the various government agencies involved in a project to cut on the delays at the planning stage. Secondly, there is a need for better coordination to ensure that approvals and payments are carried out in good time and to avoid instances where progress has to be halted to await approval before moving onto the next stage. Apart from that, it will also be important to work on cutting the unnecessary red tape that is often part of the functioning of the government to ensure that there are no instances of time wastages as a result of slow bureaucratic processes. Overall, the expectation is to see instances of the identified defects reducing by half within a year.
Control Phase
The control phase will be of huge importance as it will help to check on whether the improvements put in place are working. For starters, there will be the need to put in place a monitoring and validation system which will check the progress of the new measures put in place. At this point, the team will assess the viability of the proposed recommendations and check to see if it is something that can be carried on long term (Furterer, 2016). The team will also need to close the project and give its report for further consideration.
References
Carroll, C. (2016). Six Sigma for Powerful Improvement . Boca Raton, Fl: CRC Press.
Furterer, S. (2016). Lean Six Sigma in Service . Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
Heizer, J., & Render, B. (2014). Operations management . Boston: Prentice Hall.
Pyzdek, T., & Keller, P. (2015). The Six Sigma handbook . New York: McGraw-Hill Education.
Weiss, A. (2011). Key business solutions . Harlow, England: Financial Times Prentice Hall.
