Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Section II
LACM's Current Approach to Process
Improvement
Now let us look closer at LACM's current approach to continuous process
improvement.
3.18 Continuous Process Improvement at LACM
In the LACM case study the organization was experiencing unprecedented
success, but no one was sure why. I had a discussion with a director at LACM
on this subject while the two of us were working together doing an analysis
of his company's organizational assets. We were working with another
process improvement professional who works for him and is very knowl-
edgeable of the CMMI, having taken many of the advanced courses on the
CMMI model from the SEI. The conversation went like this:
Director:
At times I wonder how much all this work we are doing with the CMMI
matters. Right now, our company is incredibly successful. With over fifty
ongoing projects, only two are experiencing any difficulty. Almost all pro-
jects are on schedule, meeting their customer deliverables, and hitting cost
targets. I'm not sure why it's happening, but I do know there are certain
things in this organization that really have become institutionalized. First is
weekly status reporting. Everyone knows if you don't get anything else
done, you get your status report done and flowed up in time for the full
report to flow to the vice president. And every week this status is used to
make real decisions so people are very attentive to making sure it accurately
reflects what is going on with their projects. The Senior Management
Reviews also happen on a regular basis and people know what the organiza-
tion is looking for at these reviews. There is an established format for these
reviews. There aren't a lot of things being looked at, but it's the same few
things that just keep getting hammered week after week such as staffing,
schedule, requirements, and risk. And now people know what to expect, and
they are preparing themselves ahead of time because they know the questions
management will be asking. Something seems to be working.
