Hank and others:
I would suggest to you that the so-called "9-Step Structured Task
Implementation Process" is similar in many respects to the five steps
Willard Jule distinguished.
Developed at Teradyne with the help of Professor Shoji Shiba, the 9-Step
Process is a very concrete system built around the PDCA (Shewhart) Cycle.
Here are the steps:
1) Describe the project
2) Explore the essentials and narrow the focus
3) Establish the metrics and constraints
4) Identify possible alternatives and select the best alternatives
5) Develop an optimistic plan with obstacles and countermeasures
6) Develop, implement and monitor the detailed plan
7) Evaluate the results
8) Standardize
9) Reflect on the process
Those of you who are familiar with the 7-Step problem solving methodology
will see certain parallels. However this is not for reactive problem
solving the way the 7-Step method is. It assumes, of course, a commitment
up front to iterative improvement and quality of ideas and processes.
Hope this is of interest.
-- Barry Mallis bmallis@markem.com