Jumping on the metrics bandwagon

Posted on February 1, 2011 by srk@methodpark.de

Jumping on the metrics bandwagon

“If you cannot measure it, you cannot control it. If you cannot control it, you cannot manage it. If you cannot manage it, you cannot improve it.” - H.J. Harrington

In today’s competitive world, the yardstick of success is not just ousting peer organizations or products, but also outperforming your own self. Metrics are an integral part of product and process improvement. However, identifying a suitable set of metrics for your organization needs thorough consideration, as you might land up having far more on your plate than you can chew.

1. Do not seek information of which you can’t make use of - Anna C. Brackett

The “Practical Software and Systems Measurement Guide” and the “SE Leading Indicators Guide” offer a comprehensive set of metrics. It might be a good idea to use the “Goal-Question-Metrics” approach to choose the ones most suited to your business objectives.

First identify your immediate goals, which usually stem from current concerns or problems affecting the organization. “Releasing the software to the customer” might be one of your current concerns for example. The next step is to ask questions that focus on achieving these goals like here: “How reliable is my software?”

Metrics are nothing but a set of data associated with each of these questions, in order to answer them in a measurable way. The metrics associated with the reliability of our software-to-be-released would be: the testing effort in terms of man hours, number of failures etc.

2. All the data that you collect is only as useful as you present it – Anonymous

Once you identify the metrics you need, the associated data such as how, when and by whom measurements are carried out, stored and accessed must be clearly defined. Once collected, this data needs to be analysed to understand and extract the information lying within. Visual representations like charts and graphs facilitate analysis. Analysis and interpretation of measurement data -often termed as Indicators – depends on the context of the process and product. For example, fewer failures detected during testing might either indicate a mature Design and Implementation process or an incompetent Testing process if defects were reported after the product was released.

3. Data is a precious thing and will last longer than the systems themselves – Tim Berners-Lee

Historical data for all projects across the organization must be collected and maintained in a suitable manner, so that it is available for identifying trends. This factual data is worth more than a thousand guesses while planning projects or process improvements. For example, lessons learned from previous projects contribute towards better planning for future projects, which in turn improves an organization’s processes in itself.

Did all of that sound intimidating? Not to worry, having helped you define and manage your processes, “Stages” helps measure and improve your processes with the following inbuilt metrics features:

  • A compact set of process and product metrics recommended in the “Systems Engineering Leading Indicators Guide”
  • Easy-to-use interfaces with your organizational processes for collecting measurement data
  • Visually appealing and easy-to-interpret integration with BIRT for reports and graphs
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Partnership between Method Park and ISD

Posted on March 18, 2010 by Erich Meier

Hi!

It’s been a long time since my last post. We’ve been very busy in rolling out Stages to new customers, caring for existing customers, entering new markets and adding exciting new features to our solution.

One of the things we focussed on was finding new partners that have complementary solutions to Stages. And we’ve been successful.

At the SEPG NA in Savannah, the world leading conference on CMMI and engineering process management, we will announce a partnership with Integrated Systems Diagnostics (ISD). They are a leading and well respected player in the CMMI area and we are very proud to be able to partner with them. Here is the official press release.

Now what were the reasons, why ISD and Method Park decided to partner? Because ISD’s conference parties have always been the SEPG highlight?!? Well, maybe… This year we will co-sponsor, so join us in Savannah! Contact me for an invitation.

Seriously, ISD has a toolsuite that seamlessly complements our current offering. Together with their Appraisal Wizard / Model Wizard tools, we are able to provide customers with an integrated solution that covers the full cycle of process definition, deployment, performance, control, appraisals and improvement. Our joint toolchain is fully multimodel capable so customers who are required to meet multiple process standards will save tremendous efforts in implementation.

ISD’s Integrated Solution Framework (ISF) is an exciting new framework for organizing  and  correlating components of best practice reference models and industry standards across all organizational areas. Following an Open Source approach, experts in each model or standard are able to establish an agreed mapping of components within the ISF framework. The framework can be extended as needed to accommodate new concepts.

Our joint whitepaper “Effectively Managing Process Compliance” describes the benefits for customers that will use our integrated approach. It will be released next week.  Please contact me for receiving your personal copy.

