New stuff…and some substance

There are new items on the CMMIFAQ … and … it’s got a WHOLE NEW look!

I’ve hosted the FAQ on its own domain and eliminated all but the barest references to my company…. and soon hope to eliminate even using my company’s contact forms for folks to contact us with questions. After all, the site is meant as a public service, not a billboard.

Lemme know what you think of the look!

There are two new items which answer questions about (1) what it is that gets the level rating when an organization is appraised, is it the entire company? If not, what then? And, (2) how many project are required to be appraised to represent the scope of the organization that is being appraised.

Now for the substance of today’s submission…

It’s a rather simple truism about process and agility, but it comes directly from a discussion with one of my clients:

A company can grow a lot without any processes or a process improvement system in place.  And, a company whose processes are too heavy might not be able to grow as easily, if at all.  The problem is, if the processes are not disciplined or robust "enough", then while the revenues may grow, the margin will likely shrink.  (For the non-business people, that means you’re generating more money in sales and billings, but your profit is shrinking.) In some cases, you even start to lose money.

In discussing agile methods, we arrived at the following:

Some agile philosophies promote the idea that projects should not do any effort that doesn’t add immediate value to the product, and thereby to the customer.  This philosophy will frequently target processes and process improvement as their example of things that don’t add value.  However, there are two challenges to this concept that appear when you simply take a long-term view of the result of processes.

A long-term view would see that processes and process improvement are an investment in the ability to deliver a better product, more of it, in less time.  This is a clear benefit to customers.  This view also has a business value which is realized when the company can grow in both revenues and margin.  The value of the company’s work goes up, and the company can then charge more for what it does.

Developers (engineers, technical folk) frequently have a tendency to charge what something costs.  Business people will tell you that a company should charge what someone is willing to pay, and that is *value*.  Charging for services based on value is better than being a commodity.  Process improvement increases your value.

Think of it this way:  many people will agree that switching from big-plan-up-front to something more agile is a good thing for everyone involved.  Is that not process improvement?