Business Goals and Objectives

Much is made about aligning your process improvement effort to the business goals that the organization is trying to achieve. This alignment is easier said than done. Most organizations just beginning process improvement do not really have clearly defined business objectives. In fact, what we most often hear from executives when we ask them what they are trying to accomplish by doing process improvement is to reduce the number of people they need to staff projects, and have the people who survive the cut become more productive that is, have the people do more work in less time. Of course, that does not include the executive doing the talking. Well, process improvement will not allow you to significantly reduce your task force. In fact, especially over the short term , you may have to actually hire more people in order to structure process improvement efforts and staff them adequately. So this "goal" is simply wrong.

Another often- heard response to "What are your business goals as they relate to process improvement?" is to get Maturity Level 3 for contract awards. If these organizations could buy Level 3 (and there is some discussion as to the ability to buy a level rating), these organizations would be most willing to go that route.

The other problem we run into is, when we ask, "What are your business objectives?", we repeatedly hear one answer an incredulous, "Why, to make money of course!" The point of this discussion is that most organizations beginning process improvement are simply not sophisticated enough to have clear goals.

There is a technique that can be used to help define business goals and process improvement focus areas. It is called the Goal-Question-Metric technique. In this method, a workshop is held. It should actually be called the Problem-Goal-Question-Metric approach. During the workshop, a list of the most common problems found in the organization is presented. Questions are then asked relating to the problems, and the areas of the CMMI are used to help focus ensuing process improvement efforts. The approach starts with a business goal and works backward to identify improvement actions to achieve that goal. Here is a basic example:

• Problem: We cannot keep up with the number of requirements changes.

• Goal: To improve our requirements change process.

• Question: How can we improve our requirements change process?

• Metric: Number of requirements changes submitted, approved, implemented, or cancelled versus the number of original requirements documented. Time it takes to implement a change in requirements.

• Associated process areas: Requirements Management (Level 2), Project Planning (Level 2), Product and Process Quality Assurance (Level 2), Requirements Development (Level 3).

The main difference between this approach and addressing the seven process areas in Level 2 of the CMMI staged representation simultaneously is that structuring your process improvement program to focus on key problems in your organization helps define the scope of initial efforts and their sequence. Some members of your process improvement team and of your organization will find this approach more relevant to their everyday work, and will therefore be more enthusiastic about the program.

Although we have discussed this Goal-Question-Metric approach, we do not strongly recommend it for low-maturity organizations. Why not? Because most beginning organizations do not have a clear understanding of business objectives and business goals. They also will not readily admit that there are problems in the organization. The example we used was pertinent to requirements problems in systems. However, most true business objectives are at a much higher level. For example, an organization that clearly understands business objectives would state that one of its business objectives would be to improve customer satisfaction by 10 percent by reducing the number of defects embedded in their systems and delivered to their customers by 15 percent. To truly be effective, this type of business objective, backed by this metric, requires a sophisticated approach to identifying problems in organizations; fully defining the problem; relating the problem to existing, documented business goals; measuring the current process and its results; and measuring the expected versus realized outcome. This approach is way beyond most low-maturity organizations.

So, what to do? Because the approach above is used to structure your improvement efforts, why not use an officially approved assessment method? We suggest that if you are using the CMMI, that a SCAMPI be used. The SCAMPI is a method whereby a team is formed that examines any processes (both formal and, in low-maturity organizations, informal) that exist in an organization and rates their strengths and weaknesses as they relate to the CMMI. The organization will then decide which process areas to focus on first. Guidelines for beginning and assessing your process improvement trek are given in subsequent chapters in this book.