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Section 1.4. Moving Forward

1.4. Moving Forward

Every day we can see how process helps businesses build business. Successful banks balance their portfolios of risky loans and secured loans using proven processes, ones that mitigate risk, provide for flexibility, and, in the end, average out in the plus column. Builders of tract homes rely on what they call "packages": highly reliable inventories of what goes into entry and mid-priced houses . The Big Mac you get at a McDonald's in Knoxville tastes exactly like the one you'd get in San Diego. That's because McDonald's has worked out a stable process for putting Big Macs together. You can purchase a Dodge Neona machine that consists of over 12,000 integrated componentsfor under $12,000 and expect to drive it for over 100,000 miles. Daimler Chrysler has meticulously engineered a detailed process that can bring those 12,000 components together in a highly predictable way.

Process works. And process can work in your technology organization, too. You'll find that with processeven light, malleable processyour planning becomes more accurate, your estimates are more dependable, and your expectations tend to remain aligned with those of your client. There are many other benefits in implementing process, and I'll take a look at these in Chapter 2.

You have taken a smart step in moving forward. The processes contained in programs like ISO 9001:2000, CMMI, and Six Sigma are proven to deliver distinct benefits, whether you're designing software, integrating systems, building components, or architecting solutions. Acquiring a good, beginning understanding of process improvement and of these three widely recognized programs will help you establish a process program in your organization that moves you toward your goals of quality, predictability, efficiency, and success.

1.5. Summary

The business of IT has evolved to mesh more and more closely with business itself. Today IT supports the business more than it ever has before.
Corporate IT shops are annually accountable for billions of dollars in spending, shaping projects that will guide the futures of many companies. Yet many struggle to embrace or implement basic project and process controls.
The use of processshaped to the needs of the organizationcan raise accountability, increase efficiencies, and improve quality.
This book presents a primer in topics on process improvement by looking at fundamentals of process programs, then presenting overviews of the ISO 9001:2000 Standard, the Capability Maturity Model Integration, and Six Sigma.

Chapter 2. The Case for Process

MANY READERS OF THIS BOOK WILL BE LOOKING INTO THE DISCIPLINE OF PROCESS IMPROVEMENT FOR the first time. But even if this area is new to them, most readers should be pretty much experts in more than one realm of information technology, perhaps programming, project management, or quality control; maybe architecture, design, or implementation; or, still yet, management, strategic planning, or performance analysis. Those kinds of backgrounds are invaluable when it comes to understanding the roles process improvement can play in organizational success. And they are essential for making the case for process improvement.

In fact, if you are what might be called the "typical" reader of this book, you may well understand more about the potential for process in your organization than most. The reason is simple. Process improvement is about improving the way the organization works. When it comes to that work, you're a pro.

Process is not (or should not be) about adopting new "things" blindly and then hoping that those things do whatever it is they're supposed to do. It should not be a series of new practices that represent what the "industry" says you should be doing. That is the antithesis of the process improvement philosophy. Process is about taking your approach to work and formalizing it into a program others can follow.

At its heart, process improvement is about four basic activities:

Looking at what you do
Focusing in on the things you do well (or want to do well)
Setting tools in place to help everyone do it similarly well
Keeping an eye open for ways to make that approach better over time

Those four steps are about as basic as you can get, but they bring me to an important point. Your expertise as a programmer, a manager, an analystthese are all keys to the success of your organization's process improvement efforts. Your knowledge, experience, and insight should be the crucial components that will form the foundation of your improvement program. Without those, the program has nothing to stand on. And in their absence, even the most recognized of programslike ISO 9001, CMMI, and Six Sigmaare just words on paper.

Those who do not seek to take advantage of what the organization already does well (its habits, knowledge, experience, and insight)those people who prefer to wipe the slate cleanare missing a critical element to process improvement success.

Given that, I can now take a first step toward making the case for process in any technology organization. And the first point toward that goal is that you are the process.