A process improvement program is
successful only when the meaning of the word ‘process’ is clearly understood. Process
means work. So when one improves, the other one also improves. The quality of
the software depends a lot on the process. Whenever a change is introduced, a
temporary drop in performance is always recorded. In most cases what happens is
that the organization stops the implementation of changes fearing the
disruption in the normal work since so much effort is required. To avoid such
situations, the changes need to be adaptive. It is the agile process
improvement that makes this possible. You might say that such a way of
iterative improvement is not new. Well, the agile techniques introduce
discipline in the whole program.
Stages of Agile Process Improvement
The following are the stages of the
agile process improvement:
- Initiating:
Ø
Stimulus
of change
Ø
Set
context
Ø
Build
sponsorship
Ø
Charter
infrastructure
- Diagnosing:
Ø
Characterize
current and desired states
Ø
Develop
recommendation
- Establishing:
Ø
Set
priorities
Ø
Develop
approach
Ø
Plan
actions
- Action:
Ø
Create
solution
Ø
Test
solution
Ø
Refine
the solution
Ø
Implement
solution
- Learning:
Ø
Analyze
Ø
Validate
Ø
Propose
future actions
- The improvement cycles are meant to
be followed systematically so that the results might be obtained in time
ranging from 2- 6 weeks.
- The whole process lets you maintain a balance the
workload as well as the improvement.
- The flow of the process is as follows:
- Prioritized list of
improvements
- Detailed plan for
the current cycle
- Implemented
improvement
- Feedback
- After this process, the following
becomes possible for the organization:
- Identification and
resolving of the issues earlier in the cycle.
- Learning process
regarding how to tackle difficulties and working of this process.
- Adaption to the
business needs that keep changing.
- Giving response to
the feedback.
- The sponsor holds the responsibility
for prioritizing the improvement backlog at the start of each sprint.
- Also, he
is the one responsible for ROI.
- Prioritization is a good tool for the sponsor
to direct the change.
- Using prioritization, the goals and feedback can be
revised from quality assurance.
- A focus can be kept on the benefit received
from each improvement cycle.
- PPQA deploys and evaluates the improvement in
organization in every sprint. - The improvement package consists of 4 sprints
namely:
- Prototyping
- Piloting
- Deploying
- Evaluating
- Active participation and leadership
is required for a change to take place.
- An endorsed vision and status quo is
required for the beginning of the process.
- Both of these are established via
SCAMPI and CMMI.
- The change is led by the management on an everyday basis.
- An
excellent description is provided by the generic practices of CMMI for the
leadership purpose.
- Similarly participation is a key element that is
facilitated by the change team. - A vision is required for initiating the
improvement project.
- The initial improvement backlog is defined by 3 things namely
scrumMaster, change team and the work owner i.e., the sponsor all based up on
an assessment.
- The organization is facilitated by the change team.
- With each
sprint a tangible improvement is delivered.
- The change is led by the management
in a sprint.
- The effect introduced by
the change is evaluated at the end of each sprint by PPQA.
-The new improvements
are defined by the work-owner who is also responsible for adding those in to the
backlog of improvements and prioritizes it.
-Commitment is supported at the end
of the sprint by appraisal.
-The improvements can also be continuously
integrated in to the organization’s way of working.
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