Real Process Improvement Using the CMMI

2THE ROLE OF ROLES

I’m not asking you what you do, Dave. I’m asking you who you are.

— Jack Nicholson as Dr. Buddy Rydell in Anger Management⁵⁰

WHAT DO YOU THINK? WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE?

This chapter is about defining the roles of people in the organization and the roles of organizations which work together to deliver a system or service. As you will soon learn, it is very easy to make assumptions about roles and responsibilities in an organization. If left unchallenged — like comparing your assumptions with reality — the assumptions will soon become hard-held beliefs. Take the quiz in Figure 2.1 to see what kinds of beliefs you may have about organizational roles and then, after reading the chapter, take the quiz in Figure 2.3 to find out what ...