Process definition ” the work of creating or revising organizational policies, processes, procedures, and other process assets ” is just one small part of an overall process improvement project. So, why an entire chapter on the subject? That is a great question and one that made me reluctant to even dedicate a chapter to this topic.
Although process definition is just one phase of CMMI-based process improvement work, I have observed process definition work consume most or all of an organization s process improvement or CMMI budget. I ve witnessed processes being defined in perpetuity and never being released into the user community for use. I ve witnessed process definition work taking many months to complete, only to yield processes which were entirely unusable in the organization. Yes, process definition work should be just a small part of process improvement. This chapter reveals some techniques and lessons learned from practical implementation that you can use to ensure your process definition work is done with the appropriate priority and resources, which results in usable products that help people do their job more effectively and efficiently .