Methods and Practices
Ensure the availability and use of IT solutions delivery methods and practices — for example, requirements management, configuration management, and release management.
Improvement Planning
Practices-Outcomes-Metrics (POM)
Representative POMs are described for Methods and Practices at each level of maturity.
- 1Initial
- Practice
- Practices are ad hoc and are on a best endeavour basis.
- 2Basic
- Practice
- Define and agree core elements of Solutions Delivery processes for use (e.g. requirements management, design, testing, configuration management processes etc.).
- Outcomes
- Provides stable processes to support delivery of appropriate IT solutions.
- These processes help to ensure consistency in the approach used to deliver IT solutions and prevent the need to create processes from scratch for each IT solution delivered.
- Metric
- # of processes used that are defined and agreed.
- 3Intermediate
- Practice
- Select appropriate Solutions Delivery lifecycle models for use from the approved available set (e.g. waterfall, iterative, spiral, etc.).
- Outcomes
- A lifecycle model is used which is appropriate to the IT solution being delivered — this may vary from one situation to another as one lifecycle model may not be appropriate for all types of IT solutions delivered.
- By selecting this model upfront it provides a description of the phases the IT solution will move through and the associated activities.
- This allows awareness for all stakeholders of the required day-to-day activities to deliver IT solution.
- Metric
- % of IT solutions that select lifecycle models upfront.
- 4Advanced
- Practice
- Measure the performance of the Solutions Delivery processes against specific targets and key performance indicators and report to business management.
- Outcome
- Increases transparency and improves process predictability.
- Metric
- % of Solutions Delivery processes that have specific targets and KPIs.
- 5Optimized
- Practices
- Continually analyze and use performance measures as the basis for corrective and preventive activities.
- Feed information back into a continual improvement and benchmarking initiative.
- Outcomes
- Performance of Solutions Delivery processes is quantitatively understood.
- Corrective and preventive actions can be taken to optimize the Solutions Delivery processes.
- Metric
- % of performance measures used as basis for adapting processes.