The document summarizes Michael Edson's presentation on ten patterns for organizational change. The presentation draws from Edson's experience over 15 years working to facilitate organizational change. Some of the key patterns discussed include the idea that the internet changes everything, the importance of having a sense of urgency around change initiatives, dealing with disruptive innovations, the role of strategy in prioritizing opportunities, issues that can arise between management and practitioners, and the concept of process maturity for evolving an organization's capabilities over time. The presentation provides frameworks and examples to help organizations navigate organizational change in the current digital environment.
IAC 2024 - IA Fast Track to Search Focused AI Solutions
Michael Edson: Ten Patterns for Organizational Change
1. Ten Patterns for
Organizational Change
National Museum Publishing Seminar
Washington, D.C.
June 19, 2010
Michael Edson
Director of Web and New Media Strategy
Smithsonian Institution
2. “From law firms to libraries, from universities to
Fortune 500 companies, the organization’s website
almost invariably falls under the domain of the IT
Department or the Marketing Department, leading
to turf wars and other predictable consequences.
While many good (and highly capable) people work
in IT and marketing, neither area is ideally suited to
craft usable websites or to encourage the
blossoming of vital web communities.”
Jeffrey Zeldman
Let There be Web Divisions
http://www.zeldman.com/2007/07/02/let-there-be-web-divisions/
3. Preamble
Twitter: @mpedson
http://slideshare.net/edsonm
“I am not an official spokesperson
for the Smithsonian Institution”
4. Preamble
Twitter: @mpedson
http://slideshare.net/edsonm
“I am not an official spokesperson
for the Smithsonian Institution”
5. This presentation draws
Preamble from these slides/papers
(and others!)
Twitter: @mpedson
http://slideshare.net/edsonm
“I am not an official spokesperson
for the Smithsonian Institution”
http://www.slideshare.net/edsonm/ http://www.slideshare.net/edsonm/go http://www.slideshare.net/edson
michael-edson-brown-university- od-projects-gone-bad-an- m/good-projects-gone-bad-an-
digital-strategy-thermocline introduction-to-process-maturity- introduction-to-process-maturity
1384375
6. This one too! Preamble
Twitter: @mpedson
http://slideshare.net/edsonm
Technology, New Media, and Museums:
Who’s in Charge?
“I am not an official spokesperson
(from AAM 2008 annual conference)
for the Smithsonian Institution”
Text notes: http://www.slideshare.net/edsonm/aam2009-session-intro-and-notes-who-is-in-charge-v2
PowerPoint: http://www.slideshare.net/edsonm/new-media-technology-and-museums
7. Premise of this presentation
Premise:
a) You work in--or have a stake in--museum
publishing
b) Your model of … has been disrupted by
digital media
c) You’re interested in--or are struggling with--
how you, your department, or your museum
should change because of (b).
12. “Patterns” can help
Once you see a pattern and have a name for it
you can start to communicate about it…
...and hack it.
13. “Patterns” can help
This presentation describes ten patterns I’ve
found over the last 15 years of trying to figure out
how to deal with organizational change.
14. “Patterns” can help
This presentation describes ten patterns I’ve
found over the last 15 years of trying to figure out
how to deal with organizational change.
I hope they help!!!
17. Pattern 1: ICE is real
“ICE” = Internet Changes Everything
18. Pattern 1: ICE is real
“ICE” = Internet Changes Everything
• ~2 billion Internet users
• ~4 billion mobile phone subscribers
19. “Everything we hear from people we
interview is that today’s consumers
draw no distinctions between an
organization’s Web site and their
traditional bricks-and-mortar presence:
both must be excellent for either to be
excellent.”
Lee Rainie
Director, Pew Internet & American Life Project
20. “Twenty years from now we’ll look back
and say this was the embryonic period.
