What Happens to "Processes"?
Every process can typically be considered a collection of typically tangled and tightly coupled practices. Once existing practices are separated, methodologists can focus on capturing best practices in a reusable and extensible format without repeating or replacing existing practices.
Treating processes as collections of practices fundamentally changes the role of the processes. They just become a short-hand way of referring to a known set of mutually supportive practices, and their adoption acts as a useful starting point or goal for projects.
Instead of learning or adopting an entire process, practitioners learn about individual practices and adopt these practices incrementally to improve their way-of-working. First, they select the most appropriate practices to address their needs and help them cope with the challenges of their current situation. Then, they adopt these practices in whatever combination and at whatever speed suits them. Most importantly, they add new practices to their existing way-of-working without changing everything or throwing away the practices they already know.
If they want to, teams can start afresh with a new way-of-working, but experience has shown that it is more effective to transform the way-of-working one practice at a time. When it comes to process improvement, a big-bang approach doesn't work. Trying to change everything, all at once, is a high-risk strategy. Even if you want to move to a totally new way-of-working, it is easiest and safest to do it one or two practices at a time. This minimizes the disruption caused by changing working practices, and provides a focus to the coaching needed to embed the new practices in the team. It also allows you to directly address your problem areas without having to change the practices that are already working well.
In the future, you will combine practices from many sources to create the way-of-working you need. Rather than talk about the process you follow, you will talk about the practices you use. If someone tells you about a new practice, you will be able to try it without affecting the practices that you are already using. You will even be able create and develop your own practices, then blend these with standard practices to create truly new and innovative ways-of-working. You will not be tied to any one process camp or ideology; you will be able to mix-and-match practices from any source to continuously improve and tune your way-of-working.
Next Month
In the final installment, we describe the innovations needed to make a practice-based approach really work, and how EssWork can help teams realize their investments in learning, developing, and documenting best practices.
