Being SMART with SmartBook

Being CMMi certified makes processes available for most of the tasks we do in our company. When ever I start a new task and I need guidelines I know one important place in our company where to look for help. It is the process documents area created by SEPG. This is an area where the documents are kept arranged according to process areas. There are folders for each process area. Then there are documents for special practices and general practices arranged in a customized manner aligned with the tasks we do in our company.

(Image courtesy Manu Contreras)

The beauty of CMMi processes is we can modify and align our processes according to our needs. I dont know if this is also a part of standards but the SEPG team has come up with a name to the process documents area. We call it our SmartBook.

SmartBook is the area where we can find processes. We can find checklists. We can find guidelines to do our day to day tasks easily and with standards.

(Image courtesy bjortklingd)

Before starting any task I need a checklist for all the items which will be required and all the steps which are a must for the task. I reach immediately to the SmartBook and check if there is a checklist available, a guideline document, a template if available. Most of the times I find a checklist, a template a guideline document available to start with.

Once I thought if there is no checklist available for my task and it has emerged as a vital task then what to so. SEPG told me to create the checklist and submit to SEPG which will get reviewed by some seniors and it will get included in the next version of SEPG. Now that is really cool. The SEPG documents are constantly reviewed and improved by the SEPG team and all the employees of the company in this way. There is an index of all the documents we call it Apex manual. This Apex manual is updated twice a year.

This apex manual also states our Quality Policy. Our quality policy is SMART. I mean really SMART.

Infospectrum Quality Policy

• S - Systematic and disciplined approach in whatever we do
• M - Monitor and control benchmark to ensure quality
• A - Accent on customer needs and quality assurance
• R - Redefine processes that are not producing high-quality products
• T - Training for employees to learn both the importance of quality and how to measure it

with regards
Tushar Joshi, Nagpur

Personal Standards

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Infospectrum, our company is CMMi level 3 and we are now in the process of getting CMMi Level5. Becoming CMMi certified is all about defining, maintaining and improving processes while working in company.


As with any process the whole thing works only if it starts from each individual contributor. The success of company is aggregation of individual successes of all the individuals working for the company. We can track down processes to the individual levels and follow them. A process is a way to extract out the repetitive task from the brain on paper so we become free to invest our brain in more creative tasks. Once the process is set we can rely on the process to take care of the repetitive things and we have space to innovate.

Our personal standards reflect in our processes. I am referring to personal processes. Shall we have personal processes? Actually we always have them in one or the other way. If we start writing them on paper and explicitly making them visible they will help us simplify many day to day tasks.

One of my personal standard is to provide productive 8 hours to the company. So my process is now starting time + 8 hours + 1 hour lunch time + 30 minutes snacks time, which makes the required time as 9 and 1/2 hours. So with this formula I already know the time which I must invest in office to make it productive 8 hours. This calculation sets the exit time very clear in my mind so it does not distract me for any thing other than project tasks till that time. Sometimes when the scheduled tasks get done early than the calculated exit time, I can plan to complete some of the next days tasks in the remaining hours to utilize the remaining time. This way even if there is time available due to early completion of scheduled task it gets utilized and not lost. This can only be achieved by the internal process of setting the exit time.



As CMMi says having processes defined is the first step and we must keep on improving on the processes. Same applies with the personal standards and process. We must keep raising our own standards and keep competing with ourselves, and keep breaking our own records.

with regards
Tushar

(Image courtesy Callum Alden)

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