Immaturity Matters

Does your organization struggle with the following?

1. Commitments consistently missed

• Late delivery
  
• Last minute crunches


• Spiraling or unmanaged costs

2. No management visibility into progress

• Managers always being surprised.

3. Quality problem

• Too much rework
  
• Functions do not work correctly.


• Customer complaints after delivery

4. Poor morale

• People frustrated
  
• Is anyone in charge?
  

These are symptoms of process strain as described by the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute.

To address them, SEI developed the Capability Maturity Model. CMM can be applied to any organization that relies upon a replicable process to deliver the goods.

The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) is a methodology used to develop and refine an organization's processes. The model describes a five-level evolutionary path of increasingly organized and systematically more mature processes. Process maturity concepts can be applied outside of the software industry. (Source: Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute)

CMM's Five Maturity Levels of Processes

At the initial level, processes are disorganized, even chaotic. Success is likely to depend on individual efforts, and is not considered to be repeatable, because processes would not be sufficiently defined and documented to allow them to be replicated.

At the repeatable level, basic project management techniques are established, and successes can be repeated, because the requisite processes have been established, defined, and documented.
At the defined level, an organization has developed its own standard process through greater attention to documentation, standardization, and integration.

At the managed level, an organization monitors and controls its own processes through data collection and analysis.

At the optimizing level, processes are constantly being improved through monitoring feedback from current processes and introducing innovative processes to better serve the organization's particular needs.

Common Misconceptions:

1). I don’t need process, I have

• really good people
  
• advanced technology


• an experienced manager
  

2). Process is bad because it:

• interferes with creativity


• equals bureaucracy + regimentation


• isn’t needed when building prototypes


• is only useful on large projects


• hinders agility in fast-moving markets


• costs too much
  

So, it may be easy to avoid processes if you are reliant on your own wits to make it from day to day. The minute you involve others-- and they share the work to meet your business outcomes-- you must engage in a process. Processes can be either bureaucratic or nimble, but the all share the same fundamentals. The questions are —how well does your organization manage them, and do they help or hinder in the accomplishment of business goals?

-Dave