According to the latest Maturity Profile of CMMI Institute, from September-2013, in Spain there are currently nearly 300 CMMI certified organizations. We are on the fourth position in the world in number of CMMI certifications after the United States, China and India. Despite this, many organizations express the opinion that they expected more tangible results from their process improvement projects based on this model.
In The Focus and The Involvement, Key Elements In Improving Processes I introduce a manner of organizing an improvement initiative that I have been using the past two years to help organizations solve their operational problems and obtain CMMI certification.
An important aspect related to defining processes is the way this work is carried out. It will sound strange, but as a consultant my advice is not to let an external consultant define your processes isolated by the people who use them to perform their jobs.
Getting good results and avoiding resistance to change is only possible by putting together company personnel’s knowledge of the organizational context and consultant’s experience in integrating relevant practices (regardless of their origin) in an adequate solution for the company.
The outcome I have seen as result of this approach is the following:
- Process improvement effort that brings real benefits to the organization in terms of better project performance and management
- People understand the reasons behind these actions, the purpose of the processes, and as they have been involved in their definition and fine tuning, they apply the practices with less or no resistance. This shortens the institutionalization time and makes processes last.
- The certificate that confirms the achievement.
I strongly recommend this approach to process improvement to any organization that is interested in getting more tangible results than a mere CMMI accreditation, and especially to those that are looking for lightweight CMMI implementation.
Forward this post to your Quality Manager and colleagues, if you think it can help getting better results from your process improvement initiative.
Are you engaged in a process improvement initiative? Tell me about your situation and I will share my experience with you.
