featuritis
Process Cycle Efficiency (PCE)
What is a Process?
A process is an systematic activity comprising of smaller activities that culminate in an outcome — service or product. A process can take up time, space, and resources. All processes can be categorized into the following categories: Value-added, Non-value added but necessary, and Non-value added.
From the Customer’s Perspective:
- Value-added: This step in the process adds form, function, and value to the end product and for the customer.
What is a Process?
A process is an systematic activity comprising of smaller activities that culminate in an outcome — service or product. A process can take up time, space, and resources. All processes can be categorized into the following categories: Value-added, Non-value added but necessary, and Non-value added.
From the Customer’s Perspective:
- Value-added: This step in the process adds form, function, and value to the end product and for the customer.
The Apple iPhone Supply Chain
pdate: To read Aza Raskin’s (Aza is son of Jef Raskin, the inventor of the Macintosh) thoughts on the iPhone’s User Interface, please go here: . Alternatively, you can check out my .
Update: To read Aza Raskin’s (Aza is son of Jef Raskin, the inventor of the Macintosh) thoughts on the iPhone’s User Interface, please go here: . Alternatively, you can check out my .
Simplify Your Product Design
My earlier post titled, Good Complexity, Bad Complexity, I discuss a few case studies where produce and process complexity can be good, and where it can be bad. One of the areas in which a balance needs to be had between a rich feature set and low maintentance and manfucting overhead is in how we design our products.
My earlier post titled, Good Complexity, Bad Complexity, I discuss a few case studies where produce and process complexity can be good, and where it can be bad. One of the areas in which a balance needs to be had between a rich feature set and low maintentance and manfucting overhead is in how we design our products.
12 Questions with Mary Poppendieck
Last week, I invited the readers of shmula to pose questions to Mary Poppendieck, the author of Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit for Software Development Managers (Paperback), which won the Software Development Productivity Award in 2004 and, the sequel Implementing Lean Software Development: From Concept to Cash (Paperback) which will be available in early September 2006. For this interview, 12 Questions were submitted and Mary was gracious enough to answer them — the reader’s Questions and Mary’s responses are below.
Last week, I invited the readers of shmula to pose questions to Mary Poppendieck, the author of Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit for Software Development Managers (Paperback), which won the Software Development Productivity Award in 2004 and, the sequel Implementing Lean Software Development: From Concept to Cash (Paperback) which will be available in early September 2006. For this interview, 12 Questions were submitted and Mary was gracious enough to answer them — the reader’s Questions and Mary’s responses are below.
Focus on the Customer
Jeff Bezos, during a pre-peak meeting once said to a small group of us that there will be many, many winners on the internet. He said that some follow the close-follower mentality and those companies focus on the competition. He continued to say that Amazon has and always will be customer obsessed. He vowed that neither he nor Amazon would ever focus on the competition. He said that customer happiness is the right and only solid thing that we could ever hope to spend our time on. Focusing on the customer breeds innovation and ensures healthy direction. In creating great products, software, or companies, his words are good words to live by.
Jeff Bezos, during a pre-peak meeting once said to a small group of us that there will be many, many winners on the internet. He said that some follow the close-follower mentality and those companies focus on the competition. He continued to say that Amazon has and always will be customer obsessed. He vowed that neither he nor Amazon would ever focus on the competition. He said that customer happiness is the right and only solid thing that we could ever hope to spend our time on. Focusing on the customer breeds innovation and ensures healthy direction. In creating great products, software, or companies, his words are good words to live by.

