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Milestone Buffer Chart: The Most Important Report You've Never Heard Of

David Paulson - 02/14/24 04:31 AM

In previous posts I’ve written about reports that are meaningless, misleading, and even damaging. (Yes, the last one actually causes your projects to...

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Burndown Charts Don't Work for Hardware

David Paulson - 01/30/24 03:19 AM

In a previous blog post I explained (and hopefully convinced you) that measuring “percent complete” literally causes your projects to take longer.

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Resource Loading - How a Small Error Can Double Your Schedule!😧

David Paulson - 01/6/24 11:23 PM

Would you believe that a 10% increase in the workload on your teams could double the length of a project? 

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Your Favorite Report is Delaying Your Project

David Paulson - 12/6/23 03:15 AM

Most companies are trying hard to achieve predictable end dates.

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Stop the Evil and Nefarious Multitasking!

David Paulson - 11/14/23 09:28 PM

Not that long ago multitasking used to be considered a valuable skill. Thankfully that belief has been proven wrong, but for some reason a lot of...

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Predictable End Dates - One Company's Journey

David Paulson - 10/19/23 01:01 AM

One of the most difficult things about making process improvements is knowing where to start. Doing the wrong thing is a waste of time and money, and...

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10 tips for running a daily standup meeting

Paul DeLong - 04/5/23 07:06 PM

Running a daily standup meeting seems pretty simple right? After all it’s just another meeting. Well not really. The daily stand-up process is...

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Applying agile to hardware development (part 1)

Eric Graves - 02/5/23 06:00 PM

Agile development

Yes, Agile principles can be applied with benefit in hardware product development (Agile hardware development). However, Agile's...

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Agile principle 1: early and continuous delivery of value

Eric Graves - 01/5/23 06:21 PM

In the next three posts we discuss Agile principles and how to apply the principles in hardware development. In this post we look at delivering...

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Agile principle 2: welcoming changing requirements

Eric Graves - 10/5/22 05:22 PM

Agile principle 2: Welcome changing requirements, even late in development.

Software and hardware product development teams share important...

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Project Management: Do you know what the dark matter is in your project plan?

Elyssa Pallai - 04/15/21 03:03 PM

In 1925, Hubble was the first astronomer to prove that the universe was expanding. The reason for the expansion, Hubble explained, was dark matter....

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Rolling Wave Planning - A Step-by-Step Guide

Paul DeLong - 08/15/19 11:50 AM

If you want your product development projects to run smoothly, you need to have a regular cadence for long-term planning, short-term planning, and...

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Get Lean and Agile for Free

Elyssa Pallai - 07/11/19 01:02 PM

A couple of weeks ago we shared some Lean and Agile case studies that demonstrated how the benefits of implementing Playbook methods and tools far...

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Agile Case Studies

Elyssa Pallai - 06/27/19 12:06 PM

Finding your way through the sea of information about what differentiates project management and collaboration tools can be daunting. Which tool is...

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3 Tips for Implementing Agile

Elyssa Pallai - 05/14/19 02:12 PM

Hardware product development is different than software. Both types of products go through a build-test-learn cycle, but the most obvious difference...

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10 Planning Mistakes Project Teams Make

Elyssa Pallai - 03/22/19 12:01 PM

10 Planning Mistakes Project Teams Make

Product development is hard, but with the right short and long-term planning in place, launching ahead of...

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Lean vs Agile vs Waterfall

Elyssa Pallai - 03/5/19 06:00 PM

Lean vs. Agile vs. Waterfall Project Management

In a previous post we discussed that there is no doubt project management methods have evolved and...

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Lean Case Study: Milwaukee Valve

Elyssa Pallai - 03/5/19 05:30 PM

Milwaukee Valve won big implementing Playbook software and Lean project management. This Lean case study demonstrates how Lean transformation can...

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Decentralized Project Management

Paul DeLong - 02/19/19 05:37 PM

This is the ninth part in our in-depth series on Lean Agile project management.

We've covered a variety of Lean principles that have a direct impact...

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Push vs. Pull

Eric Graves - 02/12/19 02:00 PM

What is the difference between push vs pull?

In a pull system, teams pull tasks from the backlog. As opposed to a push system where work is pushed...

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10 Benefits of Visual Management

Elyssa Pallai - 01/30/19 03:05 PM

Change is hard. There is no doubt about that. However, if you want to create flow among new product development teams, and ultimately speed up...

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Lean Project Management Principles

Elyssa Pallai - 01/30/19 11:57 AM

A fundamental principle of Lean is smooth, continuous flow. Flow is achieved by eliminating turbulence caused when the flow through any process is...

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Lean Project Management

Eric Graves - 01/9/19 06:55 PM

Feeling like you are using the wrong tools to achieve your product development goals?

This is Part 1 of a series of posts on Lean Project Management

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Procurement Strategy That Works

Eric Graves - 12/4/18 05:23 PM

Shipment delays in product development happen. Packages get lost or dropped off at the wrong location. As a result projects can get delayed more than...

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Resource Availability - How to Calculate It

Eric Graves - 11/13/18 09:43 PM

The project team is falling behind schedule at a rapid rate. The major milestones and planned launch date are becoming further out of reach. You are...

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Cost of Delay: How to Calculate It - Free Excel spreadsheet

David Paulson - 09/18/18 07:01 PM

The goal of developing new products is profit. And even though we intuitively know it's important to get to market sooner, do you really understand...

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Guide to Lean Agile Project Management

Elyssa Pallai - 08/21/18 05:44 PM

Looking to deepen your understanding of Lean Agile project management?

At Playbook we have a number of free resources available in the Knowledge...

