The purpose of Organizational Innovation and Deployment (OID) is to select and deploy incremental and innovative improvements that measurably improve the organization’s processes and technologies. These improvements support the organization’s quality and process-performance objectives as derived from the organization’s business objectives.
The Organizational Innovation and Deployment process area enables the selection and deployment of improvements that can enhance the organization’s ability to meet its quality and process-performance objectives. (See the definition of “quality and process-performance objectives” in the glossary.)
The term improvement, as used in this process area, refers to all ideas (proven and unproven) that would change the organization’s processes and technologies to better meet the organization’s quality and process-performance objectives.
Tip
Changes must be measurably better, not just different. In early improvement efforts, it is often difficult to measure the effects of changes, so sometimes things are just different and not better. This is one of the main reasons this process area is staged at the highest maturity level.
Quality and process-performance objectives that this process area might address include the following:
• Improved product quality (e.g., functionality, performance)
• Increased productivity
• Decreased cycle time
• Greater customer and end-user satisfaction
• Shorter development or production time to change functionality, add new features, or adapt to new technologies
• Reduce delivery time
• Reduce time to adapt to new technologies and business needs
• Improved performance of a supply chain involving multiple suppliers
• Improved intersupplier performance
• Improved utilization of resources across the organization
Achievement of these objectives depends on the successful establishment of an infrastructure that enables and encourages all people in the organization to propose potential improvements to the organization’s processes and technologies. Achievement of these objectives also depends on being able to effectively evaluate and deploy proposed improvements to the organization’s processes and technologies. All members of the organization can participate in the organization’s process- and technology-improvement activities. Their proposals are systematically gathered and addressed.
Tip
Those closest to a process are most familiar with its details and can identify incremental improvement opportunities. That is why everyone in the organization should be empowered and encouraged to suggest potential improvements.
Change and the ability to manage change is one of the key characteristics of a mature organization; another is when the majority (70 percent to 90 percent) of the work force is involved in proposing and evaluating changes.
Improvements may be identified and executed by the acquirer or the supplier. The acquirer encourages all suppliers to participate in the acquirer’s process- and technology-improvement activities. Some selected improvements may be deployed across acquirer and supplier organizations.
The acquirer and suppliers may share the costs and benefits of improvements. Acquirers may increase the incentive for suppliers to participate in improvement efforts across the supply chain by allowing suppliers to appropriate the entire value derived from a contributed improvement for an initial period (e.g., 6 to 18 months). Over time, the supplier may be expected to share a proportion of those savings with the acquirer (e.g., through cost reductions to the acquirer). Acquirer and supplier expectations related to participation in process- and technology-improvement activities, and the sharing of associated costs and benefits, should be documented in the supplier agreement.
Tip
Participation in process improvement activities can also involve the acquirer’s customers. Processes that improve the relationships across those boundaries can be improved as well.
Pilots are conducted to evaluate significant changes involving untried, high-risk, or innovative improvements before they are broadly deployed.
Process and technology improvements to be deployed across the organization are selected from process- and technology-improvement proposals based on the following criteria:
• A quantitative understanding of the organization’s current quality and process performance
• The organization’s quality and process-performance objectives
• Estimates of the improvement in quality and process performance resulting from deploying the process and technology improvements
• Estimated costs of deploying process and technology improvements, and resources and funding available for such deployment
Expected benefits added by the process and technology improvements are weighed against the cost and impact to the organization. Change and stability must be balanced carefully. Change that is too great or too rapid can overwhelm the organization, destroying its investment in organizational learning represented by organizational process assets. Rigid stability can result in stagnation, allowing the changing business environment to erode the organization’s business position.
Hint
If a proposed improvement is unrelated to the organization’s objectives, it probably is not worth pursuing. However, occasionally it may indicate an opportunity missed by those who created the objectives, so if appropriate, revisit the objectives to see whether they should be updated.
Improvements are deployed, as appropriate, to new and ongoing projects.
In this process area, the term process and technology improvements refers to incremental and innovative improvements to processes and also to process or product technologies (including project work environments).
Hint
Although many changes may individually have merit, consider their cumulative impact on the organization.
The informative material in this process area is written assuming the specific practices are applied in an organization that has a quantitative understanding of its standard processes and their expected quality and performance in predictable situations. Specific practices of this process area may be applicable, but with reduced value, if this assumption is not met.
Hint
For early, qualitative process improvement, OPF may give sufficient assistance for process improvement efforts. Select OID for use in your improvement program once the organization has the ability to statistically manage its critical subprocesses as a basis for estimating and determining the impact of a change.
The specific practices in this process area complement and extend those found in the Organizational Process Focus process area. The focus of this process area is process improvement based on a quantitative understanding of the organization’s set of standard processes and technologies and their expected quality and performance in predictable situations. In the Organizational Process Focus process area, no assumptions are made about the quantitative basis of improvement.
