Sustaining Process discipline in tough times

A recent study showed process is most important to help in reducing costs, increasing productivity and efficiencies, while achieving lower total cost of operations in several sectors including manufacturing and services. Worried about how to achieve it? The truth is, if you haven’t focused on process development and deployment in good times, you will find it challenging to do it now. Companies realize that while cost savings are the need of the hour, sustainable business results and customer service cannot be achieved by only cutting staff or hours. It also requires that existing staff perform at a signficantly higher efficiency through efficient processes, methods and tools. Else, you will find the “overworked” syndrome, where less staff are required to perform more in less time. This is where the benefits of a repeatable process kicks-in. Making use of this opportunity, more than ever, senior managers can start creating the ingredients of the processes that need to be in place to ensure repeatability. Too many times, Quality Assurance takes a back seat when the only order of the day is to churn out whatever business comes-in. Customers also tend to notice defects and quality aspects more in times of recession, as they are worried about every dollar they spend! So, its time to realize that cutting back on essentials of a repeatable process may cost you more in the long run, rather than providing short term illusion of benefits. A project would benefit if aspects that one would typpically find in a CMMI Maturity Level 2 Process Areas, or ISO 9001, or the BD-CMM Level 2 are followed in all integrity, ensuring that past experiences are re-used and projects don’t compromise on basis and fundamental elements of delivering a service or developing a product. In fact, more companies are seen to benefit from good implementation and deployment of CMMI Level 2/3 processes, now, more than ever before.