Jeffrey Anthony Synaptic Consulting Discusses RMPM℠

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Jeffrey Anthony, Synaptic Consulting CTO, has led dozens of large-scale projects employing the disciplines of Mechanical, Electrical, Electronic, and Software (Web, mobile and embedded) Engineering. These projects have spanned industries such as Fintech, Manufacturing Systems, Robotics, Distributed Commerce / E-Commerce, and Business Intelligence, and Data Security.

Prior to co-founding Synaptic, Jeffrey Anthony served in VP-level technology and business roles in diverse businesses from startups to US $30 billion multinationals operating throughout the United States, the E.U., Switzerland, China, Japan, and Mexico.

After leading so many projects using so many technologies in so many industries around the world, I just couldn’t find a Project Management regimen that really hit the target -- especially in projects that utilized multiple engineering disciplines and/or had geographically dispersed teams. So I realized I had to develop my own.

said Mr. Anthony in a recent Synaptic Consulting project management seminar.

The regimen Anthony developed came to be known as Risk Modulated Project Management℠ (RMPM℠). At its heart, RMPM℠ is about assessing the risk of each project task, grouping tasks into sub projects of similar risk levels, and manages each subproject with methods spanning the spectrum from Agile through PMBOK-like practices -- with lower risk sub projects closer to the Agile side and higher risk projects closer to the PMBOK side.

Jeffrey Anthony reminissed,

So when I first started putting this whole Risk Modulated idea together, we made an intense effort and spent a few months solely dedicated to building the perfect project management regimen for a mechatronic project we were about to undertake. And at Project Close we could very honestly say that it worked great -- if you looked at it from Project Initiation to Project Close. If you added-in all the time we spent inventing specifying the Project Management regimen we were going to use, it was still fairly impressive, but not the enormous win it seemed viewing only within the period during which we were actually working on the project itself.

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Turning to a discussion of the learnings from that effort, Mr. Anthony went on:

Clearly we were on the right track, but it was also obvious that a project regimen couldn’t take person/months to assemble every time we did a project. That’s when I started thinking in terms of decision tree methods and forms and template and the like where project managers and team leaders could quickly assemble -- prefab style -- a project management system perfectly tailored to the project on the table.

With RMPM℠’s continual refinement making it increasingly successful as a project management tool, Jeffrey Anthony realized it should be expanded to address all aspects of the Product Development Lifecycle and unify all functions within the enterprise.

Once I saw how RMPM℠ was bringing together the various Engineering disciplines as well as Supply and Manufacturing, I realized we had the seeds of a system that could empower business to build a culture of execution and continuous improvement by, among other things, tearing down the silos that sap morale and productivity.

Building on that idea, Jeffrey Anthony restructured RMPM℠ into a set of components providing “stem-to-stern” execution management throughout the Product Development Lifecycle and across the enterprise. RMPM℠ components include:

• RMPM Empowered Customer Innovation℠ Mines product requirements with input from *all* business functions -- within your customers’ organizations and your own. Because the only good product is a mutually profitable product
• RMPM Risk Radar℠ Is the system for determining and dynamically monitoring risks for every project task and sub project. The key driver for RMPM’s 20%+ improvement of time-to-market, estimation accuracy, and Quality
• RMPM Informed Targeting℠ Estimation Methodology Provides a multidisciplinary approach to project estimation at the macro and micro level and uses risks assessed in Risk Radar to “reality check” all project estimations

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• RMPM Alert Broadcast℠ Management Reporting Methodology Provides managers at all levels with exactly the information they need when they need it. Highly tailorable for any and all organization structures and management styles
• RMPM Bedrock Quality℠ Quality Assurance Methodology Does away with reliance on just periodic and final testing, building-in Quality at every step of the project
• RMPM Legacy Learning℠ Continuous Improvement Methodology Protects one of an organization’s most valuable assets: experience. And makes sure that experience is put to good use in each and every project -- building greater value year-in and year-out
• RMPM Project Pulse℠ Project Execution Methodology Is the “heartbeat” of RMPM, making sure the right things get done by the right people at the right time

When RMPM℠ finally got near where I really wanted it to be, we were able to give businesses a toolbox, a collection of templates -- or a box of legos, call it what you like -- that allowed them to rapidly construct the most effective, lowest possible overhead project management regimen for the project at hand.

said Jeffrey Anthony.

As a result of continuous use and refinement with dozens of Jeffrey Anthony’s Synaptic Consulting clients and his many years of teaching the method as part of a two semester Product Development course he has taught annually since 2009 at Lehigh University, Risk Modulated Project Management℠ has evolved into a field-proven, time-tested platform for superior project execution that continually monitors and mitigates project risks to improve:

• Time-to-Market on the order of 15%
• Estimation accuracy of project cost and schedule by 20% to 30%
• Field failure rates on average by more than 20%

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Outlining about how businesses can get started with Risk Modulated Project Management, Jeffrey Anthony, Synaptic Consulting’s founding partner and CTO said,

Synaptic can deliver the benefits of RMPM℠ to clients in a variety of ways.

Training is always the best way to start, so we offer a three day, comprehensive training course that comes complete with the sorts of takeaway materials that are an enormous help to businesses that what to try implementing RMPM℠ on their own. It also gives the attendees three months access to Synaptic’s help desk via chat, email, and phone to give them a jumpstart in deploying RMPM℠ throughout their enterprise.

Consulting is by far the most popular, where Synaptic guides and coaches senior management, project members, and individual contributors in “real time” throughout the execution of the project.

Business Process Outsourcing is also really catching on since we introduced this option about 18 months ago. In this mode, Synaptic staffs and runs the client’s project office, leaving the client free to focus solely on doing the project work at hand. What has made that so successful with many of our clients is that Synaptic, removed from ‘the heat of battle’ can provide a dispassionate view of project progress and challenges, with a passionate commitment to our clients’ success.

To learn more about how Risk Modulated Project Management℠ can help your business build a Culture of Delivery, please visit us on the Web at www.synapticconsulting.info or phone us at 866.318.3302.

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