Benchmarking Training Workshop

Importance of Program Management?

4:26 AM Posted by IQMS Global


Every organization, irrespective of its sectors carries out number of projects and programs every now and then worth billions of dollars to accomplish a certain major goal or set of goals. But a significant number of projects get delayed, or have cost overruns, or fail due to lack of proper management. Program Management, thus, helps in this regard and also for excellent business performance. There are similarities and differences in how the term is used in non-profit and for-profit organizations. Nonprofits usually refer to programs as ongoing, major services to clients, for example, a Transportation Program, Housing Program, etc. For-profits often use the term for very large business efforts that have limited duration and a defined set of deliverables. Nonprofits and for-profits might refer to programs as a one-time or ongoing set of activities internal to the organization, for example, a Total Quality Management Program, Workplace Safety Program, the Space Program, etc. The real value in employing program management is that it focuses on the business results desired and offers a systematic approach for delivering revenue generating or cost reduction solutions that create competitive advantages.

It does this by focusing on the following business needs:
• Aligning strategy and execution
• Managing complexity
• Integrating business functions


Program Management also brings the concept of Programme Management Maturity Model (PMMM). The Programme Management Maturity Model (PMMM) provides a mechanism through which an organisation or a group within an organisation can:
• Evaluate itself in programme management terms
• Compare its own maturity with other organisation on a fair basis
• Compare its own maturity with benchmarks from similar organisations
• Understand its strengths and weaknesses
• Develop a plan to improve its ability to deliver successful programmes


We very often use the terms Programme Management and Project Management interchangeably. But, Programme Management is different from Project Management.

Programme Management - Strategic in nature, focused on business success and ensuring work remains feasible from a business perspective.

Project Management - Tactical in nature, focused on execution success and ensuring work generates deliverables on time, on budget, and fully functional

If implemented correctly,program management can become a powerful element of a company’s product, service or infrastructure delivery system.

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Statistical Process Control to Monitor Process

12:11 AM Posted by IQMS Global


Very often we come across the term SPC or Statistical Process Control in manufacturing organizations.Statistical Process Control (SPC) involves using statistical techniques to measure and analyze the variation in processes. Most often used for manufacturing processes, the intent of SPC is to monitor product quality and maintain processes to fixed targets. Statistical quality control refers to using statistical techniques for measuring and improving the quality of processes and includes Statistical Process Control in addition to other techniques, such as sampling plans, experimental design, variation reduction, process capability analysis, and process improvement plans.

Statistical Process Control is used to monitor the consistency of processes used to manufacture a product as designed. It aims to get and keep processes under control. No matter how good or bad the design, SPC can ensure that the product is being manufactured as designed and intended. Thus, Statistical Process Control will not improve a poorly designed product's reliability, but can be used to maintain the consistency of how the product is made and, therefore, of the manufactured product itself and its as-designed reliability.
Statistical Process Control was pioneered by Walter A. Shewhart in the early 1920s. W. Edwards Deming later applied SPC methods in the United States during World War II, thereby successfully improving quality in the manufacture of munitions and other strategically important products. Deming was also instrumental in introducing SPC methods to Japanese industry after the war had ended.

The followings are the major benefits of SPC for an organization:
  • Provides surveillance and feedback for keeping processes in control
  • Signals when a problem with the process has occurred
  • Detects assignable causes of variation
  • Accomplishes process characterization
  • Reduces need for inspection
  • Monitors process quality
  • Provides mechanism to make process changes and track effects of those changes
  • Once a process is stable (assignable causes of variation have been eliminated), provides process capability analysis with comparison to the product tolerance
Statistical Process Control is used everywhere, behind the scenes. It is a verifiable way to better understand and make sense of variation. Statistical Process Control (SPC) is an optimization philosophy centered on using a variety of statistical tools to enable continuous process improvement. Closely linked to the total quality management (TQM) philosophy, SPC helps firms to improve profitability by improving process and product quality. Although initially used in manufacturing, Statistical Process Control tools and methods work equally well in a service environment.

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Knowledge Management

11:21 PM Posted by IQMS Global


“The only irreplaceable capital an organization possesses is the knowledge and ability of its people. The productivity of that capital depends on how effectively people share their competence with those who can use it.” – Andrew Carnegie
Most companies are focused on producing a product or service for customers. However, one of the most significant keys to value-creation comes from placing emphasis on producing knowledge. The production of knowledge needs to be a major part of the overall production strategy. Knowledge management is, thus, the hottest subject of the day. Knowledge management is applied today across the world, in all industry sectors, public and private organizations and humanitarian institutions and international charities. The term knowledge management was first introduced in a 1986 keynote address to a European management conference (American Productivity and Quality Center 1996). Knowledge Management is the name of a concept in which an enterprise consciously and comprehensively gathers, organizes, shares, and analyzes its knowledge in terms of resources, documents, and people skills.

