Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Multiple factors contributed to the decline at BOND. Prior to the acquisition, it
was rare for people to leave the company because most employees felt that
Ethan and his partner cared about the people in the organization.
When an organization stops investing in its people, it is not uncommon for
attrition to rise. It is not just an organization's documented process descrip-
tions that support the maintenance of a CMMI process maturity level. It also
requires adequately trained people to execute those processes. When your
trained people start leaving, you are losing the critical assets needed to main-
tain your CMMI maturity.
INSIGHT
Yo u h a v e t o l o o k b e y o n d s h o r t - t e r m g o a l s i f y o u w a n t y o u r
organization to have a future.
When I think about what is happening at BOND now, I am reminded of what
is happening at LACM where the VP is continually driving improvements
from the business need side, and grassroots efforts are driving improve-
ments from the project side. This type of activity, which might be viewed by
some as a “nice-to-have,” is actually the best path to survival.
5.30 Summary
In this chapter and the previous chapter, I presented the case for doing every-
thing possible not to add new process activities. Our focus has been on
extracting the real
as-is
process that works in your organization. Often I have
found even in organizations that are operating chaotically there are “best
practices” being applied somewhere in the organization. These can be used
as an effective model to share across a wider group of projects in the organi-
zation. A proven best way to improve your organization is to start with what
works in your organization and build on it.
The BOND case was based on an organization that understands Agile meth-
ods and has a sound implementation. Many organizations that call themselves
“
Agile” don't fit this model. In the next two case studies, we look at organiza-
tions that refer to themselves as Agile, and use the term to try to explain some
of their behaviors, but are missing key
“
Agile
”
fundamentals. Through these
case studies, we will explore techniques to identify misapplications of agility,
and what to do if you recognize similar patterns in your organization.
