Finding root causes with 5-Whys – MES009

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Root cause? What’s that?

Remember your last sickness. Caught a cold or a flew? Weren’t you only curing the symptoms? Usually nobody cares for the real reasons when getting ill with these small diseases. But there are lots of persons who are able to somehow avoid any disease. What’s the difference? Why were you felt sick?

It’s like weeding your garden. Very often only the symptoms are cured, but no real solution can be achieved. The weed gets back soon. Removing the root would do the job,
but that costs additional effort, back-pain and time.

Within the business context regularly the management requests an immediate, complete, fast and reliable solution of problems. But is that possible without finding the real cause of a problem? Without fixing the real cause of a problem it might pop the same way again as the weed does.

That’s the ideas of root cause analysis. Dive deeper into a problem to find the real underlying cause of the problem. The diving should be that deep to find not only a cause, but the process which is failing or is insufficient

This episode is about the first and basic technique of finding the real root cause of a problem: the 5-Whys technique

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Thank You For Listening

Out of all the podcasts available in the Internet you tuned into mine, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed the episode, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this note. Also, I would be very happy if you would consider taking the minute it takes to leave an honest review or rating for the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. They’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the podcast. For sure I read every single one of them personally! Or, if you prefer a more direct contact, don't hesitate and drop me a note at feedback@embeddedsuccess.com

3 mandatory actions to successfully launch a task-force – MES008

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Launching a task-force successfully

Before you start running a task-force you will have a short moment or phase of planning and launching it. You should use this time carefully and wisely. Potential flaws during this phase might be a constant burden over the whole run-time of the task-force. I’ll show you the questions and the actions you need to successfully launch your task-force.

Why do we need a successful launch phase?

The launch or kick-off phase of a task-force is like the take-off of an airplane. Even it takes off the conditions might be not good and the overall journey might have started already under a bad star.

Key indicators of a successful launch phase

  • What has to be done? The objectives!
  • What has to be considered? The constraints!
  • Who and what do we need? The members! the environment!
  • When and where? The schedule!

3 mandatory actions for a successful launch

The following three actions shall support you in your intention to launch a task-force successfully.

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Thank You For Listening

Out of all the podcasts available in the Internet you tuned into mine, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed the episode, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this note. Also, I would be very happy if you would consider taking the minute it takes to leave an honest review or rating for the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. They’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the podcast. For sure I read every single one of them personally! Or, if you prefer a more direct contact, don't hesitate and drop me a note at feedback@embeddedsuccess.com

Engineers’ talk: Internet of Things with Marcus Behrens – MES007

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Talk with Marcus Behrens about IoT

Marcus and me joined the IoT-TechDay in Frankfurt end of June. The IoT-TechDay was a one day conference organized by WindRiver, Intel, SalesForce, SAP, Accenture and Microsoft. The intention of meeting was “Moving from talk to transformation” creating business opportunities around IoT.

Marcus is a wholehearted engineer and Product Design Director at SAP in Walldorf, Germany. He’s responsible for evaluating the potential of IoT and finding product ideas and opportunities for SAP. On the other side he was and is an engaged engineer within Embedded Systems. This combination made me curious and we have had a good talk already at the IoT-TechDay and later on by mail. Our opinions about IoT and it’s potential, risks and challenges are not always the same. But that makes this talk even more exciting. Enjoy the episode.

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Thank You For Listening

Out of all the podcasts available in the Internet you tuned into mine, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed the episode, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this note. Also, I would be very happy if you would consider taking the minute it takes to leave an honest review or rating for the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. They’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the podcast. For sure I read every single one of them personally! Or, if you prefer a more direct contact, don't hesitate and drop me a note at feedback@embeddedsuccess.com

5 tips that your task-force gets successful – MES006

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What is a task-force?

The term came into extensive use originally by the United States Navy around the beginning of 1941, as a way to increase operational flexibility. The fleet itself was divided into division and squadrons. A task force can be assembled using ships from different divisions and squadrons, without requiring a formal and permanent fleet reorganization, and can be easily dissolved following completion of the operational task

Nowadays task-force is something different, no longer using the military speech:

  • Small group of 4-12 persons
  • With a specific set of skills
  • Accomplished for a short term task
  • Exits only for specific, time-limited purpose (few day until one year)
  • Members often come from different parts of an organization
  • A task-forces enhances enhances the project’s chance for success

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Thank You For Listening

Out of all the podcasts available in the Internet you tuned into mine, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed the episode, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this note. Also, I would be very happy if you would consider taking the minute it takes to leave an honest review or rating for the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. They’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the podcast. For sure I read every single one of them personally! Or, if you prefer a more direct contact, don't hesitate and drop me a note at feedback@embeddedsuccess.com

Have you these symptoms of project problems? – MES005

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Why does a project run into trouble?

There are a lot of reasons why a project might run into trouble and most project problems are indicated by specific symptoms. Problems of projects are often caused by changes in leadership, company organization or the company itself. All of them create FUD – Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt. As a result we see inappropriate planning, schedule, staffing, and tons of other issues.

The reasons for project trouble might be impacted by you or not. From the outside key signs are very often rather clear. But very often they cannot be detected from the inside. Within daily work-load, unaware of changes in environment or the company, with lots of rookies in place, critical symptoms are not recognized or misinterpreted. There are always warning signs – the flashing yellow light indicating that a red light will follow.

This episode is about the key-symptoms I have detected during my career indicating that a project is in trouble. They do not mean that the project will fail, but they indicate that there’s something going wrong definitely. And they highlight that additional attention is needed – either to fix them or to escape them. This episode is about this very first step – the symptoms.

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Thank You For Listening

Out of all the podcasts available in the Internet you tuned into mine, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed the episode, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this note. Also, I would be very happy if you would consider taking the minute it takes to leave an honest review or rating for the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. They’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the podcast. For sure I read every single one of them personally! Or, if you prefer a more direct contact, don't hesitate and drop me a note at feedback@embeddedsuccess.com