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5 Principles of Lean Project Management

Eric Graves - 03/8/18 12:00 PM

I recently read the new book Team of Teams – New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, by General Stanley McChrystal. I’d like to share some of my...

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Lean Principles

David Paulson - 04/25/17 05:00 PM

In my previous blog post I introduced two of Don Reinertsen’s books and explained how they contained dozens and dozens of great ideas around Lean and...

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Lean Product Development: Where in the world should you begin?

David Paulson - 04/13/17 05:15 PM

In the previous two blogs I made a compelling case for Lean Product Development being the business opportunity of the century, and then gave an...

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Lean Product Development Case Study

David Paulson - 03/16/17 05:30 PM

In this post, I want to share an incredible case study that demonstrates the unexpected results that can be achieved when you apply the proper set of...

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Lean Case Study: Grid Solutions Company

Elyssa Pallai - 03/7/17 08:52 PM

Lean Case Study: Grid Solutions

"...Playbook added that catalytic capability to use all the other pieces in the right way."
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Top 7 Benefits of Visual Management Software

Elyssa Pallai - 01/6/17 11:15 PM

7 Benefits of Visual Project Management Software

Visual work management is critical to speeding up your new product development projects. If your new...
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Early Learning in Hardware Development

Eric Graves - 12/15/16 04:00 PM

Early Learning in Hardware Development

This series is a comprehensive review of Agile and how to apply Agile to hardware product development.We look...

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Making Hardware Development More Agile

Eric Graves - 12/1/16 06:23 PM

Optimizing Hardware Development to be More Agile

So how do you make hardware development more Agile? In this part, part 5, we examine Agile's 3 and...

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The Top Cause of Project Delays (It's Not What You Think)

Elyssa Pallai - 12/1/16 05:02 PM

Welcome to Playbook’s Three Lean Product Development Links. Why are projects late? We spend a lot of time thinking about this very question at...

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Agile Hardware Development: Agile Principles 4 - 12

Eric Graves - 11/1/16 05:25 PM

We agree. Hardware product development is different than software. So when we apply Agile principles, we need a different approach.

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Visual Management - Return on Investment

David Paulson - 10/6/16 04:20 PM

Visual Management

Visual management allows you to have tangible everyday conversations about the work in progress -- it makes work visible. It's such...

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Cost of Delay - What it is, how to calculate it

Elyssa Pallai - 09/2/16 05:00 PM

What is cost of delay? Understanding Cost of Delay is the key to making product development decisions based on economic loss or gain. In fact, the...

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Agile Hardware Development: Playbook's Lean Links

Elyssa Pallai - 06/7/16 04:30 PM

Welcome to Playbook’s Three Lean Product Development Links. Can Agile be applied to hardware development? It can. Here are three Lean links that...

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5 Visual Project Management Software Requirements

Elyssa Pallai - 05/10/16 05:35 PM

Visual project management is critical for creating flow in your Lean product development projects. If you are working with manual project boards,...

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eBook: Applying Agile to Hardware Product Development

Elyssa Pallai - 03/25/16 04:58 PM

Due to the popularity of our blog series on Applying Agile to hardware new product development projects, we decided to create an easily shareable...

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Agile vs. Waterfall Product Development

Eric Graves - 02/26/16 06:00 PM

Agile vs. Waterfall

Recently I came across an article on the Dummies.com website comparing the traditional Waterfall method (Phased and Gated) to the...

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Four Agile Product Development Techniques That DON’T Work for Hardware

Eric Graves - 02/2/16 06:40 PM

At Playbook, creating velocity in product development projects has been our passion for 18 years. As a result, we’ve analyzed Agile and other product...

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Lean Product Development Links: Stimulating Creativity and Innovation

Elyssa Pallai - 01/20/16 09:15 PM

Creativity and Innovation

Looking to stimulate more innovation and agile problem solving in your organization? This week we explore methods for...

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The Sweet Spot Between Agile and Waterfall Project Management

Elyssa Pallai - 01/12/16 06:00 PM

What is the Sweet Spot Between Agile and Waterfall

There is no doubt project management methods have evolved and the traditional Phase Gate or...

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11 Tips for Implementing Lean Project Management

Eric Graves - 07/14/15 08:01 PM

I heard recently some people in software development were proposing that there be ‘no projects’, because ‘projects’ create batches and stifle project...

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Visual Management: Strategy 2 Market Gets Lean with Playbook

Elyssa Pallai - 01/1/15 02:06 PM

This is a guest post from Strategy 2 Market, a Playbook partner based in Chicago. Strategy 2 Market provides Lean New Product Development consulting...

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Five Things Innovative, Lean and Agile Project Managers are Changing About the Way They Work

Elyssa Pallai - 02/25/14 11:45 AM

Product development should be fun, exciting, predictable, and of course profitable too. We also believe it is possible to have schedules that satisfy...

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3 Secrets of Highly Successful New Product Development Executives

David Paulson - 12/19/13 02:54 AM

3 Secrets of Highly Successful New Product Development Executives

At Playbook, we work with a lot of great Fortune 500 companies that are adopting...

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Lean and Agile New Product Development Systems and How They Parallel a Fighter Jet Flight System

Eric Graves - 11/16/13 09:27 PM

Being an Aerospace Engineer by training, I find some parallels from time to time between product development systems and flight systems. One that I...

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11 Lean and Agile Tips for Achieving Your Project Launch Date

Eric Graves - 10/19/13 09:09 AM

I heard recently some people in software development proposing that there be "no projects," because projects create batches and stifle flow. Being a...

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Changing Mindsets by Applying Lean and Agile Methods

Eric Graves - 09/12/13 09:11 AM

Hello world! This is my first entry into the blogging business. I hope to have many great discussions with you. Please allow me to introduce myself....

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