ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book distinguishes between Continuous and Continual Improvement. Since 1996, the "traditional" or "mainstream" framework for project management, especially in North America, has been defined by the Project Management Institute (PMI)—a global, professional association for project, program, and portfolio management based in the USA—via its publication called The Project Management Body of Knowledge. The six primary, competing constraints of project management are scope, quality, schedule, cost, resources, and risk. The "Plan–Do–Check–Act Cycle" (PDCA Cycle) has been one of the key elements in most quality improvement initiatives since the early 1970s. It is, in fact, the most basic framework used to drive virtually any kind of change and is repeated iteratively for Performance Improvements until the "Solved" milestone. The tendency for most performance improvement teams is to find the answer to a problem or take advantage of an opportunity, without clearly defining it first.
