Thursday, May 22, 2008

Selection of Processes\Subprocesses

Kindly give your comments on the following queries :
1.Say, in OPP if an organization has selected some process/subprocess (SP 1.1) for performance analysis. A critical criterion for selectionof process or subprocess is its historical stability. To ensure thisdoes the organization needs to use statistical techniques right fromthe beginning of the data collection for that process/subprocess?
2.In QPM, whether the projects have to select the subprocess fromprocess/subprocess identified in OPP or need to select based on their project specific objectives?

Let us first consider the OPP SP 1.1 question. How is it possible to know that a process, or sub-process for that matter, is stable without having already performed some sort of statistical analysis on the historical data? What I think the actual question you may be asking below is at what point does it make sense to begin using statistical techniques. Obviously, OPP SP 1.1 is where you want to be when you reach Maturity Level 4. However, it does take some time and thought before arriving here. So, as an organization begins its ML 4 journey implementing OPP SP 1.1, it may NOT have enough historical data to select the processes or sub-processes. Therefore, the organization must spend some time collecting and analyzing the data before it is smart enough to know if it has a stable process or sub-process or one that can be stabilized. As the organization's processes become more and more stable, the application of statistical techniques may prove insightful. The stabilization of process execution, as reflected in the resulting process data, provides the opportunity to apply more sophisticated analytical techniques, including statistical methods. So it is not necessary to "use statistical techniques right from the beginning of the data collection;" rather statistical techniques can be applied once the process is consistently executed as reflected by the resulting data stability. Therefore, the organization has to devote the effort to data analysis to determine if OPP SP 1.1 can be implemented.

QPM works in conjunction with OPP. The project’s quality and process performance objectives are derived from the organization’s quality and process performance objectives. And the processes and sub-processes being quantitatively and statistically managed by the project are selected from those specified in OPP. If not, what would be the value of OPP SP 1.1? OPP sets up the infrastructure to allow the projects to perform QPM. However, that being said, a project may find that it has unique characteristics or customer objectives that warrant the statistical management of one or more subprocesses for which no process performance baseline has yet been established. In such a case, the project would select that subprocess for statistical management in QPM SG2, establish spec limits for the expected process performance, and use that as its foundation for quantitative management. Once sufficient process data have been accumulated by the project, the actual Upper Control Limit (UCL) and Lower Control Limit (LCL) can be established and used (and process stability and process capability can be verified or denied). Note that this information should be fed back to OPP for potential use on future projects.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Henry
Thanks for the detailed insight into this interesting topic.
In relation this discusssion, my query -' Generally in Maintenance /Production support projects , which have their unique quality goals hence different sub processes to control,projects tend to generally come up with their unique prediction models.Over a period of time some amount of stratification can be done to collect some common data across projects and push it back to organziation for baseline , its applicability in new maintenance project is not that high.
So,in such cases where projects tend to control sub processes based on the project needs with minimal usage from organization guidelines ,does its demonsrate a healthy ML 4 environment from OPP and QPM perspective.
Thanks
Balaji OS
http://osbalaji.blogspot.com

Henry Schneider said...

Dear Balaji OS,
Thanks for your comments on my Blog. The CMMI structure for ML 4 pretty much says set the organization's Quality and Process Performance Objectives (QPPOs) in OPP and use these to select the processes and sub-processes for quantitative and statistical management performed by QPM. In QPM, the project is supposed to set the project's QPPOs which are derived from the organization's QPPOs and could include additional QPPOs that are unique to the project. The unique QPPOs could drive the project to select and quantitatively/statistically manage processes and sub-processes separate from those selected in OPP.

That being the case, if the project is only managing and controlling processes and sub-processes based on the project's QPPOs, then potentially the project and organizations are not compliant with OPP. However, if OPP is satisfied and the project is managing and controlling the processes as selected by OPP and augmenting the set with additional statisically/quantitatively managed sub-processes, then both the organization and project are in compliance with ML 4.
Hope this helps.
Henry Schneider

Anonymous said...

Dear Henry
Many thanks for the reply.
Defintely your response gives me a insight to the topic.
The other question is when a project selects and controls a sub process and reaps benefits , is not the intent of quantitative management met.
Does purely looking from CMMI perspective stating ML4 compliance not there as OPP practices not fulfilled , tatamount to defeating the purpose of quantiative management in practical sense !
Appreciate your thoughts on this ..

Thanks
Balaji OS
http://osbalaji.blogpsot.com

Henry Schneider said...

Dear Balaji OS,
To meet the intent of OPP and QPM, the project manager should have selected processes and sub-processes that support the Organization's and also Project's QPPOs. So, if through the quantitative and statistical management of the processes and sub-processes, the intent of OPP and QPM should be met.
I do not understand your second question and comment. There are some grammar errors that cause the sentence to not make sense. I understand that English is probably not your primary language and so it may be difficult to write sentences that are grammatically correct. But anything that you can do to clarify your question would be of great help to me in formulating a response to you.
Thanks,
Henry Schneider