TABLE OF CONTENTS There is nothing so dangerous as a good pitcher with no real talent.
Roberto Goizueta [39]
Take a minute and think about your experiences with (or maybe just conference brushes with) me, your process improvement consultant. What do you think is true or not true about hiring process or CMMI experts? What is true or not true about buying tools to help your organization with CMM or CMMI implementation? Take a minute and answer the questions in the quiz in Figure 6.1. After reading the chapter, answer the questions in Figure 6.6, What Did You Learn? What Will You Do?
[39]Elsbach, K., How to Pitch a Brilliant Idea, Harvard Business Review , September 2003. The quote is a paraphrase attributed to Robert Goizueta, Coca-Cola s CEO in 1985, the period of the disastrous introduction of a new formula for Coke.
In CMMI, the process areas SAM and ISM provide guidelines for establishing and implementing processes for managing the relationships with suppliers of products to the project or organization. It is easy enough to understand how the practices in these two process areas apply to software and systems projects, yet their applicability to other types of acquisitions is not so obvious. With a little imagination and courage, organizations can also use the principles and practices in these two process areas to improve their management...
