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JoAnn T. Hackos, PhD
CIDM Director
www.infomanagementcenter.com
In the April 2, 2002 Issue 64 of
E-SSENTIALS!, the e-newsletter of the
Software Productivity Center, Carol Dekkers assessed the reasons why so many
"offshore" software development organizations appear easily to achieve
process maturity levels of 4 and 5 on the CMM (Capabilities
Maturity Model) scale. US software developers typically have
difficulty advancing much beyond Level 1, the lowest maturity
level, characterized by considerable autonomy. Dekkers argues
that organizations founded in more prescriptive,
procedure-oriented cultures are more likely to follow the
directives issued by an official body or their own management
than are organizations in more independent, choice-oriented
cultures. She quotes Dr. David Zubrow of the Software
Engineering Institute (SEI) as observing that countries that
were once part of the British empire, such as India,
Singapore, and Hong Kong, tend to accept prescribed processes.
Dekkers gingerly places Britain, Canada, and Australia in the
prescriptive category also.
In analyzing the difficulty of implementing standard processes
in American organizations, Dekkers also remarks that it is much easier to impose
a structure on a new organization than to re-engineer processes in an existing
organization, often at the same time that current work is being implemented.
Many of the offshore organizations have been started in the last two or three
years, although new software development groups in the US are not particularly
open to strict procedural accountability.
If you're wondering what all this has to do with
information-development organizations, let me explain two
ideas that are gradually merging for me: organizational
process maturity and offshore information-development staff.
Information-development organizations in the US have had
similar difficulty in adopting structured approaches to
document design and project management. In assessments we
have conducted using the Information Process Maturity Model
(IPMM), we find many organizations at Level 1 or awkwardly
ensconced in Level 2, an indication that they are trying to
change but are having difficulty doing so. Few
information-development organizations perform at Levels 4
and 5. Note that I described one Level 4 organization, NCR Waterloo, in the
April 2002 issue of Best Practices. The
source of the structural problems lies in the tendency of
communicators, much like software developers, to prefer to
work independently and make their own design decisions—to
own their own books. They resist estimating projects,
keeping track of project metrics, incorporating substantive
editorial reviews, and even using a uniform page design.
Organizations attempting to implement modular structured
writing programs as part of a content-management,
single-source initiative are quickly discovering that they
need work groups that enthusiastically embrace
collaboration. To create a repository of information topics,
all contributing to a comprehensive Information Model,
requires a collaborative approach among the communicators.
To achieve an impressive return on investment and to
increase customer quality with content management requires a
cooperative atmosphere in which domain experts work together
toward a common goal.
One might conclude that to create an organization that will
follow the best practices implied by Levels 3, 4, and 5 of
the IPMM and achieve the collaborative model required for
content management, we should embark upon a shift to offshore
writing teams in cultures that will follow the best
practices developed by the innovators in the choice-oriented
cultures like the US. Can we use the current employment
situation in the US to create a more collaborative and
process-oriented culture within our organizations as well?
In recent surveys of information-development managers, we
have found that a less mobile workforce may lead to
increased willingness to cooperate with process-based
initiatives.
In the next few weeks, the CIDM will be conducting a survey
of the successes and challenges in using an offshore
workforce. The survey will begin a new benchmark study of
experiences with offshore writers and the move toward more
mature processes within our information-development
organizations worldwide.
To conduct the benchmark internationally, we need participation and
sponsorship. We are now working on the sponsorship fees but
hope to keep these comparatively low to involve more
participants. Let us know what you might be able to
contribute in return for the comprehensive benchmark report
and participation in the study.
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