Organizational Process Performance (OPP)
A Process Management Process Area at Maturity Level 4
Purpose
The purpose of Organizational Process Performance (OPP) is to establish and maintain a quantitative understanding of the performance of the organization’s set of standard processes in support of quality and process-performance objectives, and to provide the process-performance data, baselines, and models to quantitatively manage the organization’s projects.
Introductory Notes
Process performance is a measure of the actual results achieved by following a process. Process performance is characterized by process measures (e.g., effort, cycle time, and defect removal effectiveness) and product measures (e.g., reliability, defect density, capacity, response time, and cost).
The common measures for the organization are composed of process and product measures that can be used to summarize the actual performance of processes in individual projects in the organization. The organizational data for these measures are analyzed to establish a distribution and range of results, which characterize the expected performance of the process when used on any individual project in the organization.
In this process area, the phrase “quality and process-performance objectives” covers objectives and requirements for product quality, service quality, and process performance. As indicated above, the term “process performance” includes quality; however, to emphasize the importance of quality, the phrase “quality and process-performance objectives” is used rather than just “process-performance objectives.”
The expected process performance can be used in establishing the project’s quality and process-performance objectives and can be used as a baseline against which actual project performance can be compared. This information is used to quantitatively manage the project. Each quantitatively managed project, in turn, provides actual performance results that become a part of the baseline data for the organizational process assets.
The associated process-performance models are used to represent past and current process performance and to predict future results of the process. For example, the latent defects in the delivered product can be predicted using measurements of defects identified during product verification activities.
When the organization has measures, data, and analytical techniques for critical process, product, and service characteristics, it is able to do the following:
Determine whether processes are behaving consistently or have stable trends (i.e., are predictable)
Identify processes where the performance is within natural bounds that are consistent across process implementation teams
Establish criteria for identifying whether a process or subprocess should be statistically managed, and determine pertinent measures and analytical techniques to be used in such management
Identify processes that show unusual (e.g., sporadic or unpredictable) behavior
Identify any aspects of the processes that can be improved in the organization’s set of standard processes
Identify the implementation of a process which performs best
Related Process Areas.
Refer to the Quantitative Project Management process area for more information about the use of process-performance baselines and models.
Refer to the Measurement and Analysis process area for more information about specifying measures and collecting and analyzing data.
Specific Practices by Goal
SG 1 Establish Performance Baselines and Models
Baselines and models, which characterize the expected process performance of the organization's set of standard processes, are established and maintained.
Prior to establishing process-performance baselines and models, it is necessary to determine which processes are suitable to be measured (the Select Processes specific practice), which measures are useful for determining process performance (the Establish Process-Performance Measures specific practice), and the quality and process-performance objectives for those processes (the Establish Quality and Process-Performance Objectives specific practice). These specific practices are often interrelated and may need to be performed concurrently to select the appropriate processes, measures, and quality and process-performance objectives. Often, the selection of one process, measure, or objective will constrain the selection of the others. For example, if a certain process is selected, the measures and objectives for that process may be constrained by the process itself.
SP 1.1 Select Processes
Select the processes or subprocesses in the organization's set of standard processes that are to be included in the organization's process-performance analyses.
Refer to the Organizational Process Definition process area for more information about the structure of the organizational process assets.
The organization’s set of standard processes consists of a set of standard processes that, in turn, are composed of subprocesses.
Typically, it will not be possible, useful, or economically justifiable to apply statistical management techniques to all processes or subprocesses of the organization’s set of standard processes. Selection of the processes and/or subprocesses is based on the needs and objectives of both the organization and projects.
Examples of criteria which may be used for the selection of a process or subprocess for organizational analysis include the following:
The relationship of the subprocess to key business objectives
Current availability of valid historical data relevant to the subprocess
The current degree of variability of this data
Subprocess stability (e.g. stable performance in comparable instances)
The availability of corporate or commercial information that can be used to build predictive models
The existence of project data that indicates the process or subprocess has been or can be stabilized is a useful criterion for selection of a process or subprocess.
Typical Work Products
List of processes or subprocesses identified for process-performance analyses
SP 1.2 Establish Process-Performance Measures
Establish and maintain definitions of the measures that are to be included in the organization’s process-performance analyses.