Knowledge Management is often about managing relationships within the organization. Collaborative tools (intranets, balanced scorecards, data warehouses, customer relations management, expert systems, etc.) are often used to establish these relationships. Some companies have developed knowledge maps, identifying what must be shared, where can we find it, what information is needed to support an activity, etc. Knowledge maps codify information so that it becomes real knowledge; i.e. from data to intelligence.

Knowledge Management can transform your organization to new levels of effectiveness, efficiency, and scope of operation. Through advancements in technology, data and information are readily available. The modern business manager is able to discover and learn new measures, new technologies, and new opportunities, but this requires the ability to gather information in usable formats and disseminate knowledge to achieve the organization’s objectives.

Knowledge Management is continually discovering what an organization knows—codifying tacit knowledge, Data Mining, and Business Intelligence; continually increasing what the organization knows—organizational learning and communities of practice, and continually organizing and disseminating explicit knowledge for use throughout the organization.

The author of modern management, Peter Drucker, wrote, “The basic economic resource—the means of production—is no longer capital, nor natural resources, nor labor. It is and will be knowledge.”

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Information Security Management System

4:38 AM Posted by IQMS Global


For any business houses in today’s digital world, information assets are very much critical. Organizations now are highly dependent on information and communications technology. Successful businesses should have right information at the right time in order to make well-informed decisions. Interconnectivity leads to information being exposed to growing number and wider variety of threats and vulnerabilities. So, every information whether paper-based or on a computer, is at risk. Thus, protection of information becomes a major challenge for every organization.

Information Security Management System is thus used for the protection of information. ISMS provides a framework to establish, implement, operate, monitor, review, maintain and improve the information security within an organization. It is an organizational approach to information security. ISMS is a documented system certifying that:

o Information assets in your company are described and secured,
o Information security risks are managed and mitigated,
o Security policies together with their ownerships and guarantees are in place,
o Adherence to security measures is inspected periodically.


ISMS can be implemented as a specific information system that deals with a particular business area, or it can be implemented as an all-encompassing system involving the whole organization.In any case, ISMS usually involves resources spanning from the management to the regular employees.

How ISMS helps : -

o If information is the key asset that is needed in your business then ISMS helps to protect your business case,
o ISMS delivered via ISO standards is compatible with others in the market,
o Company management is always involved in the security and always has access to information,
o Your partners view you as more reliable, credible, and trustworthy,
o ISMS certification opens doors to new business (for example better competitive position in the EU market),
o Information and data sources are utilized more efficiently,
o ISMS makes your investments into information security more efficient,
o ISMS brings the importance of information security to your employees and makes them more involved in your business,
o ISMS changes the culture in your company (brings responsibility and accountability).


ISMS employs PDCA model for implementation. It is the process of “ PLAN-DO-CHECK –ACT”.

Information security protects information from a wide range of threats in order to ensure business continuity, minimize business damage, and maximize return on investment and business opportunities.

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Change Management

11:21 PM Posted by IQMS Global

“To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.”-Henri Bergson

For change to become effective, it has to be approached in a wise way. Change management is, thus used as a systematic approach to deal with change. A somewhat ambiguous term, change management has at least three different aspects, including: adapting to change, controlling change, and effecting change. A proactive approach to dealing with change is at the core of all three aspects.


The need for Change:
  • Employees become disinterested in the current state and the future state.
  • Employees begin arguing about change and the direction of the company.
  • Employees revert back to the old way of doing things.
  • Changes are not fully implemented.
  • Active resistance emerges and sabotages the change.

Change, the very word brings fear and insecurity in the mind of the employees. So, change should not be imposed on people otherwise it may have negative impact in the organization. It requires thoughtful planning and implementation. Successful adaptation to change is as crucial within an organization as it is in the natural world. Strong resistance to change is often rooted in deeply conditioned or historically reinforced feelings. Patience and tolerance are required to help people in these situations to see things differently. There are examples of this sort of gradual staged change everywhere in the living world. Also, certain types of people - the reliable/dependable/steady/habitual/process-oriented types - often find change very unsettling. People who welcome change are not generally the best at being able to work reliably, dependably and follow processes. The reliability/dependability capabilities are directly opposite character traits to mobility/adaptability capabilities.