Refer to the Organizational Process Focus process area for more information about soliciting, collecting, and handling process improvement proposals and coordinating the deployment of process improvements into projects’ defined processes.
Refer to the Organizational Training process area for more information about providing updated training to support the deployment of process and technology improvements.
Refer to the Organizational Process Performance process area for more information about quality and process-performance objectives and process-performance models. Quality and process-performance objectives are used to analyze and select process- and technology-improvement proposals for deployment.
Process-performance models are used to quantify the impact and benefits of innovations.
Refer to the Measurement and Analysis process area for more information about establishing objectives for measurement and analysis, specifying measures and analyses to be performed, obtaining and analyzing measures, and reporting results.
Refer to the Integrated Project Management process area for more information about implementing process and technology improvements into the project’s defined process and project work environment.
Refer to the Decision Analysis and Resolution process area for more information about formal evaluations when selecting improvement proposals and innovations.
Specific Goal and Practice Summary
SG 1 Select Improvements
SP 1.1 Collect and Analyze Improvement Proposals
SP 1.2 Identify and Analyze Innovations
SP 1.3 Pilot Improvements
SP 1.4 Select Improvements for Deployment
SG 2 Deploy Improvements
SP 2.1 Plan the Deployment
SP 2.2 Manage the Deployment
SP 2.3 Measure Improvement Effects
Process and technology improvements, which contribute to meeting quality and process-performance objectives, are selected.
Collect and analyze process- and technology-improvement proposals.
Each process- and technology-improvement proposal must be analyzed.
Hint
Everyone in the organization must be aware that he or she can submit an improvement proposal, and know how to submit one.
The acquirer must continuously improve its processes and its alignment with its customer and suppliers. The acquirer may look for opportunities to maximize throughput based on the identification of the most limiting resource and, as a result, create a more agile supply chain (e.g., giving higher priority to improvement proposals that promote a supply chain that responds both quickly and cost effectively).
Simple process and technology improvements, with well-understood benefits and effects, will not usually undergo detailed evaluations.
Tip
Ideas for incremental improvements often originate from within the organization; ideas for innovative improvements often originate from outside the organization.
Typical Work Products
- Analyzed process- and technology-improvement proposals
Typical Supplier Deliverables
- Process- and technology-improvement proposals
Subpractices
- Collect process- and technology-improvement proposals.
A process- and technology-improvement proposal documents proposed incremental and innovative improvements to processes and technologies. Managers and staff in the organization, as well as customers, end users, and suppliers can submit process- and technology-improvement proposals. Process and technology improvements may be implemented at the local level before being proposed for the organization.
Refer to the Organizational Process Focus process area for more information about process- and technology-improvement proposals.
- Analyze the costs and benefits of process- and technology-improvement proposals, as appropriate.
Criteria for evaluating costs and benefits include the following:
• Contribution toward meeting the organization’s quality and process-performance objectives
• Effect on mitigating identified project and organizational risks
• Ability to respond quickly to changes in project requirements, market situations, and the business environment
• Effect on related processes and associated assets
• Cost of defining and collecting data that support the measurement and analysis of the process- and technology-improvement proposal
• Expected life span of the proposal
Process-performance models provide insight into the effect of process changes on process capability and performance.
Refer to the Organizational Process Performance process area for more information about process-performance models.
- Identify the process- and technology-improvement proposals that are innovative.
Innovative improvements are also identified and analyzed in the Identify and Analyze Innovations specific practice.
Whereas this specific practice analyzes proposals that have been passively collected, the purpose of the Identify and Analyze Innovations specific practice is to actively search for and locate innovative improvements. The search primarily involves looking outside the organization.
Innovative improvements are typically identified by reviewing process- and technology-improvement proposals or by actively investigating and monitoring innovations that are in use in other organizations or are documented in research literature. Innovation may be inspired by internal improvement objectives or by the external business environment.
Innovative improvements are typically major changes to the process that represent a break from the old way of doing things (e.g., changing the lifecycle model). Innovative improvements may also include changes in products that support, enhance, or automate the process (e.g., using off-the-shelf products to support the process).
- Identify potential barriers and risks to deploying each process- and technology-improvement proposal.
- Estimate the cost, effort, and schedule required for deploying each process- and technology-improvement proposal.
- Select the process- and technology-improvement proposals to be piloted before broad-scale deployment.
Since innovations, by definition, usually represent a major change, most innovative improvements will be piloted.
- Document results of the evaluation of each process- and technology-improvement proposal.
- Monitor the status of each process- and technology-improvement proposal.
Identify and analyze innovative improvements that could increase the organization’s quality and process performance.
