Summary

This chapter attempted to introduce the novice process improvement individual to some terms and concepts commonly used and why process improvement is important. This chapter should be considered a high-level overview. More information is contained in the following chapters of this book. The power of the CMMI lies in that it lets you define your job how you do it and what gets produced from it. But with power comes responsibility. If you want to control how you do your job, you need to fully participate in the process improvement program.

Mistakes are a good thing. They show that you are trying. They show that you are improving after your mistakes go down. However, the predominant mantra in the industry is that mistakes are bad. If you make a mistake, you get hammered for it. There is no middle ground no shades of gray. You are either 100 percent right or 100 percent wrong. With process improvement, if no mistakes are made, then the processes are probably not being used. Processes are generally not written "right" or perfectly the first time around, nor are they initially implemented and practiced correctly.

Also remember that although we say that process improvement involves skilled professionals with an objective, unbiased , professional attitude toward their work, everyone on the process improvement team has a large amount of personal investment in this effort. So things do tend to get personal . Try to see the big picture and try to be flexible.