Refer to the Measurement and Analysis process area for more information about selecting measures.
Typical Work Products
Definitions for the selected measures of process performance
Subpractice 1: Determine which of the organization’s business objectives for quality and process performance need to be addressed by the measures.
Subpractice 2: Select measures that provide appropriate insight into the organization’s quality and process performance.
The Goal Question Metric paradigm is an approach that can be used to select measures that provide insight into the organization’s business objectives.
Examples of criteria used to select measures include the following:
Relationship of the measures to the organization’s business objectives
Coverage that the measures provide over the entire life of the product or service
Visibility that the measures provide into the process performance
Availability of the measures
Extent to which the measures are objective
Frequency at which the observations of the measure can be collected
Extent to which the measures are controllable by changes to the process or subprocess
Extent to which the measures represent the users’ view of effective process performance
Subpractice 3: Incorporate the selected measures into the organization’s set of common measures.
Refer to the Organizational Process Definition process area for more information about establishing organizational process assets.
Subpractice 4: Revise the set of measures as necessary.
SP 1.3 Establish Quality and Process-Performance Objectives
Establish and maintain quantitative objectives for quality and process performance for the organization.
The organization’s quality and process-performance objectives should have the following attributes:
Based on the organization’s business objectives
Based on the past performance of projects
Defined to gauge process performance in areas such as product quality, productivity, cycle time, or response time
Constrained by the inherent variability or natural bounds of the selected process or subprocess
Typical Work Products
Organization's quality and process-performance objectives
Subpractice 1: Review the organization’s business objectives related to quality and process performance.
Examples of business objectives include the following:
Achieve a development cycle of a specified duration for a specified release of a product
Achieve an average response time less than a specified duration for a specified version of a service
Deliver functionality of the product to a target percentage of estimated cost
Decrease the cost of maintenance of the products by a specified percent
Subpractice 2: Define the organization’s quantitative objectives for quality and process performance.
Objectives may be established for process or subprocess measurements (e.g., effort, cycle time, and defect removal effectiveness) as well as for product measurements (e.g., reliability and defect density) and service measurements (e.g., capacity and response times) where appropriate.
Examples of quality and process-performance objectives include the following:
Achieve a specified productivity
Deliver work products with no more than a specified number of latent defects
Shorten time to delivery to a specified percentage of the process-performance baseline
Reduce the total lifecycle cost of new and existing products by a percentage
Deliver a percentage of the specified product functionality
Subpractice 3: Define the priorities of the organization’s objectives for quality and process performance.
Subpractice 4: Review, negotiate, and obtain commitment for the organization’s quality and process-performance objectives and their priorities from the relevant stakeholders.
Subpractice 5: Revise the organization’s quantitative objectives for quality and process performance as necessary.
Examples of when the organization’s quantitative objectives for quality and process performance may need to be revised include the following:
When the organization’s business objectives change
When the organization’s processes change
When actual quality and process performance differs significantly from the objectives
SP 1.4 Establish Process-Performance Baselines
Establish and maintain the organization's process-performance baselines.
The organization’s process-performance baselines are a measurement of performance for the organization’s set of standard processes at various levels of detail, as appropriate. The processes include the following:
Sequence of connected processes
Processes that cover the entire life of the project
Processes for developing individual work products
There may be several process-performance baselines to characterize performance for subgroups of the organization.
Examples of criteria used to categorize subgroups include the following:
Product line
Line of business
Application domain
Complexity
Team size
Work product size
Process elements from the organization’s set of standard processes
Allowable tailoring of the organization’s set of standard processes may significantly affect the comparability of the data for inclusion in process-performance baselines. The effects of tailoring should be considered in establishing baselines. Depending on the tailoring allowed, separate performance baselines may exist for each type of tailoring.
Refer to the Quantitative Project Management process area for more information about the use of process-performance baselines.
Typical Work Products
Baseline data on the organization’s process performance
Subpractice 1: Collect measurements from the organization’s projects.
The process or subprocess in use when the measurement was taken is recorded to enable appropriate use later.