The Web is only going to get more
revolutionary”
--Tim Berners-Lee, 2006
29. Pattern 2: Urgency
John P. Kotter, A Sense of Urgency
Harvard Business Review “Ideacast” with John Kotter
http://blogs.bnet.com/intercom/?p=1869
A Sense of Urgency (via Google Books)
http://books.google.com/books?id=xCAD8ashi_UC&printsec=frontcover&dq=john+kotter+sense+of+urgency&source=bl&ots
=WXQnhRPxhb&sig=dkqctdFuUhfG5OUD7Gzl4oihmUU&hl=en&ei=j1EfTPLJLMH-
8Ab0uajCDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCQQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false
A Sense of Urgency (via Amazon)
http://www.amazon.com/Sense-Urgency-John-P-
Kotter/dp/1422179710
33. Pattern 3: Disruptive Innovation
• Clayton M. Christensen: The Innovator’s
Dilemma
(Via Amazon)
http://www.amazon.com/Inno
vators-Dilemma-
Revolutionary-Business-
Essentials/dp/0060521996
34. Pattern 3: Disruptive Innovation
• Clayton M. Christensen: The Innovator’s
Dilemma
Sears was at the top if the world
in the 1960’s
35. Pattern 3: Disruptive Innovation
• Clayton M. Christensen: The Innovator’s
Dilemma
Sears was at the top if the world
in the 1960’s
They missed discount retailing.
36. Pattern 3: Disruptive Innovation
“You’ve got about three years until you’re
locked into being just a museum of stuff on
the mall”
Executive from a national media/educational
brand, about the Smithsonian’s digital
strategy
39. In today’s environment, where you
could be doing almost anything,
You need strategy to help you
prioritize tactical opportunities
(or
sense an opportunity that is
beyond their grasp.)
40. Strategy is a tool that “does work”
(or
sense an opportunity that is
beyond their grasp.)
41. “Most organizations don’t get
serious about strategy until
they are afraid or in pain”
(or
sense an opportunity that is
beyond their grasp.) CEO
Leo Mullen,
Navigation Arts
43. The strategy talks about an updated digital
experience, a new learning model that helps
people with their "lifelong learning journeys,"
and the creation of a Smithsonian Commons—
a new part of our digital presence dedicated to
stimulating learning, creation, and innovation
through open access to Smithsonian research,
collections and communities.
http://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com/
44. The strategy talks about an updated digital
experience, a new learning model that helps
people with their "lifelong learning journeys,"
and the creation of a Smithsonian Commons—
a new part of our digital presence dedicated to
stimulating learning, creation, and innovation
through open access to Smithsonian research,
collections and communities.
http://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com/
45. The strategy talks about an updated digital
experience, a new learning model that helps
people with their "lifelong learning journeys,"
and the creation of a Smithsonian Commons—
a new part of our digital presence dedicated to
stimulating learning, creation, and innovation
through open access to Smithsonian research,
collections and communities.
http://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com/
46. The strategy talks about an updated digital
experience, a new learning model that helps
people with their "lifelong learning journeys,"
and the creation of a Smithsonian Commons—
a new part of our digital presence dedicated to
stimulating learning, creation, and innovation
through open access to Smithsonian research,
collections and communities.
Old Learning Model
New Learning Model
http://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com/
47. Balancing autonomy and control within the
Smithsonian.rt of our digital presence
dedicated to stimulating learning, creation,
and innovation through open access to
Smithsonian research, collections and
communities.
http://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com/
48. …and the creation of a Smithsonian
Commons—a new part of our digital presence
dedicated to stimulating learning, creation,
and innovation through open access to
Smithsonian research, collections and
communities.
http://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com/
49. Smithsonian Web & New Media
Strategy Structure
• Three Themes
– Update the Smithsonian Digital Experience
– Update the Smithsonian Learning Model
– Balance Autonomy and Control within SI
• Eight Goals External Internal
Mission Interpretation
Brand Technology
Learning Business Model
Audience Governance
Each Goal has specific program, policy, and tactical recommendations
http://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com/
50. Web & New Media Strategy
Structure
• Three Themes
– Update the Smithsonian Digital Experience
– Update the Smithsonian Learning Model we
This gives us a language
– Balance Autonomy and Control within SI our
can use to understand
work, what’s important, and
• Eight Goals External change will look like.
what Internal
Mission Interpretation
Brand Technology
Learning Business Model
Audience Governance
Each Goal has specific program, policy, and tactical recommendations
58. Thermocline Issues
Focus on Catalyze innovation/
innovation/ discovery
discovery outside the institution
inside the Institution
Joy’s Law: no matter
who you are, most of
the smartest people
work for someone else
59. Thermocline Issues
Provide services Every user is a
to passive audiences hero
In their own
epic journey
60. Thermocline Issues
Provide services Every user is a
to passive audiences hero
In their own
epic journey
61. Thermocline Issues
The Web is a
fundamentally new
way of getting
things done
The Web is
a bigger megaphone
62. Thermocline Issues
“we are living in the middle of a remarkable increase in
our ability to share, to cooperate with one another, and
to take collective action, all outside the framework of
traditional institutions and organization …Getting the
free and ready participation of a large, distributed
group with a variety of skills has gone from impossible
to simple.”
