Processes Mythology

CMMi has been the buzz word at all levels at my firm for about 10 months now. There have been a lot of discussions, presentations and training sessions on the importance of having “Standardization” and “Predictability” of the activity that we do, be it development, testing, production support , so on and so forth.

This post is my experience with some the models around Data Collation, Analysis & Interpretation of Standard and Predictable testing process.

Processes remove Person-Dependency and improve Efficiency:

“This was one of the key benefits of having a defined processes in place” as was explained to me during one of the training sessions on processes.
I asked the trainer, “how do you say this?” and
the answer was, “you work on a project and if you do not follow the process (i.e. documentation) properly, when you leave the project team or the firm, then the knowledge goes with you. By bringing in the process, the necessary of the person’s presence is removed and the new person coming in will have a shorter learning curve as the documents will be readily available to her”.

I asked her, “What do you mean by “properly”?” and to that she said “You should prepare the document in such a way that it covers the matter in full”
I think a huge bottom line is being missed. “Hellloooo, Having all said and done, it’s the very people who need to do anything !!!!! “.
My take on this

· Never can a person express 100% of what one has in mind. Let’s assume conservatively that we loose 15% in translation (remember we are ignoring the environmental facts when the person writes), this leaves us with 85%

· Never a person can understand 100% of what is written in a document. Let us assume (conservative again) that we loose another 15% while reading, this leaves us with 72.25%

· Never a person can synthesize 100% of what is understood. Lets (conservative again) assume that we loose 20%, this leaves us with 57.8%

We have less than 60% of the understanding of the project one had when the person moves out of the project. Remember this is just what the out-going person “understands” and NOT his knowledge (am still understand what and how knowledge management happens).
Remember; we haven’t considered few highly influential factors in the above conjuncture. They can have both positive and negative impact; the list can go quiet long from knowledge to environment.

Below are the few that I could think of
· Writing skills of the out-going person in a foreign language (I know no company allowing people to write in their mother tongue in India)

· Ability of the incoming person in understanding a subject written in foreign language

· Prior knowledge/experience/knowledge of the incoming person on the similar subject/project

When I say this, I agree and accept that documentation is required to let myself know what I have done yesterday and the day before and if this documentation can help someone else to understand the project better, it’s a great. However, why so paranoid about “documentation” of EVERYTHING done by a person!!

With this premise, am still to understand how processes remove people dependency and improve efficiency. Can you help me please?