Refer to the Measurement and Analysis process area for information about collecting and analyzing data.
Subpractice 2: Establish and maintain the organization’s process-performance baselines from the collected measurements and analyses.
Refer to the Measurement and Analysis process area for information about establishing objectives for measurement and analysis, specifying the measures and analyses to be performed, obtaining and analyzing measures, and reporting results.
Process-performance baselines are derived by analyzing the collected measures to establish a distribution and range of results that characterize the expected performance for selected processes or subprocesses when used on any individual project in the organization.
The measurements from stable subprocesses from projects should be used; other data may not be reliable.
Subpractice 3: Review and get agreement with relevant stakeholders about the organization's process-performance baselines.
Subpractice 4: Make the organization's process-performance information available across the organization in the organization's measurement repository.
The organization’s process-performance baselines are used by the projects to estimate the natural bounds for process performance.
Refer to the Organizational Process Definition process area for more information about establishing the organization’s measurement repository.
Subpractice 5: Compare the organization’s process-performance baselines to the associated objectives.
Subpractice 6: Revise the organization’s process-performance baselines as necessary.
Examples of when the organization’s process-performance baselines may need to be revised include the following:
When the processes change
When the organization’s results change
When the organization’s needs change
SP 1.5 Establish Process-Performance Models
Establish and maintain the process-performance models for the organization’s set of standard processes.
Process-performance models are used to estimate or predict the value of a process-performance measure from the values of other process, product, and service measurements. These process-performance models typically use process and product measurements collected throughout the life of the project to estimate progress toward achieving objectives that cannot be measured until later in the project’s life.
The process-performance models are used as follows:
The organization uses them for estimating, analyzing, and predicting the process performance associated with the processes in the organization’s set of standard processes.
The organization uses them to assess the (potential) return on investment for process improvement activities.
Projects use them for estimating, analyzing, and predicting the process performance for their defined processes.
Projects use them for selecting processes or subprocesses for use.
These measures and models are defined to provide insight into, and to provide the ability to predict, critical process and product characteristics that are relevant to business value.
Examples of areas of concern to projects in which models may be useful include the following:
Schedule and cost
Reliability
Defect identification and removal rates
Defect removal effectiveness
Latent defect estimation
Response time
Project progress
Combinations of these areas
Examples of process-performance models include the following:
System dynamics models
Reliability growth models
Complexity models
Refer to the Quantitative Project Management process area for more information about the use of process-performance models.
Typical Work Products
Process-performance models
Subpractice 1: Establish the process-performance models based on the organization’s set of standard processes and the organization’s process-performance baselines.
Subpractice 2: Calibrate the process-performance models based on the organization’s past results and current needs.
Subpractice 3: Review the process-performance models and get agreement with relevant stakeholders.
Subpractice 4: Support the projects’ use of the process-performance models.
Subpractice 5: Revise the process-performance models as necessary.
Examples of when the process-performance models may need to be revised include the following:
When the processes change
When the organization’s results change
When the organization’s needs change
Generic Practices by Goal
GG 1 Achieve Specific Goals
The process supports and enables achievement of the specific goals of the process area by transforming identifiable input work products to produce identifiable output work products.
GP 1.1 Perform Specific Practices
Perform the specific practices of the organizational process performance process to develop work products and provide services to achieve the specific goals of the process area.
GG 2 Institutionalize a Managed Process
The process is institutionalized as a managed process.
GP 2.1 Establish an Organizational Policy
Establish and maintain an organizational policy for planning and performing the organizational process performance process.
Elaboration:
This policy establishes organizational expectations for establishing and maintaining process-performance baselines for the organization’s set of standard processes.
GP 2.2 Plan the Process
Establish and maintain the plan for performing the organizational process performance process.
Elaboration:
This plan for performing the organizational process performance process can be included in (or referenced by) the organization’s process improvement plan, which is described in the Organizational Process Focus process area, or it may be documented in a separate plan that describes only the plan for the organizational process performance process.
GP 2.3 Provide Resources
Provide adequate resources for performing the organizational process performance process, developing the work products, and providing the services of the process.
