Enterprise-Wide Processes
Understand the challenges for large projects due to process and methodology departments and learn some solutions to address these.
Now, there is proof that the evolutionary approach to software development results in a speedier process and higher-quality products.
–, Harvard Review Alan MacCormack Alan MacCormack, “Product development practices that work: How Internet companies build software.” Cambridge: MIT Sloan Management Review, Winter 2001 in a side-bar quote, p.1.
Smaller companies almost always use flexible processes, which they define for each individual project. This shouldn’t really be called “defining” a process; a more accurate description would be that the process evolves—sometimes into something unrecognizable. Large companies instead always tend to define processes ahead of time. This enterprise-wide process is intended to serve all different projects of the organization.
The idea is great in theory because it should speed up the evolution of the process definition during project development. Moreover, if the process is known and established, it should be much easier for everyone involved to get a good understanding of the status of a specific project at any time.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to define a process that actually serves all different kinds of projects because projects are never alike. Projects differ in domain, duration, people, risk, and much more. The risk of an enterprise-wide process ...