What are the ideal qualifications for being a member of an SEPG?

Our company is going for ML3 and we want to know what are the ideal qualifications for being an SEPG member?

Alive would be preferable, but we can tailor that process if you need us to!

But seriously folks . . . .

A Software Engineering Process Group, or SEPG, is usually a group of people that help to define, deploy, and manage a process within an organization. There is an extensive post from last year on this blog that defines all of the different "flavors" of an SEPG, but you get the picture.

When determining *who* should be part of an SEPG, it's helpful to remember that your process should be approached as if it were a product (actual, it IS a product!). So, if you were to develop and deploy a new product who would you want on your team?

The ideal candidates would have product knowledge (engineering and project management), leadership skills (product manager), change management and deployment skills (consultant), communication skills (marketing), and mentoring skills (teacher).

Can you find ideal people who are coding, managing, consulting, marketing, and teaching gurus?

Thankfully there are few of us around! (hey, you said IDEAL candidates didn't you?).

But you CAN be successfull in assembling an SEPG with a few Subject Matter Experts, some managers, some marketing help, and some consulting help, and you could be successful. I would first establish just what you want the SEPG to accomplish, then figure out the skills you need.

I was just teaching a class at a client and I asked them "how many years have you spent to become an proficient engineer?" They answered with their years of experience. I followed that with "how many years have you studied to become a PROCESS engineer?" Most answered "an hour."

How can they hope to be successful? Process Engineering is an entirely different discipline, and just because they are good at coding doesn't mean they'll be equally good at process engineering. The problem is, because they're engineers, they THINK they're good at it. And there is no telling them otherwise!

So choose with care. Good luck!

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