Strategic Consultancy in Process Improvement
IT Solution Delivery
Capability Improvement
Improving business performance
through application of best practice
Today, well-designed and engineered, business driven IT solutions are fast
becoming a key distinguishing and competitive factor for a company’s business.
Business value and profitability often hinge on the development organisation’s
ability to consistently provide high quality, reliable solutions that fully support
business objectives in a timely, efficient, cost effective manner.
During the last decade, application development organisations and broader based
solution delivery providers involved in applications management and outsourcing
began to focus on activities to achieve higher levels of quality and productivity.
Although many approaches have been utilised to facilitate this process, two have
emerged as the leading reference models for these endeavours: the Capability
Maturity Model for software development & integration (CMMI) of Carnegie-Mellon
University’s Software Engineering Institute (SEI) and the European SPICE model.
Cornerstone brings to the table a wealth of experience, skill and expertise in the
improvement of solutions delivery capability. Our consultants have successfully
worked with organisations to help them achieve the higher levels of CMMi ranking
and can assist and support your organisation with all the areas involved in the
improvement process.
Maturing from solution delivery based on individual effort towards
a self-confident, continuously improving and professional solution
delivery organisation.
Cornerstone consultancy in solution capability delivery improvement is tailored to
the organisations specific needs, focussing on key processes and best practice
whilst adapting to the organisation’s own culture. Our consultants have the
flexibility and experience to move the organisation forward, both tactically and
strategically, in those areas most essential to achievement of business goals.
Cornerstone’s approach involves the following major steps:
1. Benefit identification - ‘what’s in it for me’ - Assuring the commitment of the
organisation towards a Software Process Improvement (SPI) programme with
a clear understanding and agreement of the benefits that for all stakeholders.
2. Situation assessment - ‘where are we’ - Developing a clear understanding of
the current approach and practices of the organisation so that appropriate
choices for improvement can be made and progress measured.
3. Shaping you capabilities – ‘what can we achieve’ – Defining the ability of the
organisation at all levels and in all areas to successfully undertake a process
improvement programme.
4. Target determination - ‘what to aim for’ - Defining the desired situation based
upon establishment and agreement of realistic objectives linked to supported
business processes.
5. Planning improvement activity - Defining the roadmap for the realisation of
change in the Solution Delivery organisation based upon the difference
between current practice and the desired situation.
6. Realisation of change - Once the roadmap towards the new situation is defined
and agreed, planned activities must be completed in order to transform the
organisation and achieve the target situation.
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Identification of potential benefits
Benefits management through stakeholder commitment and sponsorship.
An essential success factor for any improvement programme is a clear
understanding of the benefits that can be achieved through its successful
completion. It is also critical that business management buy-in on the programme
and understand how improvement translates into business value. Cornerstone
consultants engage with your organisation in identifying the potential benefits in
the perspective of your business proposition and objectives.
Deriving Value through Change
Why can you benefit
from SPI?
Where are you today?
- what benefits can you
achieve from a SPI initiative
- link with business strategy
-- quick
quick assessment
assessment
-- full
full (formal)
(formal) assessment
assessment
-- readiness
readiness of
of organisation
organisation
How to achieve the
changes?
changes?
- SPI programme
programmesupport
support
- SD process consulting
capabilities
Your AD
SD capabilities
methods and techniques
support for
support for
quality assurance
resourcing
requirements
requirements
information design
analysis
build &
test
Maturity
deploy
Business
(CMM)processes
(CMM)
business processes
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What do you aim for?
- define To Be situation
- best practices
- cost / benefit
- business alignment
Maturity
(CMMI)
What to do actually?
CMMI: public domain reference model
of SEI, Carnegie Mellon University
-- gap
gap analysis
analysis
-- define
define roadmap
roadmap //
programme
programme of
of SPI
SPI initiatives
initiatives
-- quick
quick wins
wins
Areas of improvement that may be identified include:
€
Corporate governance and risk assessment, including credit risk, operational
risk, market and other risks, capital planning, disclosures and the supervisory
review process;
€
The delivered quality of IT solutions, in terms of such aspects as availability
from the end-user perspective, error-rate and severity for the supported
business processes, and stability and bug related problems;
€
Solutions alignment more closely in support of business goals and objectives;
and,
€
Time to market, and, cost.
An important factor for determining potential business benefit is the relevance that
your IT solutions have to your business. This can vary from enabling ‘unique
selling points’ for the business, to support for core business activities, or simply
cost reduction.
Situation Assessment
What is the current situation? – Assessing reality.
Having identified the benefits to be achieved, a clear understanding is required of
the level and with which characteristics the organisation is performing today. An
assessment against a common model, such as CMMI, provides a structured view
on current practice and provides the basis for defining the improved situation.
Based on selective interviews and analysis of relevant documentation, our
consultants evaluate the current practices of your organization.
