Problems

The process focus is not without its challenges. That is a nice way of saying that "it ain't perfect." If you look at the last line of one of the preceding paragraphs, it says, "Process, when supported by training, enough money, enough skilled people, proper tools, and management commitment, can help your organization." Most people do not understand process until they have been struggling with it for at least a year. "Training" is considered a dirty word in some organizations "If they don't have the skills, we don't hire them," or "We only hire skilled people." And as most of you know, if you are really good at something, your organization is going to place you on one project full-time, and then pull you off that project and place you on one in trouble ( full-time ), and then have you "help out" on another project in your "spare" time. And when you do a wonderful job on the project in crisis and bring it in on time, your reward is to get your butt kicked on the other two projects because you are late delivering them. This is an example of a dysfunctional , low-maturity, yet commonly found organization.

The same problems occur in process improvement. You seldom get the "right" people. You get a lot of people just waiting to retire, or out of rehab, or summer interns, or "burnouts," or people who just cannot code well. You staff up with five or six full-time process improvement team members , only to find them pulled off when their former projects run into trouble. Training for process improvement is absolutely mandatory; but once the people get the training and start to do the work, they become overwhelmed and decide to go back to their old jobs, or leave the company for greener pastures. Or, the organization decides to give a "condensed" version of the training because it is too expensive both in dollars spent and in time spent not doing "real work." Or the organization buys a process improvement tool guaranteed to get you your level rating in one year, only to discover that you cannot just plug it in you have to actually write procedures and do work.

The answer? Well, just like anything else, there is no one answer, except maybe the following: tell your boss (or whoever's idea this whole process improvement thing was), in a tactful way, to put his money where his mouth is. If he wants it, it will cost him in dollars, people, and time, including his time. Do not commit to "Level 2 in 2 years ," or any other such slogan . Commit to trying to improve your organization. And mention to the boss that most improvement models focus improvement activities on management not worker bees and practitioners . See if he then wants to continue. Educating your boss, as well as the rest of the organization, is key to a smooth transition to the process improvement path .

Process improvement is really about change. No one really likes to change, unless the current way of doing things is so onerous and repulsive that they just cannot stand it anymore. Most people do not get to this state when working for an organization they simply go elsewhere. Thus, no one in your organization will be really excited to adopt a program that makes him change the way he does his job. Most people have developed, over the years, their own system or process for doing their job. And if you are the process improvement specialist, you will be responsible for making them change. And guess what? You will also have to change the way you do your job. One way to get people to buy into this whole change/process thing is to have them write the procedures. If they cannot or will not write, then get them to at least participate in meetings where they can voice their issues and contribute to creating the process for doing their work.