Those of you who are also visiting the SEPG next week, please let me know so we could arrange a personal meeting. And a beer in the evening

Erich

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Day 4 of SEPG 2010 – Wrapping it All Up – Tim Kasse

Posted on March 17, 2010 by Tim Kasse

Thursday’s presentations wrap up SEPG for 2010. Thursday is also a day where people get their tickets early to return home and miss out on some well prepared and informative presentations. This year’s choices will make it worth your while to stick around and lend our final speakers your ear.

Here are my picks for wrapping up SEPG 2010:

  • “Driver Tree” an Experience Simulation Model for process improvement projects – Stefan Ast, Winfried Russwurm and Thomas Birkhoelzer – As the authors stated, any process improvement project faces issues when trying to decide what process areas would benefit the business the most if investment were made in them.
    • This presentation shares the Siemens “Driver Tree” model and simulation tool used to evaluate alternative activities for process improvement projects. But more than just a report on one company’s way of doing things, this presentation makes the claim that their approach is customizable and that YOU can adapt the methodology for your OWN organization.
    • This promises a learning opportunity with a “take-away” that could benefit all of our organizations. I have had the privilege to work with Siemens process innovators since the early ‘90s so I plan to attend this session and learn again from them.
  • The New “Innovative” Era of Business Appraisals  – Renato Vasques
    • Models and standards such as the CMMI, ISO 9001 and a host of military and government standards have been considered the cornerstone of process improvement efforts. And we all realize that one model or standard does not necessarily provide any organization with all that is necessary to drive the variety of projects and product lines that make up the organization’s business.
    • So how do managers and engineers react to CMMI, Six Sigma, ISO, Lean, Agile, SPICE, PMI, ITIL, aerospace standards, telecommunications standards etc…???? This ISD Brazil presentation promises to share some of innovative ideas they have developed and tried out to allow appraisals to be run in a multi-model fashion. The multi-model era is not going to go away no matter how many times model and standard consolidation is performed. Let’s learn from these innovations!
  • Towards a Systems Thinking View of Process Improvement – James Hart
    • I received my Systems Engineering degree from the University of Arizona a number of years ago and at the time of graduation, most recruiters did not know what a Systems Engineer was. Some 30+ years later, at an SEPG conference, it was announced that the process improvement world would benefit from more Systems Engineers being involved with it.
    • Taking a system thinking view means looking at the big picture and understanding where each component, including the people component fits in. This is the approach Jim Hart has taken to get organizations to understand how to empower people so they can see how their individual actions and decisions affect the system they work within
    • Come join me and listen to Jim as he shares systems ideas that can help people understand why systems behave as they do, understand the interdependencies of performance, and use “what-if scenarios” to predict improvement results.
    • Jim’s presentations are never for the “faint of heart” but they are always power packed and informative. You won’t be disappointed!
  • Demonstrating Best Value in Supplier Selection – David Quinn
    • We should choose suppliers because we can get a product or service at a cheaper cost and therefore our product offerings will give our customers greater value! Hmmmm, it seems like this has become a mantra for organizations who are trying to decide who to choose as a supplier.
    • David is going to challenge that thinking in his presentation and even illustrate when spending extra money is justified to gain greater capability. Want to learn about a proven formula that differentiates proposals to assign the proper value to the proposed cost? Come listen to David with me as SEPG 2010 wraps up.

I will also be providing my opinions of the sessions I get to attend during the conference through continuing blogs to let you know how I felt about them after I saw the author’s in action.

Catch up with me during the conference and let me hear your reactions to the presentations you have attended. You can easily find me at my partner’s booth 416, Method Park.

More information:  SEPG 2010 Agenda

See you in Savannah!

Tim Kasse
CEO & Principal Consultant
Kasse Initiatives LLC

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Day 3 of SEPG 2010 – A Day of Diversity – Tim Kasse

Posted on March 17, 2010 by Tim Kasse

Wednesday promises to bring us a variety of opportunities to learn and share our process improvement experiences. It includes presentations on the Software Process and its future. It includes discussions on Agile techniques, tools, and effective teams. It will try to make sense of Six Sigma techniques and explain why conducting Peer Reviews is still one of the most important life-cycle activities that can be done. It promises to unveil the secrets of SCAMPI Appraisals, give you a glimpse into the future with a discussion of CMMI v1.3 and even let you suggest topics that you would like to have discussions with your peers on. Show up for Wednesday well rested. It will be worth it!

