Document your processes by creating a template for your process documentation guide that includes the following items: scope statement, applicability matrix, product lines impacted, process roles involved, process management system procedures, exception management process, and decision matrix.

Everyone talks about documenting processes, but there seems to be little real guidance on the topic. Since a key step in the process management journey is the documentation of current processes and any exceptions to those processes, this article explores how to create a template for your process documentation guide. A template makes the process of documenting your processes repeatable. Repeatable is the word to remember here -- primary aspects of a process documentation guide should be easily duplicated and reused to create additional guides after the first process has been documented. This repeatability feature makes it less painful to create your documentation as you move through all the processes in an organization. It also provides readers with a common format to follow as they research or review processes within your organization. While the actual format will differ between organizations, the elements discussed in this article are usually included.

Read More...

• Adapt the process
• Balance competing stakeholder priorities
• Collaborate across teams
• Demonstrate value iteratively
• Elevate the level of abstraction
• Focus continuously on quality

from The Rational Edge:  Do you want to know what the missing overall stories are about CMMI? Judith M. Myerson gives an overview of the CMMI with a focus on compliance, risk and governance at each maturity level, and shows you what IBM Rational Software Solutions help achieve maturity 4. She briefly covers the hybrid approach by overlapping CMMI with Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT)

Introduction

In 'An overview of IT frameworks,' the first of the Managing Compliance series on developerWorks Rational, I talked about what IT frameworks are about and how they dictate business processes needed to meet regulatory requirements. I compared standard frameworks, including COBIT® and CMMI®, and showed how you can customize a framework.

In 'Automating COBIT business processes using IBM Rational Portfolio Manager,' the second of the series, I pointed out that COBIT is an IT governance framework that helps to ensure proper control and governance over information and the systems that create, store, and manipulate IT. COBIT provides a framework for putting controls in place to ensure you are compliant with regulations, such as the Sarbanes Oxley (SOX Act) and Basel.

Read More...

from The Rational Edge: The authors describe a four-step process for creating a fully customized software development process based on libraries provided in the Rational Method Composer product.

You can readily find discussion on process implementation and process adoption. But less has been written on starting a process development effort.1 This article addresses the topic of how to jumpstart a process development project from a process tooling perspective.

Rational Method Composer (RMC) provides a unique way to design a customized software development process. The plug-in architecture, re-use through referencing, and the separation of content and process lifecycle provide flexibility in how you construct and tailor a development process. This article describes usage scenarios based on working from the existing RMC method content library to more effectively start your process development effort.