Comments on: Business Improvement http://www.developsense.com/blog/2006/04/business-improvement/ DevelopSense Blog Sun, 25 Dec 2011 21:02:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: Pradeep Soundararajan http://www.developsense.com/blog/2006/04/business-improvement/comment-page-1/#comment-6 Pradeep Soundararajan Sun, 30 Apr 2006 10:15:00 +0000 http://developsense.com/wordpress/?p=21#comment-6 ha , its like asking the new joinee to take up a survey as to why he liked that company ... after the long survey ... he changes his mind ! ha , its like asking the new joinee to take up a survey as to why he liked that company … after the long survey … he changes his mind !

]]> By: Anonymous http://www.developsense.com/blog/2006/04/business-improvement/comment-page-1/#comment-5 Anonymous Fri, 28 Apr 2006 22:22:00 +0000 http://developsense.com/wordpress/?p=21#comment-5 In a similar vein, some years ago there was a self-congradulatory piece in Crosstalk by a defense software shop that had done a CMM / process thing for a couple years. It looks like they did some real good with that exercise, actually. That's not the point.<br/><br/>The article was based on a survey, where among other things they trumpeted their 20% or so response rate. This is outstanding for anonymous surveys. For your own organization, people you've been working with intensely for a couple years, it's pretty lame. For replies from the folks doing the work, to the folks driving work practice improvement, tools & etc. it's bad.<br/><br/>Then, I noticed that the organization was about 35 people. Maybe 50 if you cound the process-y and audit folks.<br/><br/>The most interesting stuff from this survey - information, I think:<br/><br/>- Fifty people. What's with a survey? How about you go talk to them?<br/>- Couple years working together on process improvement, and they don't seem real interested, do they?<br/>- Why the survey? Don't you know? Isn't it your job to know?<br/><br/>Every observation will include real information that points directly and immediately to what is going on, if you pay attention. This particular survey pointed out that something wasn't working, that the folks involved were missing the point, and that any conclusions from the survey itself were highly suspect. In a similar vein, some years ago there was a self-congradulatory piece in Crosstalk by a defense software shop that had done a CMM / process thing for a couple years. It looks like they did some real good with that exercise, actually. That’s not the point.

The article was based on a survey, where among other things they trumpeted their 20% or so response rate. This is outstanding for anonymous surveys. For your own organization, people you’ve been working with intensely for a couple years, it’s pretty lame. For replies from the folks doing the work, to the folks driving work practice improvement, tools & etc. it’s bad.

Then, I noticed that the organization was about 35 people. Maybe 50 if you cound the process-y and audit folks.

The most interesting stuff from this survey – information, I think:

- Fifty people. What’s with a survey? How about you go talk to them?
- Couple years working together on process improvement, and they don’t seem real interested, do they?
- Why the survey? Don’t you know? Isn’t it your job to know?

Every observation will include real information that points directly and immediately to what is going on, if you pay attention. This particular survey pointed out that something wasn’t working, that the folks involved were missing the point, and that any conclusions from the survey itself were highly suspect.

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