CMMI for Services: Guidelines for Superior Service

Chapter 4. Achieving Process Improvement That Lasts

Overview

This chapter explains how CMMI models ensure lasting process improvement. Making improvements to achieve business objectives is only half the job. The other half is ensuring that these improvements persist.

Lasting Improvement

Lasting improvement requires establishing processes that are institutionalized, which means they are absorbed into the organization’s standard way of doing business. Institutionalized processes are more likely to persist during times of stress.

So, how do processes become institutionalized? Research has shown that to become institutionalized, processes must be supported by the organization. In CMMI models, this support is embodied in the generic goals and practices. ...