TABLE OF CONTENTS After completing the mapping exercise, and after considering our experiences in performing process improvement consulting and appraisals, we realized that a major concept emerging from the maps is that they are much better tools for assessing compliance than for guiding process improvement. Process improvement is more than concentrating on the map for an individual requirement, let alone caring if it's a weak, medium, or strong quality map. It requires a much broader look at the total environment and relevant business goals.
An important point to remember when using maps for process improvement is that organizations do not implement individual practices they implement processes where those practices may be individual tasks or activities. This means that, in general, even if only one practice is mapped to a requirement, the whole PA, or an equivalent set of processes, will have to be developed, implemented, measured, and improved. In addition, the relationships, and specifically temporal relationships, that are so important in process development and improvement, may be lost in the mapping.
When discussing the process improvement aspects of mapping, we will describe an approach that will accommodate all of the selected ISO standards. We will also attempt to point out differences that occur when an ISO-registered organization attempts to achieve a CMMI capability or maturity level and when a CMMI-rated organization attempts to achieve ISO registration.
We will also develop the relationships between several ISO standards and CMMI and between two widely used ISO standards: ISO 9001 and ISO 20000.
Process...