Here are a few selections for Wednesday that caught my eye:

  • Software Process – Its Role and Future – Watts Humphrey – SEI Fellow – This is one presentation that is a “MUST Attend” no matter what else you had planned for the early morning hours. Mr. Humphrey, the Godfather of the CMM / CMMI and the assessment industry and my former boss, will present his views on the field of Software Engineering
    • “To be true engineers, we must use operational processes, measure our work, and evaluate and use the data. Until we do this, our field will continue to be driven by unsubstantiated myth and opinion…….”
    • Mr. Humphrey will certainly articulate what he feels is the next challenge for the software engineering process community
    • Mr. Humphrey wrote his book on “Managing the Software Process” in 1989 while he was in the middle of his tour of managing the Process Program at the SEI. Years and many miles later, he takes his place among the greats: Deming, Juran, and Crosby still sharing his experience and energy for process improvement and quality. BE THERE!
  • SCAMPI Evidence from Agile Practices – Judah Mogilensky and Hillel Glazer
    • Discussions abound about how Agile software development practices and CMMI-based process improvement can coexist. You may remember that I keynoted an Agile conference with the presentation: “An Agile View of the CMMI” in November 2008.
    • This presentation not only presents these authors’ viewpoint on Agile and CMMI but goes a step further and provides suggestions for appropriate Agile artifacts that can be used as evidence for several CMMI process areas and practices.
    • Make sure that you keep your self up-to-date on the best discussions on Agile and the CMMI by attending this session!
  • The Coach Approach – Stephanie Archer and Robert Leinen
    • Why is it that when great process descriptions are developed they are not instantly accepted and adopted by the projects they were designed for? Resistance and the need for organizational change to be integrated with the process improvements are just two answers to this question
    • Stephanie and Robert from Deloitte Consulting present the ideas behind Deloitte Consulting’s “process coaches” along with case studies illustrating the positive impact of these coaches on actual projects.
    • If change happened all by itself, we would all be ML 5!!!! Put the CMMI SGs and SPs aside for a moment and check out the significant impact a process coach can make!
  • Applying Six Sigma Techniques to Process Improvement Effort – Kiran Honavalli and Jarred Market
    • Six Sigma books line most of our shelves whether we have read them or not. Many start out by explaining that Six Sigma is the best quality management method in the world because the method focuses the organization on its customers. Well, I thought most of us focused on our customers whether we used Six Sigma techniques or not – but then again, maybe not.
    • Kiran and Jarred did not promise to take us immediately to Six Sigma with their presentation but they did promise to share some practical ideas on how using Six Sigma techniques can increase compliance to CMMI-based process improvement. I am always one who wants to hear about the practical approaches others have learned about and are willing to share, so come join me and learn some practical basics.
  • 125 Appraisals and Secrets Learned Along the Way – Norm Hammock
    • Norm is someone who has extensive experience in CMM / CMMI process improvement and appraisals. His own abstract words got my attention straight away: “Want to learn process improvement secrets from someone who has been there and is willing to share?” When someone is willing to pass along his/her 20+ years of experience in our industry, we should all show up and listen very closely! I know I will!
  • Plenary Session on CMMI v1.3 – An Update – Mike Phillips
    • What? Another version of the CMMI? When did that happen? Why wasn’t I informed? Where have I been? Well, you should be aware of the intense work that has been going on to update all three CMMI constellations: CMMI-DEV, CMMI-ACQ, and CMMI-SVC. And if you are not as up-to-date as you would like to be, I suggest you get yourself to this critical information session and get up-to-date quickly!!!!

I will be providing my presentation choices for the last day in the next blog so you will want to check back one more time.  I will also be providing my opinions of the sessions I get to attend during the conference to let you know how I felt about them after I saw the author’s in action.

Catch up with me during the conference and let me hear your reactions to the presentations you have attended. You can easily find me at my partner’s booth 416, Method Park.

More information:  SEPG 2010 Agenda

See you soon!

