Process Change Management

a key process area for level 5: Optimizing


The purpose of Process Change Management is to continually improve the software processes used in the organization with the intent of improving software quality, increasing productivity, and decreasing the cycle time for product development.

Process Change Management involves defining process improvement goals and, with senior management sponsorship, proactively and systematically identifying, evaluating, and implementing improvements to the organization's standard software process and the projects' defined software processes on a continuous basis.

Training and incentive programs are established to enable and encourage everyone in the organization to participate in process improvement activities. Improvement opportunities are identified and evaluated for potential payback to the organization. Pilot efforts are performed to assess process changes before they are incorporated into normal practice.

When software process improvements are approved for normal practice, the organization's standard software process and the projects' defined software processes are revised as appropriate. The practices for revising the organization's standard software process are found in the Organization Process Definition key process area, and the practices for revising the projects' defined software processes are found in the Integrated Software Management key process area.

Goals

Goal 1

Continuous process improvement is planned.

Goal 2

Participation in the organization's software process improvement activities is organization wide.

Goal 3

The organization's standard software process and the projects' defined software processes are improved continuously.

Commitment to perform

Commitment 1 -- The organization follows a written policy for implementing software process improvements.

This policy typically specifies that:
  1. The organization has quantitative, measurable goals for software process improvement and tracks performance against these goals.
  2. The organization's process improvements are directed toward improving product quality, increasing productivity, and decreasing the cycle time for product development.
  3. All of the organization's staff and managers are expected to participate in improving the software processes.
    Skilled and motivated people are recognized as the principal process improvement resource.


Commitment 2 -- Senior management sponsors the organization's activities for software process improvement.

Senior management:
  1. Establishes the organization's long-term goals and plans for process improvement.
  2. Allocates resources for process improvement activities.
  3. Coordinates with the software managers to ensure they have reasonable, yet aggressive, process improvement goals and effective process improvement plans to meet these goals.
  4. Monitors process improvement performance against goals.
  5. Maintains a consistent priority focus on process improvement in the face of product crises.
  6. Ensures that process improvement issues are promptly resolved.
  7. Rewards employee participation in the process improvement activities.

Ability to perform

Ability 1 -- Adequate resources and funding are provided for software process improvement activities.

  1. Resources are allocated to:
  2. Experienced individuals who have expertise in defining and analyzing software processes are available to help the organization in its process improvement activities.
  3. Tools to support process improvement are made available.
    Examples of support tools include:

Ability 2 -- Software managers receive required training in software process improvement.


Examples of training include:


Refer to the Training Program key process area.

Ability 3 -- The managers and technical staff of the software engineering group and other software-related groups receive required training in software process improvement.


Examples of software-related groups include:


Examples of training include:


Refer to the Training Program key process area.

Ability 4 -- Senior management receives required training in software process improvement.


Examples of training include:

Activities performed

Activity 1 -- A software process improvement program is established which empowers the members of the organization to improve the processes of the organization.

Activity 2 -- The group responsible for the organization's software process activities (e.g., software engineering process group) coordinates the software process improvement activities.


Refer to the Organization Process Focus key process area for practices covering the group responsible for the organization's software process improvement activities.

This group:
  1. Defines organizational goals and measurement plans for software process performance.
  2. Reviews the organizational goals for process performance with senior management for their endorsement.
  3. Participates in the effort to define the organization's training needs for process improvement and supports the development and presentation of training course materials.
    Refer to the Training Program key process area.

  4. Defines and maintains the procedures for handling process improvement proposals.
  5. Reviews software process improvement proposals and coordinates the actions for these proposals.
  6. Tracks status, accomplishments, and participation in the process improvement activities and periodically reports the results to senior management.
  7. Coordinates and tracks changes to the organization's standard software process.
  8. Defines, establishes, and maintains the process improvement records.

Activity 3 -- The organization develops and maintains a plan for software process improvement according to a documented procedure.


Refer to Activity 2 of the Organization Process Focus key process area for other practices covering the organization's software process improvement plan.

This procedure typically specifies that:
  1. The software process improvement plan is based on:
  2. The software process improvement plan undergoes peer review.
    Refer to the Peer Reviews key process area.

  3. The software process improvement plan is reviewed by the affected managers.
  4. The software process improvement plan is managed and controlled.

"Managed and controlled" implies that the version of the work product in use at a given time (past or present) is known (i.e., version control), and changes are incorporated in a controlled manner (i.e., change control).

If a greater degree of control than is implied by "managed and controlled" is desired, the work product can be placed under the full discipline of configuration management, as is described in the Software Configuration Management key process area.


Activity 4 -- The software process improvement activities are performed in accordance with the software process improvement plan.

The plan covers:
  1. The resources required, including staff and tools.
  2. The highest priority process areas for improvement.
  3. Measurable short-term and long-term goals for software process performance and improvement.
  4. Teams and their assignments for addressing improvements for specific process areas.
    Examples of teams include:
  5. The procedures for:
  6. The administrative and support plans required to maintain continuous process improvement.

Activity 5 -- Software process improvement proposals are handled according to a documented procedure.

This procedure typically specifies that:
  1. Software process improvement proposals are submitted.
    The software process improvement proposals can be submitted at any time and can address any area of the software processes.



    Examples of sources for software process improvement proposals include:
  2. Each software process improvement proposal is evaluated; a decision is made whether to implement the proposal, and the decision rationale is documented.
  3. The expected benefits of each software process improvement proposal are determined.
    Examples of expected benefit areas include:
  4. The priority of software process improvement proposals selected for implementation is determined.
  5. Implementation of the software process improvement actions resulting from the proposals is assigned and planned.
  6. Software process improvement actions that require a substantial effort are assigned to a team responsible for implementation.
    Examples of substantial efforts include improvements requiring piloting of new technologies and other large changes.



    Teams to focus on specific software process areas are established. Actions that are appropriate for piloting are coordinated.


    Examples of teams include:
  7. The status of each software process improvement proposal is tracked.
  8. Software process improvement proposals for which the response has been unusually long are identified and acted upon.
  9. Software process changes that are judged to have a major impact on product quality or productivity or that will significantly alter satisfaction of the customer and end users are reviewed and approved by appropriate management before they are implemented.
  10. Completed software process improvement actions are reviewed, verified, and approved before they are closed.
  11. Submitters of the software process improvement proposals receive: