Entry strategies into the process improvement initiative

One of the more important steps in starting a process improvement initiative is to determine the appropriate tasking and the scope of the process improvement program. There is great temptation for an organization to attempt to take on too much too fast, especially if it feels that it must catch up to its competition. For example, an organization will assess its capability against all of the Key Process Areas (KPAs) of the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) and try to set up Working Groups and Action Plans in a broadly based approach to implement multiple levels of KPAs at the same time. While it is natural to want to initiate a program quickly, it is important for an organization trying to get a process improvement initiative started to be as realistic as possible in these beginning stages. It might not be appropriate for an organization to conduct an assessment right away, yet another organization might want to focus on only a few areas to get its process improvement initiative started, show positive results and then expand. This paper will identify critical factors to consider and discuss process improvement entry strategies that the authors have helped their clients to achieve over the past five years. 1.0 FACTORS THAT AFFECT PROCESS IMPROVEMENT INITIATIVES There are many factors that must be taken into consideration when an organization is trying to establish its organizational process. What process improvement entry strategy an organization chooses depends on a number of factors, including the following factors that will be discussed throughout the remainder of this paper. These factors have been critical for organizations that have started their process improvement programs in the past 10 years: History of previous process improvement programs or quality improvement programs; • • • • • • • • • • • • • Financial resources to fund the process improvement initiative; Human resources able to be dedicated to process improvement; Software Engineering capability of the developers; Technology support available; Contractual obligations; Scope; Customs and culture of the organization; Standards (Industry, Corporate, Organizational, Project, Customer); Understanding and support from all levels of management and practitioners; Corporate political pressure; Business objectives; and, Vision.