Elements of an Effective Process in CMMI and 7-S Model - Paper Example

Recently organizations have aimed at delivering products and services in a more efficient way and a high-technology environment. They have found themselves building increasingly complicated services and products as a result of the technological advancement. on the same note, it is essential for these organizations to manage and control these complex developments through an integrated approach. There exist models, guidelines, and methodologies that organizations can implement to achieve their business goals but these methodologies or models only focus on a specific facet of the business problem and do not take a systematic tactic towards these issues (Bartone, Paul and Wells 53). Focusing of one are of business problems have perpetuated the existing barriers that exist in an organization. CMMI offers the opportunity that avoids and eliminates the barriers. It focuses on various practices that cover the product life cycle right from the introduction through to the delivery and maintenance.

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Elements of an effective process in CMMi

CMMI model practices

RUP is a software engineering method that is based on best practices used in the contemporary software development. The approach assigns various responsibilities in a development organization by focusing on the high-quality software that meets the needs of the users within the set budget and time. RUP implements an interactive, architectural, user case approach and uses a variety of best practices in software development sector. Additionally, the approach can be tailored to meet specific organization projects and needs.

RUP process can be easily applied in software development since it provides guidelines, templates, and various concepts that the development team can take advantage. The best practice approach involves iterative development, Manage requirements, Component-based architectures, visually model software, Continuously verification of software quality, and control changes to software (Lunenburg 78).

RUP Workflow

Project Management This involve the process of planning the iterative process and setting the duration for the iteration

Business modeling Understanding the entire business structure and taking note of the possible dynamics

Requirements Involves the management of requirements and development of interface focused on the user needs and goals

Analysis and design Translation of the requirements then develop how the system can be implemented

Implementation The process of creating various components and assembling them into executable system

Test Assessment of system quality

Configuration and change management

The process of maintaining the integrity of the entire project

Environment Providing tools and processes to support the development of the project

Deployment The process of turning the finished software to the end users

Scrum is a management process that facilitates the software management process using both incremental and iterative processes of CMMi. As a result of this possible risks are often controlled and mitigated earlier. Scrum highlights structure through the roles, events, and artifacts with a collaborative environment for the software development team to solve the issues little by little. It organizes the entire development process into sprints with a planning meeting at the start of each sprint. During the meeting, the development team will decide on a set of features in order to develop the product from the business standpoint (Heidrich et al. 56). These set of features are what the development team focuses on to implement during the sprint.

The features are broken into various tasks to develop the sprint backlog. When a sprint is initiated, daily scrum meetings are held whereby every member of the development team highlights of their individual activities towards the implementation of the project. The main objective of these meetings is to evaluate the needs of the project and suggest what need to be added to achieve workable software.

The fail case occurs when the project goals and objectives are partially or entirely not achieved. A failed case involve Danske Data, a software development company which involved a longitudinal research with the aim of improving advanced software departments in various software organization in Denmark. However, there arose some major tactical implications that led to the failure. These happened when the management failed to consult the professional entity before the establishment of the objectives hence the inability to achieve maturity level. Management commitment was necessary in order to make decisions, and achieve significant backing from major organization actors. Other factors that led to the failure include staffing issues whereby the management lacked adequate, competent personnel, organization culture toward the change process and the problems of measurement when the development team undertook different processes simultaneously hence the confusion in program development.

Assignment (7S)

Change implementation or strategy implementation can be one of the most difficult tasks for the organization management. There exist numerous factors that must be considered and failure to consider any task will lead to failure of the entire change process. The 7s model is one of the contemporary business models that seek to analyze the organization design through the assessment of 7 key internal elements and help implement the intended change. The elements are divided into hard and soft elements. The three hard elements are strategy, structure, and systems. The four soft elements include shared values, skills, styles and staff. The shared values form the center of the entire model since every organization share values to indicate how people behave in the organization (Pooley et al. 39). However, all the 7 elements are dependent on each and neglecting or changing either of them will affect the rest.

Apple Inc. and Amazon are some of the organizations that have used the 7s strategy to achieve their set goals and objectives. Apple Inc. had a vision of transforming the world through the use of technology which has made the management and the entire workforce committed to bringing the best personal computing experience. Their strategy has been to focus on the consumer that is niche market while the structure has been functional by nature since it operates in various organizations creating a network. In regards to the system, the organization recognizes the best employees and awards them. They have a staff of about 49,400 including a team of effective managers and supervisors. Leadership style used at Apple Inc. is an oriented type of leadership whereby rewards are given for achieving performance goals. The organization has core competency attached to innovation and R& D development which has helped them achieve higher sales and the satisfaction of the consumer needs.

Amazon is another organization that has implemented the 7s model in their management concept. As an online platform, the organization has strived towards growing in the market. Strategically, the company sells their products on the website and has gradually realized an increased customer base through the maintenance of a robust website. It is a well-structured organization with a vertical form of authority from the top management to the low-level employees. The hierarchies are maintained throughout other branches located across the world. Amazon boasts of a well-organized environment that incorporates both formal and informal systems. Communication occurs from the top down through emails or in the monthly magazines to the employees.

In a nutshell, fail case happens when the set framework is not followed fully. In this case, one element is omitted or changed which affects the entire project implementation process. Both RUP and Scrum has systematic frameworks which need to be followed to ensure the software development process is a success. Otherwise, there is a need to strictly follow the set guidelines in order to achieve quality and project implementation.

Works Cited

Bartone, Paul T., and Wells I.. Understanding and Leading Porous Network Organizations: An Analysis Based on the 7-S Model. National Defense Univ Washington Dc Center for Technology and National Security Policy, 2009.

Heidrich, Jens, Markku Oivo, Andreas Jedlitschka, and Maria T. Baldassarre. Product-focused Software Process Improvement: 14th International Conference, Profes 2013, Paphos, Cyprus, June 12-14, 2013. Proceedings. , 2013. Internet resource.

Lunenburg, Fred C. "Compliance theory and organizational effectiveness." International journal of scholarly academic intellectual diversity 13.1 (2013): 1-4.

Pooley, Rob, Jennifer Coady, Christoph Schneider, Henry Linger, Chris Barry, and Michael Lang. Information Systems Development: Reflections, Challenges, and New Directions. New York, NY: Imprint: Springer, 2013. Internet resource.