How do consultants to management approach their work? Many, if not most, proceed in much the same way as project managers do. One approach is described in this book by Ronald Mascitelli, who develops and teaches workshops on lean project management for firms such as Boein, Rockwell Automation, Hughes Network Systems, and Edison International.

As consultants, we are always trying to deliver value to our clients and potential clients. This is important so that we all can save money and time, and benefit from our knowledge and hard work. This book describes how every task and activity within a project should create value. The author names this - Lean Project Management.

The first five chapters define the theoretical and philosophical rationale for getting lean. Mascitelli begins by describing the five principles of Lean Thinking, which is the basis for Lean Project Management, and offers a very practical definition of value: “Value is anything that a customer will gladly pay for.” Simple, yet eloquent, and a springboard to the 5 principles:

Principle 1: Precisely specify the value of each project.

Principle 2: Identify the value stream for each project.

Principle 3: Allow value to flow without interruptions.

Principle 4: Let the customer pull value from the project team.

Principle 5: Continuously pursue perfection.

The fifth principle, while not specifically stating any value operation, simply implies that the first four principles are never achieved and one must continue to work through them. Mascitelli goes on to describe such wasteful activities as work queues, planning and approving cycles, analysis paralysis and other time-batching processes. He even describes one of my monumental frustrations and a big time-waster, the so-called regularly scheduled meeting. More on that later.

After defining four levels of standard work and relaying some lessons on information theory, Mascitelli moves on to his toolbox,or methodology, for Lean Project Management. There are twelve Lean Methods. Each is reviewed in detail and then summarized in a one-page Method at a Glance. Each Glance is broken into six sections--Overview, Waste-Slashing Benefit, When to Apply, Who Can Use It and Typical Implementation Profile. Referring frequently to these twelve pages will continually remind us how to keep lean.

Mascitelli's methods are ideas and techniques you can use immediately. For example, Method #3, Urgency Driven Stand-Up Meetings, begins with a description of how meetings drain project productivity. Besides the time wasted in the meetings, there is the time getting to and from them, time waiting for everyone to show up, time waiting for our topic or area of interest and the time wasted by a myriad of tangential conversations. Through then author's ddescription, we can easily see ourselves sitting in a typical meeting. He offers quick countermeasures--simple rules for lean meetings:

Rule #1. Restrict meeting to no more than one hour.

Rule #2. Have only a single agenda item.

Rule #3. Only invite people who have a need to be there on time, no one else.

Rule #4. Provide pre-work in advance.

Rule #5. Do not begin until everyone agrees to the deliverables of the meeting.

Rule #6. Put tangential discussions into a “parking lot” for future discussions.

All the Lean Methods, like this one, are easy and practical, and can be implemented without knowing all the nuances of the entire Lean Project Management methodology. And most are just as usable by consultants to management as by project managers.

Speaking of tangential conversations, the author devotes a long chapter, to the special case of product development. Since the earlier Lean Project methodologies work just fine in product development projects, this chapter seems to interrupt the flow of the book. Perhaps Lean Product Management deserves a book of its own.

Part 4 provides the mandates for a project-driven organization, what Mascitelli calls “tough love for managers”--we could say tough love for consultants to management, as well. The mandates are presented in a question-answer format, as if you have just spent the whole day in one of the his seminars and he just asked, “Any questions?” So we ask and he answers questions about how to implement what we've read.

Mascitelli concludes with the Lean Project Management Maturity Model. this includes, for instance, an Improvement Blitz that we can use to produce immediate results through a fast and effective waste eliminator. By using at least some of the Lean Methods, (refer to those Methods at a Glance), the project team can quickly brainstorm and identify opportunities to eliminate wasteright away, as well as at the beginning of your next project.

Then there is a quick lesson on value-stream mapping , a more time-consuming process. Value-stream mapping (similar to ISO 9000 Quality Gap Analysis) identifies the current situation and the means to achieve future goals. The process is presented as simple and straightforward, but to really try value-streaming, we'd need to research some additional resources.

Reading Building a Project-Driven Enterprise and learning about Lean Project Management, adds another tool in our tool belt. We can use it as we would other tools, such as the theory of constraints, Total Quality Management, Six Sigma, Balance Scorecard, or the Project Management Book of Knowledge.

The book is easy and fun to read. It is peppered with case studies, anecdotes, and stories, and is well written in a light, conversational style. The author asks questions throughout to make us think and form our own answers prior to learning his approach, which is an added plus. Anyone in business can find value in this book, but project managers will relate most closely with the waste-slashing ideas.

A.J. Vasaris CMC, PMP, is principal and founder of Value Management Partners, a project, process and business management consulting firm. He consults with organizations to create the optimum value in projects and processes for impoving business performance.