Clay Shirky
63. Thermocline Issues
The most interesting
You can manage
ecosystems are
technology and content
in “border habitats”
separately
between the two
67. Pattern 6: You’re not alone
I’ve talked to dozens of museums, businesses,
and government agencies in the last year, and
they’re all feeling tension around these issues.
68. Pattern 6: You’re not alone
I’ve talked to dozens of museums, businesses,
and government agencies in the last year, and
they’re all feeling tension around these issues.
Just in the last few months I’ve sensed a greater
sense of urgency around these issues— “we’re
playing for keeps now.”
71. Pattern 7: You get what you
practice
• If you tell me you’re training for the Boston
Marathon, and I come over to your house, I expect to
see sweat socks and running shoes in your hallway
and pasta in the fridge.
• Is your executive team working hard enough? Do you
see the tangible evidence (meetings, hires, spending,
focus) that this is important to your organization?
• By the time you need to be good at this, it’s too late
to start training.
• Gladwell’s “10,000 hours”
74. Pattern 8: Process Maturity
• Evolutionary roadmaps for getting from point
A to point B
• Originally developed to help organizations
figure out what kinds of things they would be
capable of doing in the future
• Five plateaus…
75. Capability Maturity Model
1. Initial – Processes, if they are defined at all, are ad hoc.
Successes depend on individual heroics and are generally not
repeatable.
2. Managed – Basic project management practices are
established and the discipline is in place to repeat earlier
successes with similar projects.
3. Defined – Processes are documented and standardized and all
projects use approved, tailored versions of the standard
processes.
4. Quantitatively Managed – The performance of processes and
the quality of end-products are managed with quantitative
measurement and analysis.
5. Optimizing – Continuous process improvement is enabled by
quantitative feedback from the process and from piloting
innovative ideas.
78. Understanding the levels
1 2 3 4 5
People
Success depends on
Processes
individual heroics
Measurement
Technology
79. Understanding the levels
1 2 3 4 5
People
“Fire fighting”
Processes
is a way of life
Measurement
Technology
80. Understanding the levels
1 2 3 4 5
People
Relationships between
Processes
disciplines are
Measurement uncoordinated,
Technology perhaps even
adversarial
81. Understanding the levels
1 2 3 4 5
People
Success depends on individuals
Processes
Commitments are understood
Measurement
and managed
Technology
People are trained
82. Understanding the levels
1 2 3 4 5
People
Project groups work together,
Processes
perhaps as an integrated team
Measurement
Training is planned and provided
Technology according to roles
83. Understanding the levels
1 2 3 4 5
People
Strong sense of teamwork
Processes
exists within each project
Measurement
Technology
84. Understanding the levels
1 2 3 4 5
People
Strong sense of teamwork
Processes
exists across the organization
Measurement
Everyone is involved in
Technology process improvement
86. Understanding the levels
1 2 3 4 5
People Few stable processes
exist or are used
Processes
“Just do it!”
Measurement
Technology
87. Understanding the levels
1 2 3 4 5
People At the individual project level,
documented and stable
Processes estimating, planning and
commitment processes are used
Measurement
Problems are recognized and
Technology corrected as they occur
88. Understanding the levels
1 2 3 4 5
People Integrated management and
engineering processes
Processes (how things get built)
are used across the
Measurement organization
Technology Problems are anticipated and
prevented, or their impacts are
minimized
89. Understanding the levels
1 2 3 4 5
People Processes are quantitatively
understood and stabilized
Processes
Sources of individual problems are
Measurement understood and eliminated
Technology
90. Understanding the levels
1 2 3 4 5
People Processes are continuously and
systematically improved
Processes
Common sources of problems are
Measurement understood and eliminated
Technology
91. I’ve seen most organizations follow this basic
path as they mature/evolve their Web and New
Media management processes and structure.
