Evaluate Potential Tools

There are lots of tools available that purport to help you raise productivity.  These may be conceptual tools and models, mathematical models or software tools.

How many organisations that adopt one of these tools have done so on the basis of a rigorous, systematic evaluation or assessment?  How do they know they have selected an appropriate tool?

Firstly, of course, you should be clear about the problem you are trying to solve or the opportunity you are trying to seize.  You should retain a degree of flexibility  by thinking about your business as it is changing - and whether a particular model or tool fits you now snd forward into the future.

You should consider whether a proposed model or tool (especially a software tool) will integrate with your existing systems and toolset and whether the user interface will provide problems because of a clash with existing tools.

Think about how much help (and the cost of that help) will be needed to apply a model or tool - and whether some sort of trial is available.

Of course, you have to assess likely outcomes - but think about failure as well as success.  What is the worst case scenario of a failed project?  What are the various risks?

If you understand these factors, you can make a much more informed judgment of which model or tool to adopt and you are much more likely to be successful in that adoption.