Tim Kasse
CEO & Principal Consultant
Kasse Initiatives LLC

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Day 2 of SEPG 2010 – Consider These Presentations – Tim Kasse

Posted on March 17, 2010 by Tim Kasse

Tuesday starts the official first day of the SEPG conference and it promises to offer concrete information that you can think about and use when you return to your own organizations

Here are a few selections for Tuesday you may want to consider:

  • Keynote Panel – Process Improvement on a Regional Scale – Wan Peng Ng, Rafael Salazar Chavez, Barry Dwolatzky – Even if you are not an early morning riser, you will want to get your coffee early and be present for this opening panel session
    • If you represent a country in the “Western World” then you probably think of India and China when you think of global software development. But remember this year’s theme – “Perform At a Higher Level”. Three leaders representing three different countries from around the globe are focusing on “productivity and product quality” to capture their share of the outsourcing market. The influence of TSP (Team Software Process) will be highlighted in their success. Be there for this “how to” discussion!
  • Holistic Quality – Bud Glick and Rajesh Sharma
    • Even mentioning quality these days seems dangerous. For many organizations, projects, and individuals, quality is what you have to do to satisfy the PPQA process area and GP 2.9. But Bud and Rajesh have set their sights on giving the topic one more go and making sure that it is not just a mandatory function for CMMI compliance but a strong component supporting an organization’s business objectives
    • Remember, “A focus on quality means a continuing focus on process improvement” according to Dr. Deming
    • Quality comes from improvement of the process!
    • The CMMI has always been a Quality Management document!
  • I am a Change Agent: What Do I Do and How Do I Learn How? – Stan Rifkin
    • Process Improvement Means Change! – Over the past twenty years, I have often shared the view that when and if an organization wants to embark on a process improvement initiative, it must also give equal attention to the people or organizational change
    • Stan Rifkin started at the Software Engineering Institute in 1988 about the same time I did and was one of the original thinkers on process groups and what skills they needed to be “change agents” and support the full scope of their organization’s process improvement initiative.
    • With today’s strong focus on CMMI compliance, I highly recommend attending Stan’s presentation and learning about being a “Change Agent” from one of the best.
  • High Maturity In Practice: Using Case Studies to Drive Consistent Interpretations – Michael Evanoo and Kathy Smith
    • Since 2006, what constitutes a High Maturity organization, what does a Lead Appraiser look for, what is a Process Performance Baseline or a Process Performance Model has been the topic of conversation, numerous presentations, High Maturity classes, and High Maturity workshops.
    • I personally believe that what has been missing has been case studies with examples that takes high maturity out of the CMMI ML 4 and ML 5 process areas and puts it into everyday facts and figures that can be easily understood and built upon. CHECK THIS ONE OUT FOR SURE!
  • Survey Results of Baselines and Models used by Level 4 and 5 Organizations – Ron Radice
    • No high maturity track would be complete without the experienced insight of Ron Radice. Having developed the original concepts of process architecture in the early ‘80s while working for Mr. Watts Humphrey at IBM, Ron has been a pioneer of statistical process control and quantitative control.
    • With all of the hullabaloo over High Maturity and what should and should not be in place, it will definitely be interesting to hear Ron’s input on just “what has really changed in the high maturity community since 2000!
  • Maturity Level 4 Results in a Lot of BS – Pat O’Toole
    • Pat has been a leader in supporting and assessing High Maturity organizations almost as long as Ron has and has more than significant experience that he has shared and will continue to share.
    • I am from Texas so I have my own definition of BS, so I will definitely be attending this presentation to understand what guidance Pat is trying to give us.

I will be providing my presentation choices for the remaining two days in subsequent blogs so you will want to check back frequently to see if you agree.  I will also be providing my opinions of the sessions I get to attend during the conference to let you know how I felt about them after I saw the author’s in action.

Catch up with me during the conference and let me hear your reactions to the presentations you have attended. You can easily find me at my partner’s booth 416, Method Park.

More information:  SEPG 2010 Agenda

See you soon!

Tim Kasse
CEO & Principal Consultant
Kasse Initiatives LLC

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Day 1 of SEPG 2010 – The Most Intriguing Tutorials – Tim Kasse

Posted on March 17, 2010 by Tim Kasse

I will be attending the SEPG 2010 in Savannah this year and one of the reasons is the theme the SEI has chosen to build this world-important conference around.

The theme of this year’s SEPG is “Perform At a Higher Level” and it comes at a time in our country’s and world’s history where solid and higher level performance is needed on all fronts if companies are to be efficient and effective and turn our high quality products and services and keep their customers satisfied.

So with that theme in mind, I took a quick tour of this year’s program to see what would catch my eye and want me to definitely sit in on those presentations. My selections are by no means a reflection on the quality of those I will not mention, but they are ones that piqued my own interest and possibly will pique yours as well.

