As I implied in my previous blog posting, this series might ramble a bit. For those of you who are hoping for a stream of articles involving mathematical techniques emphasizing those wonderful Six Sigma tools, this first posting is likely to be disappointing, as will many that follow. I guess I should note, it is my opinion that both CMMI and SixSigma efforts primarily involve human change, and human change is more about people and...

Learning from Choices A frequently heard question in our business is How long is it going to take us to achieve the next maturity level? The answer to this question is always: It depends. Through over 20 years of process improvement consulting, we have learned many things. One of the most important learnings is that every organization is unique. Each organization’s process improvement journey looks and feels different. Improving...

There are many factors that affect the success of a process improvement program. But the most important success factors can be categorized as the 3 C’s: Commitment Every process improvement guide cites demonstrated management commitment to process improvement as a key factor to success. Demonstration means as much active participation as possible. It is not enough to pay the bill and provide the necessary funding. Here are some useful...

Process Enhancement Partners, Inc. (PEP) is a professional services organization devoted exclusively to helping software development and maintenance organizations improve: business performance (in terms of project predictability, product quality, productivity, and decreased project cycle time, etc.) and quality of life for the software developers (in terms of reduced pressure, reduced overtime, more reasonable demands and schedules,...

Overview The Process Improvement Executive Overview is a one (1) day course that has been well received by audiences in both the U.S. and Europe. The contents of the Overview served as the basis for critical course materials excerpted from PEP’s other CMM/CMMI® training classes. Description: Process Improvement Executive Overview introduces: the Software Engineering Institute’s (SEI) Capability Maturity Model® (CMM®) or...