Elaboration:
Special expertise in statistics and statistical process control may be needed to establish the process-performance baselines for the organization’s set of standard processes.
Examples of other resources provided include the following tools:
Database management systems
System dynamics model
Process modeling tools
Statistical analysis packages
Problem-tracking packages
GP 2.4 Assign Responsibility
Assign responsibility and authority for performing the process, developing the work products, and providing the services of the organizational process performance process.
GP 2.5 Train People
Train the people performing or supporting the organizational process performance process as needed.
Elaboration:
Examples of training topics include the following:
Process and process improvement modeling
Quantitative and statistical methods (e.g., estimating models, Pareto analysis, and control charts)
GP 2.6 Manage Configurations
Place designated work products of the organizational process performance process under appropriate levels of control.
Elaboration:
Examples of work products placed under control include the following:
Organization’s quality and process-performance objectives
Definitions of the selected measures of process performance
Baseline data on the organization’s process performance
GP 2.7 Identify and Involve Relevant Stakeholders
Identify and involve the relevant stakeholders of the organizational process performance process as planned.
Elaboration:
Examples of activities for stakeholder involvement include the following:
Establishing the organization’s quality and process-performance objectives and their priorities
Reviewing and resolving issues on the organization’s process-performance baselines
Reviewing and resolving issues on the organization’s process-performance models
GP 2.8 Monitor and Control the Process
Monitor and control the organizational process performance process against the plan for performing the process and take appropriate corrective action.
Elaboration:
Examples of measures and work products used in monitoring and controlling include the following:
Trends in the organization’s process performance with respect to changes in work products and task attributes (e.g., size growth, effort, schedule, and quality)
Schedule for collecting and reviewing measures to be used for establishing a process-performance baseline
GP 2.9 Objectively Evaluate Adherence
Objectively evaluate adherence of the organizational process performance process against its process description, standards, and procedures, and address noncompliance.
Elaboration:
Examples of activities reviewed include the following:
Establishing process-performance baselines and models
Examples of work products reviewed include the following:
Process-performance plans
Organization’s quality and process-performance objectives
Definitions of the selected measures of process performance
Examples of work products reviewed include the following:
Process improvement plans
Process action plans
Process deployment plans
Plans for the organization’s process appraisals
GP 2.10 Review Status with Higher Level Management
Review the activities, status, and results of the organizational process performance process with higher level management and resolve issues.
These reviews are typically in the form of a briefing presented to the management steering committee by the process group and the process action teams.
Examples of presentation topics include the following:
Status of improvements being developed by process action teams
Results of pilots
Results of deployments
Schedule status for achieving significant milestones (e.g., readiness for an appraisal, or progress toward achieving a targeted organizational maturity level or capability level profile)
GG 3 Institutionalize a Defined Process
The process is institutionalized as a defined process.
This generic goal's appearance here reflects its location in the continuous representation.
GP 3.1 Establish a Defined Process
Establish and maintain the description of a defined organizational process performance process.
GP 3.2 Collect Improvement Information
Collect work products, measures, measurement results, and improvement information derived from planning and performing the organizational process performance process to support the future use and improvement of the organization’s processes and process assets.
Elaboration:
Examples of work products, measures, measurement results, and improvement information include the following:
Process-performance baselines
Percent of measurement data that is rejected because of inconsistencies with the process-performance measurement definitions
GG 4 Institutionalize a Quantitatively Managed Process
The process is institutionalized as a quantitatively managed process.
GP 4.1 Establish Quantitative Objectives for the Process
Establish and maintain quantitative objectives for the organizational process performance process, which address quality and process performance, based on customer needs and business objectives.
GP 4.2 Stabilize Subprocess Performance
Stabilize the performance of one or more subprocesses to determine the ability of the organizational process performance process to achieve the established quantitative quality and process-performance objectives.
GG 5 Institutionalize an Optimizing Process
The process is institutionalized as an optimizing process.
GP 5.1 Ensure Continuous Process Improvement
Ensure continuous improvement of the organizational process performance process in fulfilling the relevant business objectives of the organization.
GP 5.2 Correct Root Causes of Problems
Identify and correct the root causes of defects and other problems in the organizational process performance process.
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