Overview

The final phase is the Post Maturity Phase, which starts with the formal assessment if the organization has decided to conduct one. This decision should have been made before or at the beginning of the Process Improvement effort. The ultimate goal of Process Improvement should be to achieve process maturity that works for that unique organization with the formal level achieved secondary. If a formal assessment is the goal, it should be accomplished when the progress mini-assessment indicates readiness. Even if the goal is a formal assessment, an organization may or may not be ready for it at this point.

The ultimate goal may be a formal assessment but, as the Process Improvement effort progressed, some long-term actions were identified that make it unfeasible to undergo a formal assessment at this point. The organization may want to go into continued improvement while the long-term actions are being achieved, but some of the methods used for accelerating the effort may still work well for continued improvement. This will depend upon the revised goals of the organization.

The method of assessment will be dependent upon the Process Improvement model or methodology selected but it will be key to identifying strengths and weaknesses from an outside source. Some formal assessments use organizational staff and some use staff from outside the organization or company. These are decisions that need to be made prior to preparation for the formal assessment.

Some Formal Assessment Methods

The formal assessment method will be dependent upon the model...