PIMA (pee-ma) is my adaptation of the “Shewhart
Cycle” (a.k.a. Plan-Do-Check-Act). It
was created by Dr. Walter Shewhart
(a University of Illinois graduate) who worked for Western Electric and later Bell Labs. It was made popular
by Dr. W. Edwards Deming, the father of modern quality control
in post-war Japan. Dr.
Deming modified
PDCA
to "Plan, Do, Study, Act" (PDSA) because he felt that “Check"
emphasized inspection over analysis.
I have modified the naming convention into more modern terms. I believe Implement is more descriptive than Do. Measure more detailed than Study or Check, and Adapt more accurate than Act. Finally, PIMA allows for an acronym with a memorable mnemonic name, whereas PDCA/PDSA does not.
There are (obviously) 4 steps in the PIMA process:
This
process includes 4 components:
Vision, Strategy, Tactical Activities, and Metrics. It should address
factors
such as financial analysis, customer impact, growth opportunity and the
impact
on internal operations. It should also incorporate a SWOT (Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis. At the end
of this phase you should have a detailed project plan including
timelines,
resource allocations and quantifiable metrics to project, or quantify, a
successful
outcome.
This phase encompasses the
“traditional” project management activities: resource allocation, time
management, scope change, managing expectations, risk management, quality
assurance testing, documentation, end-user training, etc. Agile Management
tools (such as Scrum) are preferable to traditional (i.e.- Waterfall)
methodologies because they allow for dynamic adaptations as the project
progresses.
In this context, measurement refers
to the quantifiable goal of the project. Your stated goal may have been
something like “after completing this project, we should be able to deliver X
units at Y
cost/unit in Z
time frame”. In this phase, you analyze how well you met, or failed to meet, the
strategic objectives of the project.
In the fourth phase, you fine-tune
your system/ process in order to meet or improve your strategic objective. If,
for example, your goal was to deliver new mobile apps to the market within 6
months, you may have implemented a plan to increase the number of programmers
in the company in order to meet that objective. You may find, however, that by
changing your software development environment, or providing additional
training for your staff, you could cut the time for deliverables to 5 months
instead of 6.
This is the Shewhart (or Deming) Cycle. I call it PIMA... and it works.
Many, if not most, of the modern management/process cycles are based on Shewhart and Deming. The IT Infrastructure Library (or ITIL 2011) is fundamentally based on the Shewhart/Deming Cycle. So is the The Eight Fold Path, developed by Prof. Eugene Bardach from Cal-Berkely, which is used extensively in public administration/public policy circles. Six Sigma, which is used extensively in manufacturing, also relies on the Shewhart Cycle. In the case of Six Sigma, you'll notice small adjustments to the cycle. They refer to it as DMAIC ("duh-may-ick") when it is used for projects aimed at improving an existing business process, or DMADV ("duh-mad-vee") when the project is aimed at creating new product or process designs. Either way, both are founded on the Shewhart/Deming Cycle.
Many, if not most, of the modern management/process cycles are based on Shewhart and Deming. The IT Infrastructure Library (or ITIL 2011) is fundamentally based on the Shewhart/Deming Cycle. So is the The Eight Fold Path, developed by Prof. Eugene Bardach from Cal-Berkely, which is used extensively in public administration/public policy circles. Six Sigma, which is used extensively in manufacturing, also relies on the Shewhart Cycle. In the case of Six Sigma, you'll notice small adjustments to the cycle. They refer to it as DMAIC ("duh-may-ick") when it is used for projects aimed at improving an existing business process, or DMADV ("duh-mad-vee") when the project is aimed at creating new product or process designs. Either way, both are founded on the Shewhart/Deming Cycle.