The specific practice, Collect and Analyze Improvement Proposals, analyzes proposals that are passively collected. The purpose of this specific practice is to actively search for, locate, and analyze innovative improvements. This search primarily involves looking outside the organization.
An acquirer’s customers and suppliers are vital sources of innovative ideas. Interorganizational and organizational learning are therefore critical to actively identifying and analyzing innovations.
Tip
This practice is similar in approach to the Elicit Requirements specific practice in ARD. Potential innovative improvements are proactively sought after rather than passively collecting proposals.
Typical Work Products
- Candidate innovative improvements
- Analysis of proposed innovative improvements
Typical Supplier Deliverables
- Candidate innovative improvements
Subpractices
- Analyze the organization’s set of standard processes to determine areas in which innovative improvements would be most helpful.
These analyses are performed to determine which subprocesses are critical to achieving the organization’s quality and process-performance objectives and which ones are good candidates to be improved.
- Investigate innovative improvements that may improve the organization’s set of standard processes.
Investigating innovative improvements involves the following activities:
• Systematically maintaining awareness of leading relevant technical work and technology trends
• Periodically searching for commercially available innovative improvements
• Collecting proposals for innovative improvements from projects and the organization
• Systematically reviewing processes and technologies used externally and comparing them to those used in the organization
• Identifying areas in which innovative improvements have been used successfully, and reviewing data and documentation of experience using these improvements
• Identifying improvements that integrate new technology into products and project work environments
• Determining where supplier products stand in relation to technology cycles and product lifecycles
• Monitoring economies all over the world to spot new supply bases and markets
- Analyze potential innovative improvements to understand their effects on process elements and predict their influence on the process.
The acquirer and its suppliers may establish an innovation review program. This program may create time-boxed innovation solicitation, which is a well-communicated formal process for analysis and guaranteed response to innovative ideas proposed by customers, employees, and suppliers.
Process-performance models can provide a basis for analyzing possible effects of changes to process elements.
Refer to the Organizational Process Performance process area for more information about process-performance models.
- Analyze the costs and benefits of potential innovative improvements.
- Create process- and technology-improvement proposals for those innovative improvements that would result in improving the organization’s processes or technologies.
- Select innovative improvements to be piloted before broad-scale deployment.
Since innovations, by definition, usually represent a major change, most innovative improvements will be piloted.
- Document results of evaluations of innovative improvements.
Pilot process and technology improvements to select which ones to implement.
Tip
Another purpose of a pilot is to gauge a change’s applicability to other projects.
A pilot may involve a single project or a group of projects.
Pilots are performed to assess new and unproven major changes before they are broadly deployed, as appropriate.
The implementation of this specific practice may overlap with the implementation of the Implement Action Proposals specific practice in the Causal Analysis and Resolution process area (e.g., when causal analysis and resolution is implemented organizationally or across multiple projects).
Typical Work Products
- Pilot evaluation reports
- Documented lessons learned from pilots
Typical Supplier Deliverables
- Pilot evaluation reports for pilots executed in the supplier environment
- Documented lessons learned from pilots executed in the supplier environment
Subpractices
- Plan the pilots.
When planning pilots, define quantitative criteria to be used for evaluating pilot results.
- Review and get relevant stakeholder agreement on plans for pilots.
- Consult with and assist those performing the pilots.
- Perform each pilot in an environment that is characteristic of the environment present in a broad-scale deployment.
- Track pilots against their plans.
- Review and document results of pilots.
Select process and technology improvements for deployment across the organization.
Selection of process and technology improvements for deployment across the organization is based on quantifiable criteria derived from the organization’s quality and process-performance objectives.
Typical Work Products
- Process and technology improvements selected for deployment
Subpractices
- Prioritize candidate process and technology improvements for deployment.
Priority is based on an evaluation of the estimated cost-to-benefit ratio with regard to the quality and process-performance objectives.
Refer to the Organizational Process Performance process area for more information about quality and process-performance objectives.
- Select the process and technology improvements to be deployed.
The selection of process improvements is based on their priorities and available resources.
- Determine how each process and technology improvement will be deployed.
- Document results of the selection process.
Measurable improvements to the organization’s processes and technologies are continually and systematically deployed.
Tip
The identification and analysis of improvement proposals and innovations (SG 1 specific practices) are typically ongoing activities. In contrast, the detailed planning for and deployment of improvements may be done periodically (e.g., quarterly or annually).
Establish and maintain plans for deploying selected process and technology improvements.
The plans for deploying selected process and technology improvements may be included in the organization’s plan for organizational innovation and deployment or they may be documented separately.
Tip
Depending on the magnitude of the change, it could take months or years before the change is fully deployed. Therefore, it is important to think about the retirement of those processes and products that the change will replace.
