Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
of my time. The challenge I faced was how to get my game to the level I would
be comfortable with given the limited time I could devote to it.
9.3 Using the Same Approach I Use to Help Clients
To a d d re s s t h i s c h a l l e n g e I d e c i d e d t o u s e t h e s a m e a p p ro a c h I u s e w h e n
helping clients who come to me with a similar process improvement chal-
lenge. My clients desire real improvement , but face similar resource constraints .
The first step on my golf improvement project was to conduct a gap analysis.
I needed to first know the (“as-is”) state of my golf game, which would lead
me to understand the gaps I faced to attain my desired (“to-be”) state. Let us
start by comparing the approach I used when doing this golf game gap
analysis with how I do a gap analysis for clients.
Multiple approaches can be used when doing a gap analysis in an organi-
zation. I use the CMMI as reference, which provides engineering and
project management best practices. The model can be used for both prod-
ucts and services. My focus when doing a gap analysis is listening to the
people in the organization. As they tell me how they do their job, I listen,
taking plenty of notes.
I take this approach because I have found that listening to the people who
use the processes provides a more accurate assessment of what is really
going on in the organization than reading documents that describe how
someone thinks the process should be. This approach gives me the best “as-
is” process picture from which to build the most effective plan providing best
value to the customer.
9.4 Determining the “As-Is” State of My Golf Game
So, how did I go about determining the “as-is” state of my golf game? I view
my golf skills as a service I provide when playing golf. In this case, I am the
one who executes my golf processes. To get the true “as-is” picture of my cur-
rent golf game, I went out and played a number of rounds of golf, and took
notes on how I played and how my golf game felt to me after each round. Let
me give you some of the words directly from my notes during the first week
of this golf improvement project:
Search WWH ::




Custom Search