Assessment to Improvement: What’s the right path?

dsr — Thu, 07 May 2009 18:22:13 +0000

Is an assessment really the most appropriate step in getting an organization’s process improvement initiative started?

One of the more important steps in starting a process improvement initiative is to determine the appropriate tasking and the scope of the process improvement program. There is great temptation for an organization to attempt to take on too much too fast, especially if it feels that it must catch up to its competition. For example, an organization will assess its capability against all of the Process Areas (PAs) of the CMMI and try to set up Working Groups and Action Plans in a broadly based approach to implement multiple levels of PAs at the same time. While it is natural to want to initiate a program quickly, it is important for an organization trying to get a process improvement initiative started to be as realistic as possible in these beginning stages.

Many Lead Assessors / Lead Appraisers push organization’s to undergo an assessment straight away to find out where their current process capability is. Is that appropriate for the organization? Or is it a need of a Lead Appraiser to get his/her checkmark to keep governing bodies, such as the SEI happy with the number of assessments conducted within a given time period?

It is my opinion, after 20 years of involvement with the CMM, CMMI and assessment, that it might not be appropriate for an organization to conduct an assessment right away. The organization might want to focus on only a few areas to get its process improvement initiative started, show positive results and then expand.

There are many factors that must be taken into consideration when an organization is trying to establish its organizational process. What process improvement entry strategy an organization chooses depends on a number of factors, including the following:

History of previous process improvement programs or quality improvement programs;

Financial resources to fund the process improvement initiative;

Human resources able to be dedicated to process improvement;

Systems/Software/Hardware Engineering capability of the developers;

Technology support available;

Contractual obligations;

Scope;

Customs and culture of the organization;

Standards (Industry, Corporate, Organizational, Project, Customer);

Understanding and support from all levels of management and practitioners;

Corporate political pressure;

Business objectives; and,

Vision.

What possible process improvement entry strategies have helped your organization or have you recommended? Send me your comments and then download the paper, “Entry Strategies Into the Process Improvement Initiative” written by me and my dear friend and colleague, Dr. Patricia McQuaid of Cal Poly State University and compare. The original version was written around the CMM but has been updated to CMMI v1.2 for this offering. Send additional comments if you want. We are always interested in your opinions and points of view.

Best Regards,
Tim Kasse
CEO & Principal Consultant
Kasse Initiatives LLC

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Assessment to Improvement: What’s the right path?