Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
An example of behavior changes needed at BOND is the Senior Management
briefs. Agile practices focus on the project. They don't give us much help
with respect to reporting status to Senior Management. This is an area where
we had to
stretch
the current behavior of the BOND organization. When I ini-
tially did my gap analysis in 2003, there was no required format for senior
management briefs, nor did they occur on a regular schedule. GP 2.10 of the
CMMI states:
Review the activities, status, and results ... with higher level management…
This isn't a typical practice of an Agile team, but it becomes increasingly
important as an organization grows. Senior Management must take on a dif-
ferent perspective from project personnel, as they are looking out for the
overall welfare of the company. Sometimes they have to make decisions that
might not be in the best interests of a single project (e.g., reassigning a key
person). This can be caused by an issue on a different project that might have
a higher priority from an overall business perspective.
To b e s t h e l p t h e c o m p a n y i n t h e s e s i t u a t i o n s , S e n i o r M a n a g e m e n t m u s t h a v e
the best status possible on all projects. GP 2.10 doesn't dictate how this is
achieved, but many organizations use periodic Senior Management briefings
to do so. To support effective communication, a Senior Management brief
template is often developed and standardized so that all projects report in a
consistent way using consistent terminology. This helps ensure communica-
tion is accurate up the chain.
The overall intent is to ensure higher-level management, who has interest in
the organization beyond individual day-to-day project activities, has appro-
priate visibility to help make better decisions for the organization. When you
don't have a set format of information to present, it is easy to just get caught
up in focusing on what you might think are the key issues from your imme-
diate perspective, and miss others that Senior Management needs to hear
about given their different set of responsibilities.
5.14 Example of Senior Brief Evolution: Backup Slides for
Efficient Use of Time
The Senior Management brief template became a set format at BOND. It
evolved based on feedback from Senior Managers and Project Leaders. Ini-
tially there were complaints from Senior Management that the brief contained
too much nonessential information.