Here are a few selections for Monday’s tutorials you may want to consider:

  • “Organizational Change Management – The key differentiator for sustainable process improvement” – Julie Calfin
    • In a previous blog, I talked about a Change Management Tool Kit that I shared with the SEPG 2009. It should be clear that any process improvement initiative needs not only a focus on the technical side but also on the people side. Check this one out and see what Julie Calfin has to say.
  • Reducing the Costs and Increasing the Value of CMMI Reappraisals – Beth Layman
    • Everyone on both sides, the organization to be reappraised and the Lead Appraiser is trying to find legitimate and effective ways to conduct reappraisals and keep costs down. How that can be done is dependent on a number of factors. I will definitely want to hear what Beth has to say.
  • The Multiple Quality Models Paradox: How Much “Best Practice” is Just Enough? – Keith Heston
    • Keith’s abstract starts off by asking the question most of us are asking right about now, “Can you really have too much of a good thing?”  His answer is YES! Many organizations starting out on a CMMI journey get overwhelmed with the many current quality models and standards.
    • Keith promises to break down key models and standards such as CMMI, ITIL, and ISO 9001 into their process DNA – quality components to help attendees simplify the way they think about and pursue multi-model improvement. Sounds like advice we all should consider today!
  • Agile CMMI: Obtaining Real Benefits from Measurement and High Maturity – Kent Johnson and Margaret Kulpa
    • What is Agile and what does CMMI stand for is still being debated. And Agile and measurement – really? Kent and Margaret have considerable experience in CMMI, Agile, High Maturity and Measurement. If you would like to gain more insight into all four at once, this is the presentation for you!

I will be providing my presentation choices for the remaining three days in subsequent blogs so you will want to check back frequently to see if you agree.

I will also be providing my opinions of the sessions I get to attend during the conference to let you know how I felt about them after I saw the author’s in action.

I hope to see old friends and make new ones at this conference. You can easily find me at my partner’s booth 416, Method Park. We can chat and I can even introduce to one of the best process improvement tools in the business – STAGES!

More information:  SEPG 2010 Agenda

See you soon!

Tim Kasse
CEO & Principal Consultant
Kasse Initiatives LLC

 

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SPI Manifesto – And yes I am glad you asked, it is agile!

Posted on March 2, 2010 by Tim Kasse

Process defines how a business does business and may include a set of processes such as:

  • Software Engineering processes
  • Hardware Engineering processes
  • Systems Engineering processes
  • Manufacturing processes
  • Financial processes
  • Human Resources processes
  • Legal processes
  • ………..

Process helps to establish the business culture and then sets guidelines and expectations. Process can be viewed as a methodology that is applied from elicitation of requirements to design through delivery. There are no shortcuts – there are no other alternative methods that a business can adopt that embraces a “cradle to grave” philosophy to ensure quality and profitability with control every step of the way.

We build the business right – through process. We build the right business – with guarantees of product and service quality and customer satisfaction.  Process is the fastest-lowest cost path to get there and know if you are there!

With models, standards, methods and techniques from all parts of the world focused on process and quality it is only fitting that a process improvement manifesto was developed. In September 2009, a group of experts in Software Process Improvement (SPI) from all over the world gathered near Madrid, Spain and shared their expertise and wisdom from their many years of process improvement experience. Sponsored by the European Union, 30 workshop participants brainstormed core values and principles specifically focused on process improvement. Download the SPI Manifesto @ Here

What to use the Manifest for?

Jorn Johansen and Jan-Pries-Heje, the leaders and chief editors of the SPI Manifesto put forth a reminder on what to use the manifest for. You can use the manifest to obtain knowledge of SPI. It will help you remember what is important about software process improvement. Each value and the consequent principles are written so you can easily place yourself into the problem and context. Short explanations for each value are provided that can further augment your understanding. Each value also has some relevant examples that will make it easier to learn and remember the values and principles.