It is very necessary to understand the mindsets of people to manage change. Planning, implementing and managing change in a fast-changing environment is increasingly the situation in which most organizations now work. Dynamic environments such as these require dynamic processes, people, systems and culture, especially for managing change successfully, notably effectively optimizing organizational response to market opportunities and threats.

Managing Change is a challenge for business leaders today as it may lead to waste of resources also.So,change should be used as a tool for helping people through change so that the desired business results can be achieved. Since,"change is the only constant”, organizations need to take measures to manage change systematically so that it benefits the organization.

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Managing Innovation

11:27 PM Posted by IQMS Global


“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”
Companies are catching on to this sea change. In an Ernst & Young study, European and North American companies called innovation the most important criterion for success in the future. Jack Welch, CEO of GE and seen as the world’s greatest living manager, obsesses about his company’s ability to “break the glass”—that is, continue to innovate. He worries whether it has “the right gene pool— do people who join big companies want to break the glass? We’ve got to break this company to do this—there’s no discussion, we’ve just got to break it.”
Organizations, therefore, have to thrive to innovate constantly to be the leader. Innovation involves a lot of processes. It, thus becomes imperative to manage these processes. It can be used to develop both product and organizational innovation. Without proper processes, it is not possible for R&D to be efficient; innovation management includes a set of tools that allow managers and engineers to cooperate with a common understanding of goals and processes. The focus of innovation management is to allow the organization to response to external or internal opportunity, and use its creative efforts to introduce new ideas, processes or products. There are two major types of innovation – product and process innovation. As a third type hybrids combine product and process innovation. Product innovation is concerned with bringing new or greatly improved goods or services to market. Process innovation concerns itself with improving the business functions required to profit from providing goods or services. Innovation management is the economic implementation and exploitation of new ideas and discoveries, and the implementation of an innovation culture in an organization, to promote and make possible the development of new ideas and business opportunities.

It is driven by any of the following business imperatives:

• The need for enhanced growth beyond current strategic plans
• The need to find alternative ways of mitigating cost pressures going forward in a rising cost environment
• The need to create strategic flexibility for the business going forward in order to create options and choices for management
• The need to improve market perceptions of a business. Empirical evidence proves that those companies who are constantly innovating trade at a premium to those that do not. The markets price in an expectation of innovation and growth
• The need to adapt a tired business model in the face of global competition

Management must ignore the temptation to try and appease shareholders and analysts in the short term, by following through on their convictions. They will in any event be held accountable at some future period.
The challenge for any competent management team is to determine whether their strategy will ensure that once they are done with all the cost cutting and increased efficiencies, they have something else in their quiver to off-set the unavoidable effects of inflation on their input costs in year two and three.

“The winners will get below the buzzwords and be recognizable by their focus on the outputs of innovation or real value delivered. They will create actionable platforms for experimentation and a road map to scale early success” - Anon


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Human Resource Audit - A Tool for Measuring Manpower Functioning

12:36 AM Posted by IQMS Global


For any business, in order to operate properly, it is very much necessary to have a well run human resource department. This can be ensured by having a regular audit of human resource department. A Human Resource Audit serves as a means through which an organization can measure the health of its human resource function. It is a process of examining policies, procedures, documentation, systems, and practices with respect to an organization’s Human Resource functions. The purpose of the audit is to reveal the strengths and weaknesses in the nonprofits’ human resources system, and any issues needing resolution. The audit works best when the focus is on analyzing and improving the Human Resource function in the organization. The purpose of conducting a human resource audit is to support the overall business plan of the organization. The process has three parts: to identify and prioritize management issues relating to human resources; identify gaps between the current practices and policies with that of the business objective; and to identify any legal difference and potential exposure. Unfortunately most companies who perform an audit only focus on compliance and miss those items that could really make a difference in one’s business over the long term. The Human Resource audits should be done every twelve to eighteen months and should coincide with the organizations business planning cycle. While some will say that the audit should be done annually, but since it is such a large task pushing it to every eighteen months is fine but definitely should not go beyond two years. The other option is to establish an audit cycle to break the task into manageable sized pieces.

Why Do An Audit

1) To insure the effective utilization of an organization’s human resources.
2) To review compliance with a myriad of administrative regulations.
3) To instil a sense of confidence in management and the human resources function that it is well managed and prepared to meet potential challenges.
4) To maintain or enhance the organization’s and the department’s reputation in the community.
5) To perform a "due diligence" review for shareholders or potential investors/owners.

Human Resource audits also provide feedback as to whether Human Resource function is contributing to the achievement of organizations’ goals. Senior management needs this information in order to make strategic decisions to improve productivity. This feedback can be used to take corrective actions and make decisions on improvement plan.


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