This assessment is accomplished using either of two methods:
A quick scan of current solution delivery capabilities:
An indicative assessment is performed to understand current performance
level. Using basic checklists and questionnaires, primarily reflecting CMMI
processes, current organisational practice and approach are evaluated.
€
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€
A full scope assessment of the current solution delivery capabilities:
Evaluation of all applicable key process areas defined for the CMMI levels. In
a full formal assessment an SEI-certified lead assessor will be involved and
the outcome reported to the SEI. An informal assessment follows the same
approach, but results are for internal use and not reported externally.
Determining organizational readiness for process improvement.
A final step in assessment of the current situation involves the determination of the
readiness of the development organization to successfully initiate process
improvement. CMMI for software development and integration mainly addresses
the project management and software engineering disciplines of the organization.
Cornerstone consultants look beyond this, with a focus on the organization itself
and the other elements that are critical for success, such as: culture, management
vision, value placed upon IT solutions (strategic enabler versus cost reduction) and
strategic and tactical business planning.
Your appli cat ion development capabilit ies
m et hods and t ec hni ques
methods andtechniques
quality
as esurance
qual
i t y as s ur anc
res
g
r es ourourcin
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requirements
des ign
i nf or m ati on
anal ys i s
des i gn
build and et s t
information
analys is
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s upport for
depl oy
deploy
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Delivering Real Business Benefit
Shaping your capabilities
Target determination - what to aim for
Selecting realistic, achievable objectives.
In this phase of the improvement cycle, clear and realistic understanding of the
desired situation is defined and agreed between all stakeholders. Cornerstone,
together with the solution delivery organisation, determines the capabilities to
implement and the timeframe for their achievement with a clear understanding of
anticipated improvement in performance business support. The business is given a
concise view of the benefits the new situation will bring, as well as, how the
solution delivery organisation will change.
Cornerstone consultants guide the organisation to formulate a clear and
achievable target situation. We take into account the organisation’s current
capabilities in terms of applicable solution delivery processes as well as the ability
to absorb change. Our consultants then apply their collective experience from
assisting other organisations to achieve higher levels of maturity. All these
elements are tailored to fit into your organisational culture and ambitions. To
establish a solid foundation for the improvement programme, all relevant staff and
key business stakeholders are involved in identifying and agreeing the changes as
well as the resulting benefits.
Planning improvement activities
After the initial and target situations are defined, the next step is planning the
roadmap to realise the intended improvements. Here, the differences between ‘AsIs’ and ‘To-Be’ are analysed in close cooperation with the organisation.
The roadmap is then defined to enable your organisation to mature with specific
attention on identification of quick win opportunities in order to support and
motivate your organisation and staff in programme realisation.
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The success of the transformation depends on addressing both the technical
disciplines - such as methods, techniques and process definitions - as well as
human aspects including culture, organisation and skills. In shaping the
transformation roadmap Cornerstone consultants balance these ‘hard’ and ‘soft’
dimensions and define the change organization, clearly identifying roles,
responsibilities, and a framework of metrics to evaluate performance improvement
and to measure progress. During this planning phase our team will also support
you in assuring the commitment of the business for the programme.
Realising the improvements
Methodology:
Merging
people, culture
and process
About
Cornerstone
Contacts
In this phase the actual improvements in your processes will be realised according
to the defined roadmap. Depending on your abilities and preferences, Cornerstone
will provide support in all or some of the following areas:
€
Directed consulting on specific CMMisolution delivery processes;
€
Programme management – Cornerstone will set up and run the change
process for the organization;
€
Conduct of pilot project exemplars – Leading by example, Cornerstone will run
pilot projects that will form the basis of internal documentation for proper
organisational process and practice;
€
Interim management and coaching – Cornerstone will assume key roles in the
organisation and provides skills transfer and coaching to key management
personnel;
€
Stakeholder and benefits management; and,
€
Education and training – Cornerstone consultants provide customized
CMM/CMMI training and training in other areas such as development project
management, tailored to your organisation’s needs.
Cornerstone is an IT and business consultancy company, offering high-end
consultancy services in governance, business change, architecture, service
management, financial payment systems and strategy, and, the programme and
project management disciplines.
Through its consultants, Cornerstone brings to the table a wide range of knowledge
and expertise and also incorporates skills and experience in Business Process
Outsourcing (BPO) and Strategic Sourcing to offer a complete consultancy
services mix.
Cornerstone applies a partnership model in building long-term relationships with its
clients and prides itself in our approach to delivering real business value. Our focus
is on deriving business benefit in merging people, process and technology, through
our experience, knowledge, and expertise and the application of best practice.
For further information on our capabilities and our approach to CMMi visit our
website at www.cornerstone-bts.com or contact us:
[email protected]
+32 (0) 2 412 56 50
CMMi001,v5
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