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serious. Using this approach, each working group would have multiple
releases of its processes and training. The initial release would hit a subset of
specific practices in each of Project Planning (PP), Project Monitor and Con-
trol (PMC), and Risk Management (RSKM). The advantage was we didn't
have to get it all done in any particular PA to get an initial deployment of
processes. The group could focus on areas they felt were most important and
commit to get valuable product out based on business needs and what oppor-
tunities existed to pilot the processes.
Time-boxing is an important scheduling mechanism with Agile methods. This
is an example where we used time-boxing at GEAR on the process improve-
ment project. Time-boxing means committing to a schedule and releasing the
product on schedule. We might have to reduce functionality. In this case, the
functionality might be the number of CMMI Specific Practices we were able
to address in each CMMI Process Area within a given release.
The advantage is the organization is getting training earlier, and in smaller
chunks and more often. They are aware that process improvement is hap-
pening. The people in the organization are our customers, and we listen and
use their feedback as we factor in the priorities for our next release.
This provided good risk abatement to ensure the processes we were releas-
ing were the right processes for the company, as we were getting continuous
validation feedback from the process users (our customers). This approach also
allowed us to release “stretch points” gradually, which provided time for
people to learn the changes in behavior that were expected without over-
whelming them with too many behavior change requests at once.
This same approach was used for the Engineering Process Areas at GEAR. It
was decided to work Engineering improvements in parallel with Manage-
ment. The initial thread through Engineering included Requirements
Management, Requirements Development, and Technical Solution. This
approach also made sense given how this organization really worked, which
was based more on an incremental/evolutionary life cycle than their docu-
mented waterfall view.
7.17 Advantages and Disadvantages to the “Thread”
Approach
The “thread” approach to process development and deployment is really an
Agile approach . Advantages to this approach include more efficient use of
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