Understand how others have done it. Review example designs to clarify the concepts, applications and inspire the design team’s creative thinking. This is a bit of a “double-edged” sword. While it can help to clarify and inspire a custom design for your particular situation, it can also short circuit the creativity process. Design teams will occasionally stop working on a “custom” design once they see an example that they think will fit the organization. While this saves time, in the end it is not as effective as a true custom design that is inspired or informed by the examples. So proceed with caution.

Examples are used at two different points in the design process. First, high level conceptual design examples are used here during the initial discovery and conceptual design processes. Second, detailed examples are used during the detailed design phase to provide tangible options and ideas.

Step one: Conceptual Designs - Review conceptual designs during the first round for clarity and inspiration. Examples at this point in the process are particularly useful for design team members who are not highly knowledge of or experienced with the particular system being designed. Examples are very useful for bringing to “life” the often abstract theories and concepts discussed in the previous step. For examples of strategic management systems check out the four strategic management areas to address (2.1a, 2.1b, 2.2a, 2.2b) in the BUG book.

Step two: Detailed Designs - Use detailed designs when working on the new detailed design in Step 9. At this point more detailed examples are useful for the design of the individual components of the system or process.

Recommended Reading

Each area to address section in the BUG book includes a few examples to help clarify the concepts and “jump start” the design process. Remember, some of the greatest insights and creative inspirations come from examples outside of your particular industry or organizations.

In addition, there are over 40 application summaries available for FREE on the NIST Baldrige Program website. Application summaries are available for all the Baldrige recipients since 1999. These application summaries describe the organizations’ systems to address all the CPE model categories: leadership, strategy, customers, information and analysis, human resources, process management, and a comprehensive scorecard.

Free Examples at NIST - Application Summaries:

http://www.quality.nist.gov/Contacts_Profiles.htm

john latham (c) 2000 - 2012  all rights reserved