Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
hardware design review and find only hardware people even though the
software runs on their hardware. When he would ask them why no one
from the software department was attending the review, the response was
that no one thought software people needed to be at a hardware review. He
told me he had to constantly explain that software does have dependencies
on hardware design decisions.
7.7 Stakeholder Matrix and Product Template
Recommendations
At GEAR, I recommended the development of a
stakeholder matrix
managed
at the organizational level to bring visibility to the missing stakeholders from
outside departments. This required close attention because it would affect
process descriptions, and behavior and culture within the organization. I
also recommended the development of templates with clear minimums that
could not be tailored out. These became two high-priority areas for early
process working group focus.
7.8 OPF and OPD for Agile Organizations
I recommended GEAR start with their OPF and OPD processes.
1
This might
seem odd to some since both of these process areas are at the CMMI Staged
level 3. However, for Agile organizations—in particular those that have
effective processes, but just need to document them, or add a few ingredi-
ents—if you don't start with OPF and OPD you will end up reworking your
processes. Working OPF and OPD first just simplifies the overall effort.
Another reason for establishing the organizational process asset rules early is
that they are critical to your tailoring approach. Tailoring is an extremely pow-
erful mechanism for Agile organizations that wish to maintain their agility or
for high maturity organizations seeking to increase their agility.
2
Establishing
the organizational process asset rules early was also critical at GEAR because
of a key weakness identified in the gap analysis—Compliance.
3
1. OPF stands for Organizational Process Focus, and OPD stands for Organizational Process Definition.
Refer to the appendices for examples of OPD and OPF processes, and organizational process asset rules.
2. Tailoring and its relationship to agility are discussed at greater length later in this chapter.
3. When I use the term “compliance,” I mean compliance with the defined project processes.