You can use the SPI Manifesto when you are responsible for planning a SPI project. The third manifest value states that SPI is actually really about change. You can apply these SPI Manifesto principles in your organization’s process improvement project that will support the necessary corresponding change. Download the SPI Manifesto @ Here

Values

  • People – Must involve people actively and affect their daily lives not to be focused on management alone
  • Business – What you do to make business successful – this is not about living to deploy a standard, reach a maturity level, or obtain a certificate even though it can certainly help do all of those things
  • Change – Process improvement is inherently linked with change – we realize and accept that we cannot continue to live as we do today – we must change – perhaps a little or perhaps a lot

Principles

People

  • Know the culture and focus on needs
  • Motivate all people involved
  • Base improvement on experience and measurements
  • Create a learning organization

—        Business

  • Support the organization’s vision and business objectives
  • Use dynamic and adaptable models as needed
  • Apply risk management

— Change

  • Manage the organizational change in your improvement effort
  • Ensure all parties understand and agree on process
  • Do not lose focus

You are invited to read the details behind these Values and Principles statements located in the body of the SPI Manifesto and share your comments back with us. Do you agree? Do you disagree and why? Do you think something critical was overlooked and should be added?

We are interested in your comments and inputs – after all process improvement is continuous…………………..

Download the SPI Manifesto @ Here

Tim Kasse
CEO & Principal Consultant
Kasse Initiatives LLC

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How to measure

Posted on August 15, 2009 by Erich Meier

“In god we trust. All others have to bring data.” (W. Edwards Deming)

Starting with measurement is not as easy as it first seems. So you should involve someone with experience. We are very proud that Kobi Vider, one of the world’s most respected professionals regarding advanced statistical approaches and quantitative management, will be acting as our partner. The following article is much inspired from his experience.

Business Goals

Do you know what’s funny about how to measure? Don’t start with the measurements! Start with your business goals. What are the market requirements? What do your customers expect? What does your management require? Uttermost quality? Optimal cost efficiency? Short time to market? Look at your company’s vision statements. Look at the business scorecard. There you will find what your executive management considers to be important for your business. And this in turn will enable to to get senior management attention and involvement.

Information Needs

Break the business goals into information needs. Which kinds of information do you need to find out if you follow your business goals or not. What are the real quality indicators that you need to follow? Defect rates? Or customer satisfaction? Is it neccessary to strictly meet the deadlines? Then focus on milestone trends. Or is it more important to deliver ultimate quality? Then focus on defect rates.

Measure

When you made your information needs clear, then think about measurements. Do not measure what’s easy to measure. Measure what you need to know. Measure output products and measure process performance. Process management tools will help you there. Our Stages process management system contains these kind of measurement features.

Act upon your Measures

Your measurements should be followed by actions. Improve the processes that are out of control or perform out of bounds. If the product quality is not sufficient, analyze why. Missing requirements? Bad design? Poor implementation? And, oh yes, you should have processes before measuring them. Otherwise, you would try to measure chaos.

Added Business Value

Finally, always make clear what’s the added business value of your measurements and the following actions. Let’s say,  you measured too many defects and added peer reviews to your requirement analysis and early design stages. Did the defect rate really drop? How much? What does that mean for your business? In Dollars, Yen or Euro. How much did the customer satisfaction increase? Prove the ROI of your efforts. Your management will ask you about it.

Erich

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The different Stages of Process Management

Posted on August 9, 2009 by Erich Meier

Almost everyone in business talks about processes as one of the key factors of success. But understanding what needs to be done to actively manage and optimize your processes is not easy. And there is no silver bullet. As always, it depends on your business and what you like to achieve.

Some people think that optimizing processes means drawing some squares and arrows on a whiteboard. If you are lucky, you find someone who draws these pictures in Visio. And – surprise, surprise – for some very agile kinds of business, this might be the best thing to do. IT driven folks might confront you with things like workflow, web services, SOA, BPM, BPEL, BPMN and the all rest. And – surprise, surprise – for some businesses requiring lots of fully automated (and automatable) IT tasks, this might be the best thing to do.

But these are the two extremes, there must be something in between. From our experience, the optimal process management solution for an organisation depends on three factors:

  • business model,
  • business goals and
  • process maturity

If an organisation neither has a business model nor business goals, its chances to survive are not very high. So, we will concentrate on the third one: process maturity. Models like CMMI or SPICE allow organisations to determine their process maturity. The CMMI model focusses on the organisation’s business goals (contained in so-called “policies”) to find the optimized level of process management. As organisations become more mature, they can adopt more and more aspects of process management. Therefore, a process management solution needs to be scalable to cover and organisation’s requirements from the basic level (process definition) via advanced levels (process control) to experienced levels (process optimisation and predictability).

