Capability Counts Series: CMMI V2.0 and the Human Experience - People at the Center of Process Improvement!
By Pam Schoppert, Vice President of Human Experience and Quality, Citizant
As a results-driven technology company, Citizant has long been on the cutting edge with adoption of industry standards and best practices such as CMMI V2.0, but what is especially exciting is the company’s dedication to customer experience, employee engagement, and what we like to call the human experience (HX).
At Citizant, we are continually working to triangulate the right balance of people, process, and tools. We have learned that simply having a standard corporate set of process assets does not equal success. It is imperative to analyze each opportunity from the perspective of our customers and the employees that support them. Our human experience and quality programs are flexible, responsive and are continually aligned with standards like CMMI V2.0, company needle movers, and customer key performance indicators (KPIs).
Growth and Learning Shifts
For Citizant, a lot of growth and learning shifted our quality focus in distinct ways that can benefit the industry. There are two key ways we have evolved our as a company.
First, we changed our appraisal and auditing approaches from verification to validation. We had standardized processes in place for almost as long as the company has been in operation. For the past 15 years, since we have adopted ISO and CMMI, we focused on verification (ensuring that all adopted industry standards met the requirements) and comprehensive coverage of all process and practice areas. We concentrated on finding objective evidence and checking verification boxes. As we matured, we realized that validation is more important as it focuses on the process ‘working’ versus ‘being used’. Validation is necessary from the customer, employees, and right-sized processes to ensure that approaches put in place are pragmatic and benefiting the people that it is intended to serve.
Our second shift was to change our quality organization from process-focused to people-focused. We often talk about the quality triangle of people, process, and tools to deliver the ideal solution to the customer on-time and within budget. As we matured, we shifted our focus to be more human-centered. We serve and engage customers in conversations often and at all levels. We branded our quality organization as human experience and quality programs, which emphasizes the connection between the customers’ experience of the process. I like to refer to a simple equation that summarizes the holistic experience:
HX (Human Experience) = CX (Customer Experience) + EX (Employee Experience) + Quality
With our years of experience and dedication to quality, we know that our work delivers the ultimate purpose of serving those humans. That is why our company’s secret sauce is in the human experience.
Partnerships Are Primary
Extreme acceleration and real growth in any organization rely on collaboration. As the adage goes, “Teamwork makes the dream work.” This phrase emphasizes achieving the ultimate objective that we heavily rely on, where successful business syncs with partnership.
Regarding partnerships in the standards community, it is important to lean in, provide feedback, and guide the evolution of the industry. Citizant was among the first to be appraised for CMMI for Services (CMMI-SVC). Citizant team members volunteered as part of the model development team for CMMI-SVC. When ISO 9001 needed recent upgrades, Citizant joined the Technology Advisory Group (TAG). To have input into how standards are shaped, as well as to hear first-hand progress, is a valuable experience. We seek out relationships like this frequently, and they have been ideal for continued learning and provide advantage of advance knowledge.
When we need to adopt a new standard or technology that we do not have internal expertise with, we reach out to partners who already have hands-on experience so they can share lessons learned. I recommend that other organizations find skilled and experienced partners, uplift your peers, and lean in to provide what you have learned to others.
Advice on Continuous Improvement Programs
First, don't over-engineer your process. Agile works because it implies that element of reason for right-sizing the interactions, processes and tools. A process is simply a set of interactions that you can make as simple or as complex as you would like. You do not have to create intertwining sets of activity references approvals. You need smart people with the right intellect, at the right points in time. This is what gets you to a great continuous improvement cycle. A part of not over-engineering your process is always asking your people what needs to change and then continuing to reshape your process infrastructure to best suit the people it serves.
My second point focuses on humanizing governance. The focus isn’t always just on delivering great products. Humanizing governance is about making it personal and fostering relationships.
Lastly, be unique! Find talented professionals who are process focused and people focused because the goal is to delight customers. It’s not always easy to be people focused in what often is a process- and performance-driven world. We can't forget what is most important —people!
Ask “Who” In Addition to “Why”
One way to move forward in your continuous improvement journey is to change your first conversation with a client from “why and what's the reason?” to “who are your stakeholders and who are you serving?” I know it sounds like a minor difference, but it shifts the focus to the human experience including those involved in setting expectations and determining success.
When you ask leadership “why” they are looking for change they will almost always say they want quality and process improvement in an organization to improve key metric and align with their business objectives. Sometimes it is a maturity level they seek or sometimes it is the ability to compete. Just achieving a rating, score, or certification does nothing for long-term organizational adoption.
Asking “who’s your who?” opens up conversation into who are you serving, your employees and employee engagement, ownership, and process. It also highlights who your champions are that can carry your organization into the future. The process is important, the numbers are important, but the people are equally important so add “who’s your who?” to executive conversations on process and continual improvement.
Next Steps
We just finished our planning for the coming year, including defining our corporate needle-movers which are metrics that drive the growth of the organization. At Citizant, growth is not just monetary, it is about long-term vision and adaptation of the organization. We continue to talk about the evolution of our quality capabilities using CMMI, CMMC, and other industry-recognized standards. As I look forward, I also think back to the 1990s when government agencies would perform software capability evaluations (SCEs) on contracting organizations. At that time, the mentality for appraisals was different. They had an ‘audit’ mentality and there was anxiety about those assessments being done to you instead of for you. The quality and process industry has come a long way since then.
I am thankful to have been on this journey with CMMI, as a practitioner, a member of the CMMI development team, and now as an executive. I have watched standards put in place to advance software development and services. I have watch appraisals transform with SCAMPI and the Method Definition Document (MDD) to more collaborative organizational assessments focused on internal process improvement – it was a sigh of relief in the industry for those of us who know SCEs. No more audits being done to us — instead, organizations hold the reigns to drive their own organizational maturity. Companies benefit from an improvement mentality that wants real change, not just a check in the box.
Where are we headed next? At Citizant, we are future-focused and eager to support the DOD and Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC). We also remain connected as a CMMI Partner to the continued evolution of the CMMI model. We remain dedicated to enhancing the human experience of our employees, our partners, and our customers. We will strive to be ‘connectors’ between entities – ISACA, ISO, CMMC – ensuring that other companies like ours are utilizing industry standards for the right reasons – improvement, value, and alignment to customer mission!
