Process Management Process Areas

Many of the Process Management Process Area practices apply to organization-level, not project-level, activities. The organization represents the USA Company. Because two software projects were the primary focus of the CMMI case study, the way to address the organizational practices posed a problem. To solve this dilemma, the team looked at the organizational practices for the USA software organization (i.e., the software process across USA).

Organizational Process Focus and Organizational Process Definition

The USA software policy establishes the means for coordinating software process development and improvement activities across projects. These activities include development and maintenance of the USA standard software process, collection and review of information related to the use of the USA standard software process, assessment of strengths and weaknesses of the software process against a process standard, and planned and coordinated development and improvement activities for the software process across USA.

The USA standard software process defines the minimum requirements for satisfying the USA software policy. Standard processes for nonsoftware areas (e.g., Engineering, Program Management) are being developed. The USA Software Process Asset Library is in its early stages with a small number of process assets in existence. A more robust and populated process asset library is planned. The existing USA online documentation systems also provide mechanisms for process asset storage and retrieval.

To implement improvement for the USA software process, the USA process owner outlined a plan to achieve the improvement. As part of this plan's development and implementation, each USA program element assessed its software development processes against the USA standard software process, identifying strengths, weaknesses, and process gaps that formed the basis of the program elements' action plans for attaining compliance with requirements of the USA standard software process.

Each USA process owner organized an infrastructure that supports the implementation of her or his improvement plan. The USA software process owner established a common process improvement network to effect major improvements in software product quality in the most cost-effective manner. Figure 7.5 displays the functional organization and roles involved in the improvement effort.

Figure 7.5. Software Process Improvement Infrastructure

The USA SEPG is responsible for developing and deploying the USA software process assets. The management oversight committees include the Software Strategic Planning Group and Software Executive Council (SEC). The Software Strategic Planning Group is responsible for linking the software process improvement program to corporate business objectives. The Software Strategic Planning Group is composed of the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Information Officer, Director of Strategic Business Planning and Development, and the USA Software Process Owner. The SEC is responsible for linking the software process improvement program to the program elements' business objectives. The SEC is composed of executive representatives from each USA program element.

The USA SEPG coordinates the software process improvement activities through its representatives to company element SEPGs and communicates changes through this infrastructure. The USA SEPG meets with groups from each program element, as needed, to deploy planned improvements. In addition, the USA Software Process Owners meet with peer executive managers of business areas to communicate strategic direction.

The USA SEPG used lessons learned from its initial development and review cycle of the USA software process assets to improve its subsequent process asset releases (e.g., required documentation of recommended change information, refined process definition standards). The SEPG also controls the release of process assets to its constituency and provides training on the use of assets through its SEPG representatives to the USA program elements. Representatives derive lessons learned from the deployed process assets and provide feedback to the USA SEPG.

The existing company-wide standardized systems in which technical and financial measurements are contained do not yet provide data related to the organization's set of standard processes. There is a plan to deploy a common set of measurements for the USA standard software process. At such time, the data will be collected and available for use by projects.

The USA Process Owners use the USA intranet as a means of establishing standard look-and-feel Web pages for each business process in the company. Web-based tools are used to facilitate the maintenance of the process assets. The USA software process assets are maintained via the USA intranet, including change proposals to assets.

Organizational Training

The USA training organization works through the representative program element training coordinators to identify the organization-wide training needs and plans for them accordingly. USA program elements typically organize their unique training needs specific to their application domains; however, the USA-wide training organization also coordinates the program element training in some instances. A training process owner is assigned for USA at the corporate level with corresponding staff in the training department.

USA is developing career tracks for roles within the company processes to identify key required skills that represent strategic needs of the company. The career tracks are intended to define requirements for progression along identified career paths in the USA disciplines. In addition, there is an extensive leadership development program that is available for USA employees across the company.

Some mandatory computer-based training (CBT) courses include embedded tests to determine the effectiveness of the individual training. In addition, some certification programs that require completion of staged requirements (e.g., through testing) are used in conjunction with USA training to assess effectiveness. Most USA training courses use a standard satisfaction survey to evaluate individual classes. Vendor-provided training for purchased courseware is evaluated to determine if the supplier should be used for future course offerings.

Records of completed employee training are maintained in the company's training records management system. There are limited records of staff that have been waived from specific training.

The USA intranet and online course registration processes are in place to facilitate the deployment of training. Numerous CBT courses are available as well as a large catalog of courses. The training group provides the necessary support to administer the training program. CBT development software and experts are available to prepare internally developed online courses. The training organization is equipped to help with instructional design and course content design/development. The training academy facility includes allocated rooms with permanently housed workstations and equipment to conduct regular classes.

Organizational Process Performance

Because the USA standard software process is in early stages of deployment, the activities of the Organizational Process Performance process area are premature and therefore no observations were recorded.

Organizational Innovation and Deployment

As part of their responsibility, the corporate process owners, continuous improvement team, and associate program managers identify innovative process and technology improvements. There are some documented plans for deploying process and technology improvements for USA processes. The USA Continuous Improvement Plan identifies activities that will result in measurable change, including quality and process performance.

The USA intranet (and planned process asset library to be used by all USA process owners) will provide a base on which to build changes; however, there are limited tools in place to model changes to processes or technologies in support of innovative and technological advancements.