So, a scalable process management solution should provide features for these different stages, namely

  • defining processes
    • modeling processes (simple processes and complex end-to-end processes)
    • managing consistency of processes
    • publishing process descriptions
    • providing role-based access to processes
  • managing processes
    • collecting feedback about processes and managing process changes
    • baselining and releasing process descriptions
    • defining best practice processes as organisational standards
    • modifying and enhancing the process metamodel (defining what are the important pieces of a process)
    • assuring compliance to standards like CMMI, SPICE or ISO
  • controlling processes
    • performing process tailoring to optimize standard processes for specific projects or tasks
    • enacting processes in real-life projects
      • managing process and project documents with access to document and configuration management tools
      • exporting relevant process parts to BPEL workflow engines, development tools like VSTS or JAZZ/TeamConcert, SOA-capable tools, etc.
    • measuring the process performance
    • measuring the impacts of process improvements
  • optimizing processes
    • finding process performance trends over multiple process instantiations
    • optimizing process design (which steps are really neccessary and which steps can be left away)
    • analyzing trends in process performance and managing mitigations when processes are out of control
  • predicting processes
    • finding weaknesses or bottlenecks before they impact business
    • simulating the impact of process changes
    • feeding back process performance predictions into planning

Organisations that head off to this “process improvement journey” with sustainable results might take years to get to the final stage. Always start with the end in mind, but really take your time. Go one step after another. It is nonsense to think about any kind of trend analysis when your processes produce chaotic results because no one really knows the processes and just does what he or she thinks is best.

Needless to say, that a process management tool should support you at every stage, helping you to reach the next one when your organisation is prepared for it.

…and this is one reason, why our process management solution is named “Stages”

Erich

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Process Management as a Service

Posted on July 21, 2009 by Erich Meier

As money is a scarce resource these days,  almost every company focusses on effectiveness and effectivity of all of its actions.  This is not a bad thing. During the boom years, companies spent money on expensive services and tools. The ROI was very often one slide of a ppt presentation shown at the project kick-off meeting. Almost no one did a real analysis, which actions really brought business added value. This is especially true for engineering focussed companies, where business added value is even harder to calculate than in other industries.

Now, times have changed.

This is the main reason, why companies are more and more interested in not buying their tools, but using them as  ”software as a service” (SaaS). You just pay for what you need and when you need it. It’s as simple as that.

Now, what are the key advantages of using process management tools as a service?

Low costs

Instead of buying lots of licenses at one time, you simply order the number of licenses you currently need. If you require more, just order more. If you require less, just change your subscription. And this is only the licenses. Seen from the IT point of view, companies don’t need to care about server installation, rack space, storage space, archive or backup facilities. A development team that needs a solution now and not in three months could use the service without even involving their IT department.

Low risk

Almost every SaaS application has a free trial period. Without any installation, you can start evaluating from the first day. If you don’t like it, just stop. No money wasted. Another important topic is service availability and data security. Companies need to be sure, that they can use the service for their business and that their data is safe and secure.  Every serious SaaS provider guarantees a specific availability and will have backup and restore facilities and periodic security audits.

Quick start

In normal process management projects, the first step is to set up the system, configure it, tweak the process metamodel, model the processes, define the users, create the logins and after all that, have the processes executed in engineering projects and have real business added value out of that. By using SaaS, all the setup effort is much less, the serious process management systems that come as a service are already set up with processes that can be used from day one and just need some process tailoring. Even better, if the system directly supports a guided process tailoring.

Fast ROI

Because of the above factors, ROI can much easier be calculated upfront and measured during the project. This allows to control, if the process management project is really effective and provides added value to the business. Companies may simply cancel the service, if ROI is not in sight.

The Stages process management system is now available as a service. With “Stages as a Service“, customers can start defining, managing and enacting their processes at reasonable costs and with almost no risk. Starting at 15€ or $19 per user and month, the full Stages features (e.g. process modeling, standard compliance assurance, process execution, process-controlled document management) can be used without requiring any local installation.

“Stages as a Service” is best suited for engineering focussed companies or development teams in search of better development and engineering processes. For a jump start, every Stages as a Service instance comes preconfigured with a best practice and proven-in-use development process.

See http://www.stagesAsAService.com/ for more info.

Erich

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