92. 1. Ad Hoc (chaotic)
• web program owned by arbitrary
stakeholders
• Underground, success (but not
repeatable)
• Nothing measured
• Dependent on heroics
93. 2. Managed (Emerging)
• Web program owned by separate
workgroup, still small, position & importance
in organization uncertain (special interest
hobby shop, everyone knows it is important
but not sure to what degree or how it
works).
• Some measurement, explicit responsibility to
somebody, usually lower in the org chart
94. 3. Defined: authority vested in some
semi-logical entity.
• Director level awareness of web importance,
uncertainty over purpose of web & org.
placement leads to internal power struggle,
debate over "who owns", multiple reorgs.
• Mostly based on competence and/or
willingness, without regard to org chart
rationale.
• Lots of matrix and dotted-lines
• Corsely visible in budgets, PD’s, planning,
measurement
95. 4. Quantitatively Managed
• Professionalization of web, greater
awareness of role and key stakeholders,
integral part of organization.
• Formal organization, oversight. Usually in
the Director’s office to someone without
specific background
• Increasing cross-disciplinary
expertise/experience: the team is familiar
and broadly competent with each others
areas of expertise.
96. 5. Optimizing
• There’s Formal ownership in the
executive suite
• Directors engaged (look at their
appointment book)
• Professional, full-time management
• Win/win scenarios with controlled
innovation and experimentation
109. "There's no one in the record company that's a
technologist," Morris explains. "That's a
misconception writers make all the time, that the
record industry missed this. They didn't. They just
didn't know what to do. It's like if you were
suddenly asked to operate on your dog to remove
his kidney. What would you do?” "We didn't know
who to hire," he says, becoming more agitated. "I
wouldn't be able to recognize a good technology
person — anyone with a good bullshit story would
have gotten past me."
From a Wired Magazine interview with
Doug Morris, Chair and CEO of Universal
Music Group
http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/
magazine/15-12/mf_morris
110. "There's no one in the record company that's a
technologist," Morris explains. "That's a
misconception writers make all the time, that the
record industry missed this. They didn't. They just
didn't know what to do. It's like if you were
suddenly asked to operate on your dog to remove
his kidney. What would you do?” "We didn't know
who to hire," he says, becoming more agitated. "I
wouldn't be able to recognize a good technology
person — anyone with a good bullshit story would
have gotten past me."
From a Wired Magazine interview with
Doug Morris, Chair and CEO of Universal
Music Group
http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/
magazine/15-12/mf_morris
111. "There's no one in the record company that's a
technologist," Morris explains. "That's a
misconception writers make all the time, that the
record industry missed this. They didn't. They just
didn't know what to do. It's like if you were
suddenly asked to operate on your dog to remove
his kidney. What would you do?” "We didn't know
who to hire," he says, becoming more agitated. "I
wouldn't be able to recognize a good technology
person — anyone with a good bullshit story would
have gotten past me."
From a Wired Magazine interview with
Doug Morris, Chair and CEO of Universal
Music Group
http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/
magazine/15-12/mf_morris
112. "There's no one in the record company that's a
technologist," Morris explains. "That's a
misconception writers make all the time, that the
record industry missed this. They didn't. They just
didn't know what to do. It's like if you were
suddenly asked to operate on your dog to remove
his kidney. What would you do?” "We didn't know
who to hire," he says, becoming more agitated.
"I wouldn't be able to recognize a good technology
person — anyone with a good bullshit story would
have gotten past me."
From a Wired Magazine interview with
Doug Morris, Chair and CEO of Universal
Music Group
http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/
magazine/15-12/mf_morris
113. "There's no one in the record company that's a
technologist," Morris explains. "That's a
misconception writers make all about might explain a few things is
the where thethat business
This time,
music
the
record industry missed this. They didn't. They just
today…
didn't know what to do. It's like if you were
suddenly asked to operate on your dog to remove
his kidney. What would you do?” "We didn't know
who to hire," he says, becoming more agitated.
"I wouldn't be able to recognize a good technology
person — anyone with a good bullshit story would
have gotten past me."
