More and more companies have realized that one of the keys to achieving higher profit is through the improvement of internal processes, and that different standards, models and methods can be helpful. CMMI, SPICE, ITIL, Lean, Six Sigma, Prince2, ISO standards, COBIT, and others have all been seen as “the silver bullet” at different points in time and in different types of organizations. But when reality hits, however, many improvement initiatives achieve none or only limited success because the organization lacks the ability to document, implement and institutionalize processes effectively and efficiently.

This presentation analyzes and presents a number of important aspects to address when designing a process framework to support process improvement activities. A “process lifecycle” view is used to walk you through different practical perspectives of process modeling, documentation, tailoring, integration, appraisal and improvement. Practical examples of implementing the different mechanisms are showed.

The identified mechanisms can be applied across different process improvement methodologies, from CMMI to agile, and will heighten the probability of successfully implementing processes and getting the full organizational benefit.

A special focus is given on how to establish functionalities to empower employees of the organization and make them work as a process improvement force multiplier. Both in smaller and bigger organizations it is the employees who perform the processes and know the details. You need to enable mechanisms to get the organizational benefit from that knowledge. This presentation explains how that can be done and brings examples to support this.