Benchmarking and Process Improvement

If your organization is a world-class developer, wouldn’t you want to tell the world and use the information to win new business? What if you aren’t world class yet but want to get there? Given the numerous process improvement frameworks and methodologies such as CMMI, ISO 9000, Six Sigma, and ITIL, selecting a process improvement service for your company can be daunting.

The bottom line: You need to know what areas require improvement and what return that investment will bring. QSM’s benchmark and process improvement service establishes a quantitative baseline for your organization from which you can measure future improvements. We also profile your development projects against an industry database with comparable demographics. QSM uses a five star rating system for schedule, effort, cost, reliability, productivity, and staffing. Our service will enable you to improve your profitability, improve your customer satisfaction and enable you to negotiate, plan and execute your project with the best.

Our Approach

Our process is straightforward and designed to have minimal impact to the organization and individual projects included in the benchmark. A typical engagement takes 6-8 weeks to complete and includes the following:

1. Initial kick-off meeting. We identify the individuals who will coordinate the study and participate, determine any unique assessment requirements of the client, identify data sources, and establish a time schedule and deliverables. QSM will then communicate the process and the schedule to the participants.
2. Data collection and validation. Webex or on-site project interviews– data review-actions for incomplete or erroneous information – Typical time requirement for each project is 2 hours preparation and 1.5 hours for the interview and 2 hours of rework
3. Identification of benchmark comparison data set from the QSM database. QSM will prepare a custom data sample based on application domain, time frame of development, size of projects, development languages, development methods, and development type.
4. Establishment of the company baseline. We will make a trend line assessment.
5. Benchmark comparison and five star reporting. QSM will make a five star report and benchmark data overlay assessment.
6. Communication of final results. Through either a PowerPoint briefing and/or report, QSM will communicate all final results to the client.
7. Optional follow-on engagement to implement process improvement recommendations

Deliverables

• Data collection software or forms
• Draft report and results briefing
• Final briefing and five star report
• Optional SLIM-Metrics & SLIM-DataManager products
• Optional process definitions for improved processes

Schedule a meeting with one of our experts now!