Sunday, March 22, 2009

Do we need separate policies for every Process Area?

We're working towards ML3 and are trying to understand how to address GP2.1.  Our consultant said LA's will only accept a "policy book" with a policy for each PA signed off on by management. Is that true?

Well, you couuuuuuuld do it that way, but why would you?  Either your consultant has never done a successful process implementation, or he's looking for work to do!

From a process perspective, what is the practical difference between:

IPM and PP?
PP and PMC?
PP/PMC and RSKM
TS and PI?
REQM and RD?

The answer is that these are not silos, but threads, and the expectations (policy) of using the process (and the process itself) should be based around those threads, not around the PAs.

So you might have one policy for the Project Management PAs, another around the Engineering PAs, and so on.  The categories in the CMMI continuous representation (Project Mgmt, Process Mgmt, Support, and Engineering) might be a good place to start.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

In relation to policy or procedure my question is slightly different. My confusion is when I am defining process/procedure including section for introduction, objectives, scope etc and approved by CEO/CIO of the company. Why do I require separate policy document as such? Will my process not serve as policy?

Anonymous said...

In the scenario you've described a separate policy document is not required. Policies can be represented in presentations, process documents, posters, emails, and all-hands meetings. There is not requirement for a document in the CMMI.