Agile project management for root cause analysis projects

DS 75-5: Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED13) Design For Harmonies, Vol. 5: Design for X, Design to X, Seoul, Korea 19-22.08.2013

Year: 2013
Editor: Udo Lindemann, Srinivasan V, Yong Se Kim, Sang Won Lee, John Clarkson, Gaetano Cascini
Author: Kim, Sun K.; Mont, Javier
Series: ICED
Institution: 1: Bayer Healthcare LLC; 2: Abbott Vascular
Page(s): 071-080
ISBN: 978-1-904670-48-3
ISSN: 2220-4334

Abstract

Root Cause Analysis (RCA) projects face the issue of frequently changing requirements. When a high degree of uncertainty exists in such a project, traditional project management or the linear DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) may not provide the agility to respond the constant flux of new information. As a Design for X (DFX) initiative, authors applied Agile Project Management, specifically Scrum Methodology, to two RCA projects. The first RCA project used the formal Scrum methodology and the second project used a hybrid approach of Scrum and Lean Product Development. This paper presents observations and learning from this endeavor. The lesson is that Agile may be a good foundation for RCA projects but project managers need to customize the framework based on the nature of their project and teams.

Keywords: Design for X, agile project management, scrum, lean product development, root cause analysis

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