Do you know how each process is performing right now in your organization? And if you’ve improved a particular process do you know if you achieved the level of improvement you wanted?  It’s necessary to quantify data to be able to answer these two questions and provide objective ways to measure process and level of change.

So if you’re working on a single business process improvement project or many processes across the enterprise, you need a measurement system.  But how do you build one that is comprehensive, efficient and effective?

Where do you start?  You have to start from where you are, so the Process Maturity Framework can help identify where on the continuum your organization is.  The first graphic below shows the five levels of the CMMI Process Maturity Framework, with descriptors at each level.

Project Manager is a common term in business these days.  On the simplest level, a Project Manager can be an individual in charge of a plan that was developed on a ‘cocktail napkin’ or simple spreadsheet.  For a more complex project, the Project Manager can be an employee in the Project (or Program) Management Office, be certified in Project Management by passing the rigorous PMI test, create sophisticated work breakdown schedules using software and manage enterprise projects from beginning to end for the organization.  The kind of Project Manager I am talking about has responsibilities like the second type above, but may not always work on enterprise projects; instead he might work on medium or large projects as well.  

The proliferation of process improvement methods over the past decade has become problematic. The range of process improvement methods now includes BPM, Lean, Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma, Operational Excellence (OpX), Process Excellence (PEX), Reengineering (BPR) and several older techniques such as the theory of constraints (TOC) which are still in use in some organizations.

As process improvement professionals develop increasing skill in a selected improvement method, they are inclined to think and communicate that their method is better than alternative approaches to process improvement. Executives seeking to improve operational performance are sometimes confused about the similarities and differences between various methods and feel that they “have to choose a side.”