6 Step 4: Integrate

Integrate, Deploy, and Measure

“What gets measured gets done.  What gets measured well and fed back gets done well.  What gets rewarded gets repeated.”

― John Jones, 360° Feedback

Once the implementation plan for each method has been laid out for the project, the project team should work collaboratively to integrate and further develop the metrics, educational plan and communication needed, to track lean implementation at the project level. The goal of the integrate step is to consolidate all the information from the method templates into a project A3. 

The project A3 is the basis for continuous reflection and improvement of the lean deployment plan. Routine events such as project plan reviews and reflections need to be embedded into the project processes with time and resource commitments to enable the project team to learn and improve. The implementation plan can also be integrated into the project’s management processes, such as scope and cost management or design development, to support overall project delivery using lean deployment.

An A3 template (Appendix A6) is provided to capture all critical information and decisions at the project level. The template is divided into different sections to capture the project level summary. The project team should customize each section based on how they want to represent the information visually to facilitate periodic project reviews and, initiate collaborative decision-making and problem-solving.

For example, the left half of the template will include project conditions of satisfaction and the methods selected to meet them. The metrics section can include visual data analytics for key metrics from method level to show project level performance. The metrics shown in each report can vary on a periodic basis based on priority or need for consideration of project leaders, decision-makers, etc. 

The education section can be used to update training needs on a periodic basis based on new project team member addition and/or completion of training for existing members.

The communication section should include any critical information that needs to be shared with the project team regarding lean deployment. This section can also be used to highlight key protocols for how project-related decisions will be communicated and/or how team members need to behave or conduct themselves on a regular basis to support lean implementation. Reward or competition announcements can also be made using this section to show encouragement to project team members/groups who stand out for their innovative contributions.

The continuous improvement section should include what routines are needed, including those that are in place to help the project team continuously improve based on measurement of what has already been implemented. Therefore, it is important that in this section, the project team capture not just their strategy for monitoring but also assessment and learning approaches that can be beneficial to the team on the specific project.