How to Run a Fishbone (Ishikawa) Diagram Session: A Field Checklist
The fishbone diagram is one of the most reliable tools for structured root-cause brainstorming. Here is a step-by-step checklist to run it well from the start.
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XNM Blog
Practical guidance on capital projects, governance, financing, and delivery for Indigenous and public-sector leaders.
Articles
The Scrum Master Beyond Ceremonies: A Field Checklist
A Scrum Master who only facilitates events is doing half the job. Here is a practical checklist for the work that makes a team genuinely self-managing and continuously improving.
Read more →Benefits Realization After Go-Live: A Checklist You Can Use This Week
Most organisations are good at delivering projects. Far fewer are good at confirming the benefits actually materialised. This checklist closes that gap.
Read more →Just-in-Time vs Just-in-Case: The Mistakes Organisations Make Choosing Between Them
Just-in-time and just-in-case are not opposites — they are tools that apply to different parts of your inventory. The mistakes come from treating them as a binary choice.
Read more →Five Common Mistakes in Root-Cause Analysis With the 5 Whys — and How to Avoid Them
The 5 Whys is one of the most widely used problem-solving tools in Lean Six Sigma. It is also one of the most frequently misused. Here is what goes wrong and how to fix it.
Read more →When the Product Owner Can't Actually Decide
Scrum gives the Product Owner authority over the product. When that authority is hollow, the whole framework stalls. Here are the common failures and how to fix them.
Read more →Why Good Business Cases Fall Apart Under Scrutiny
A business case earns approval, then collapses the first time a board, auditor, or funder pushes on it. Here are the mistakes that cause that and how to avoid them.
Read more →How to Apply Total Cost of Ownership in Your Procurement Decisions
Choosing suppliers based on price alone reliably creates downstream costs that exceed the original saving. Here is a practical framework for applying total cost of ownership.
Read more →Running a Kaizen Event: A Step-by-Step Guide That Works
A kaizen event compresses weeks of process improvement into a few focused days. Here is how to prepare, run, and follow through so the gains actually stick.
Read more →Using Velocity Honestly: A Field Guide for Scrum Teams
Velocity is a planning aid, not a performance metric. Here is how to read it honestly and stop it being weaponized against the team.
Read more →Writing a Project Charter That Actually Aligns the Team
A project charter is only worth writing if it gets everyone pointing the same direction. Here is how to draft one that holds up when budgets and supply chains move.
Read more →Qualifying a New Supplier When the Old One Stops Delivering
A backordered part forced a buyer to add a second supplier fast. The story shows how to qualify one properly—without skipping the steps that prevent the next crisis.
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