An acquirer’s plans for deploying improvements may include openly sharing most process knowledge and expertise with its suppliers. Any process-related knowledge that the acquirer or one of its suppliers possesses is viewed as accessible to virtually any other supplier in the acquirer’s supply chain (perhaps with the exception of a direct competitor).
The implementation of this specific practice complements the Deploy Organizational Process Assets specific practice in the Organizational Process Focus process area and adds the use of quantitative data to guide the deployment and to determine the value of improvements with respect to quality and process-performance objectives.
Refer to the Organizational Process Focus process area for more information about deploying organizational process assets.
This specific practice plans the deployment of selected process and technology improvements. The Plan the Process generic practice addresses comprehensive planning that covers the specific practices in this process area.
Typical Work Products
- Deployment plans for selected process and technology improvements
Subpractices
- Determine how each process and technology improvement must be adjusted for organization-wide deployment.
Process and technology improvements proposed in a limited context (e.g., for a single project) might need to be modified to work across the organization.
- Determine the changes needed to deploy each process and technology improvement.
- Identify strategies that address potential barriers to deploying each process and technology improvement.
- Establish measures and objectives for determining the value of each process and technology improvement with respect to the organization’s quality and process-performance objectives.
Refer to the Measurement and Analysis process area for more information about establishing objectives for measurement and analysis, specifying measures and analyses to be performed, obtaining and analyzing measures, and reporting results.
- Document the plans for deploying selected process and technology improvements.
- Review and get agreement with relevant stakeholders on the plans for deploying selected process and technology improvements.
- Revise the plans for deploying selected process and technology improvements as necessary.
Manage the deployment of selected process and technology improvements.
The implementation of this specific practice may overlap with the implementation of the Implement Action Proposals specific practice in the Causal Analysis and Resolution process area (e.g., when causal analysis and resolution is implemented organizationally or across multiple projects). The primary difference is that in the Causal Analysis and Resolution process area, planning is done to manage the removal of root causes of defects or problems from the project’s defined process. In the Organizational Innovation and Deployment process area, planning is done to manage the deployment of improvements to the organization’s processes and technologies that can be quantified against the organization’s business objectives.
Typical Work Products
- Updated training materials (to reflect deployed process and technology improvements)
- Documented results of process- and technology-improvement deployment activities
- Revised process- and technology-improvement measures, objectives, priorities, and deployment plans
Subpractices
- Monitor the deployment of process and technology improvements using the deployment plans.
- Coordinate the deployment of process and technology improvements across the organization.
Coordinating deployment includes the following activities:
• Coordinating activities of projects, support groups, and organizational groups for each process and technology improvement
• Coordinating activities for deploying related process and technology improvements
- Quickly deploy process and technology improvements in a controlled and disciplined manner, as appropriate.
- Incorporate process and technology improvements into organizational process assets, as appropriate.
Refer to the Organizational Process Definition process area for more information about organizational process assets.
- Coordinate the deployment of process and technology improvements into the projects’ defined processes, as appropriate.
Refer to the Organizational Process Focus process area for more information about coordinating the deployment of process improvements into projects’ defined processes.
- Provide consulting, as appropriate, to support deployment of process and technology improvements.
- Provide updated training materials to reflect improvements to organizational process assets.
Refer to the Organizational Training process area for more information about training materials.
- Confirm that the deployment of all process and technology improvements is completed.
- Determine whether the ability of the defined process to meet quality and process-performance objectives is adversely affected by the process and technology improvement, and take corrective action as necessary.
Refer to the Quantitative Project Management process area for more information about quantitatively managing the project’s defined process to achieve the project’s established quality and process-performance objectives.
- Document and review results of process- and technology-improvement deployment.
Measure effects of deployed process and technology improvements.
Refer to the Measurement and Analysis process area for more information about establishing objectives for measurement and analysis, specifying measures and analyses to be performed, obtaining and analyzing measures, and reporting results.
The implementation of this specific practice may overlap with the implementation of the Evaluate the Effect of Changes specific practice in the Causal Analysis and Resolution process area (e.g., when causal analysis and resolution is implemented organizationally or across multiple projects).
Tip
CAR addresses only the changes that were identified to prevent reoccurrence of a defect or problem. This specific practice looks at measuring the effects of all improvements that you are deploying across the organization.
Typical Work Products
- Documented measures of the effects resulting from deployed process and technology improvements
Subpractices
- Measure the actual cost, effort, and schedule for deploying each process and technology improvement.
- Measure the value of each process and technology improvement.
- Measure progress toward achieving the organization’s quality and process-performance objectives.
- Analyze progress toward achieving the organization’s quality and process-performance objectives and take corrective action as needed.
Refer to the Organizational Process Performance process area for more information about process-performance analyses.
- Store measures in the organization’s measurement repository.