HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

Whether you re reading this text online or in hard-copy form, you should feel free to consume the information any way you like. As much as possible, I ve tried to make each chapter or section a self-contained unit of information so you can get from it the essence of the knowledge it s trying to convey independent of other chapters and sections. Naturally, I ve arranged the information in a sequence that seems logical to my own mind, but if you talk to my wife or friends who know my mind, you may not want to take that route.

This book is, by no means, the most comprehensive word on modelbased process improvement and there are other texts , many of them referenced herein, which you should also read.

The information in this book is organized into eight chapters:

1. News Flash! There Is a Level 1!

2. The Role of Roles

3. Managing the Process Improvement Project

4. Process Improvement Strategies that Work

5. Five Critical Factors in Successful Process Definition

6. Acquiring Process Expertise and Tools

7. Effective Change Leadership for Process Improvement

8. Process Improvement Myths and Methodologies

Which Parts You Should Read

In any organization, the functional roles of people who are directly involved in CMMI-based process improvement can fit into one of the following four general categories:

1. Executives and senior managers

2. People with process focus responsibilities, such as SEPG members or process improvement managers

3. System engineering program or project managers

4. Engineers and users of organizational processes

Most of the information contained in this book is of greatest value to process improvement leads or managers and members of groups responsible for some aspect of CMMI-based process improvement, such as SEPG members.

However, some sections are more relevant and useful to people in one of these four categories than to others. In these instances, you ll find the text is preceded by a picture that indicates the group to which that section is targeted . This makes it easy for anyone in the organization to scan the book and find the information they need most. Of course, I would be very happy if everyone read everything, but I d rather help you get what you need when you need it.

Executive and Senior Managers

If you re a senior or executive level manager, you may have numerous projects, programs, and initiatives to oversee and manage. You re interested in high-level information because there s just too much detail and, besides, you ve got people reporting to you whom you re counting on to know and watch the details.

The information contained in these sections primarily focuses on what is happening and why you should care. These sections will give you enough information to be able to ask the right questions and make the right decisions. There is also a special chapter devoted to you titled, Effective Change Leadership for Process Improvement. If you don t read anything else, you need to read this chapter if you want your organization s CMMI or process improvement effort to do more than just spend money and use valuable resources.

Systems Project Managers and Leads

CMMI-based process improvement simply will not succeed without your involvement. Without software or systems engineering projects, there wouldn t even be much need for CMMI. If your organization s senior management is going to push CMMI on the organization, you might as well get involved in the effort early and as much as possible. You can and should influence the results and outcomes of the improvement efforts, but you won t be able to if you try to avoid it.

These sections give you what you need to not be steamrolled by those process people. You ll not only learn how to cope with the changes being made, you ll learn how to make the process improvements work to the benefit of you, your projects, and your customers.

Engineers and Other Process Stakeholders

You are the people often called the victims. You re the people who are using new or revised procedures. You are project technical leads, engineers, architects , developers, testers, integrators, suppliers, and people responsible for configuration managementor change control. As far as you re concerned , you are the real people with the real jobs. You might be people who would very much like for all this process stuff to go away.

Since it s not going to go away, these sections are written to give you the minimum amount of information you need, without annoying you with a lot of stuff you don t care about. Just try it; it won t hurt that much.