Page 220 - (DK) The Business Book
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IF YOU DON’T KNOW
WHERE YOU ARE,
A MAP WON’T HELP
THE CAPABILITY MATURITY MODEL
usiness processes are a
IN CONTEXT series of actions taken to
In level 1 of the Capability
FOCUS Maturity Model, initial B achieve an outcome. The
processes are ad hoc objective might be to produce a
Business processes
and poorly controlled. product, to pay an invoice, or to
KEY DATES serve a customer, for example. Adam
1899 US engineer and Smith was one of the first people
management consultant Henry to describe business processes,
Gantt develops the Gantt chart when he dissected the many
to illustrate a project schedule. In level 2, processes start manufacturing processes used in
to be applied to projects an 18th-century pin factory. From
1970s Data-flow diagrams are and are repeatable. describing the different actions, he
developed to allow structured developed the idea of division of
analysis of how data moves labor, where work can be divided
from one process to another. into a set of simple tasks performed
by specialized workers, in sequence.
1979 Philip B. Crosby develops
In level 3, processes become
a quality-management
defined and can be Continuous improvement
maturity grid in his book
proactively implemented. The sequence of steps in a process
Quality is Free.
can often be visualized as a flow
1988 The Capability Maturity chart. As Watts Humphrey, inventor
Model (CMM) is described by of the capability maturity model
Watts S. Humphrey in an (CMM), pointed out, it is always
In level 4, processes are
article published in the journal “good to know where you are” in
measurable and can be
IEEE Software. the process. Humphrey developed
managed.
the idea that continuous process
2003 In Business Process
improvement is based on many
Management is a Team Sport,
small evolutionary steps, rather than
Andrew Spanyi claims that
large, revolutionary innovations.
strategy should drive business His CMM provides a framework for
process design, which, in By the time level 5 is reached, organizing these evolutionary steps
turn, should drive processes can be optimized into five levels of development,
organizational design. through careful monitoring. each of which prepares the way for
the next. The CMM was developed