From a Wired Magazine interview with
Doug Morris, Chair and CEO of Universal
Music Group
http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/
magazine/15-12/mf_morris
119. The Road to Success
Efficient-Development Town
YOU ARE HERE
Reference: McConnell, Steve
Rapid Development, Taming Wild Software Schedules.
Microsoft Press, 1996
120. The Road to Success
Efficient-Development Town
YOU ARE HERE
Reference: McConnell, Steve
Rapid Development, Taming Wild Software Schedules.
Microsoft Press, 1996
121. The Road to Success
Efficient-Development Town
Reference: McConnell, Steve
Rapid Development, Taming Wild Software Schedules.
Microsoft Press, 1996
122. The Road to Success
Efficient-Development Town
Reference: McConnell, Steve
Rapid Development, Taming Wild Software Schedules.
Microsoft Press, 1996
123. The Road to Success
Efficient-Development Town
Classic-Mistakes Town
Reference: McConnell, Steve
Rapid Development, Taming Wild Software Schedules.
Microsoft Press, 1996
124. The Road to Success
Efficient-Development Town
High-Cost/Long-Schedule Town
Classic-Mistakes Town
Reference: McConnell, Steve
Rapid Development, Taming Wild Software Schedules.
Microsoft Press, 1996
125. The Road to Success
Efficient-Development Town
Sometimes-Predictable-Cost-and-Schedule Town
High-Cost/Long-Schedule Town
Classic-Mistakes Town
Reference: McConnell, Steve
Rapid Development, Taming Wild Software Schedules.
Microsoft Press, 1996
126. The Road to Success
Predictable-Cost-and-Schedule Town Efficient-Development Town
Sometimes-Predictable-Cost-and-Schedule Town
High-Cost/Long-Schedule Town
Classic-Mistakes Town
Reference: McConnell, Steve
Rapid Development, Taming Wild Software Schedules.
Microsoft Press, 1996
127. The Road to Success
Predictable-Cost-and-Schedule Town Efficient-Development Town
Sometimes-Predictable-Cost-and-Schedule Town
High-Cost/Long-Schedule Town
Classic-Mistakes Town
Reference: McConnell, Steve
Rapid Development, Taming Wild Software Schedules.
Microsoft Press, 1996
128. The Road to Success
Specialization…
Predictable-Cost-and-Schedule Town Efficient-Development Town
Sometimes-Predictable-Cost-and-Schedule Town
High-Cost/Long-Schedule Town
Classic-Mistakes Town
Reference: McConnell, Steve
Rapid Development, Taming Wild Software Schedules.
Microsoft Press, 1996
129. The Road to Success
Most organizations
are here…
Specialization…
Predictable-Cost-and-Schedule Town Efficient-Development Town
Sometimes-Predictable-Cost-and-Schedule Town
High-Cost/Long-Schedule Town
Classic-Mistakes Town
Reference: McConnell, Steve
Rapid Development, Taming Wild Software Schedules.
Microsoft Press, 1996
130. The Road to Success
To get here, use any
effective practice
Specialization…
whatsoever…
BUT USE IT!
Predictable-Cost-and-Schedule Town Efficient-Development Town
Sometimes-Predictable-Cost-and-Schedule Town
High-Cost/Long-Schedule Town
Classic-Mistakes Town
Reference: McConnell, Steve
Rapid Development, Taming Wild Software Schedules.
Microsoft Press, 1996
131. Success could look like this (?)
The Smithsonian Commons Prototype
http://www.si.edu/commons/prototype
132. Thank You!
Michael Edson
Director of Web and New Media Strategy
Smithsonian Institution
Editor's Notes
I’m from the Smithsonian so I get to use kooky scientific metaphors.
Process Maturity and Capability Maturity Model Integration Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), was developed by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University ( http://www.sei.cmu.edu ) in 1991 to help the Federal Government understand the capabilities of its software vendors and deal proactively with the problem of out-of-control software projects. It became and remains a best-practice software-development framework and its core ideas can help organizations of all kinds escape from, as Steve McConnell puts it in his software development bible Rapid Development (Microsoft Press, 1996), the Gilligan’s Island cycle of under-performing projects. CMM posits that organizations, or groups or processes within organizations, function at one of five levels of process maturity, with level 1 being the lowest or least mature level, and level 5 as the highest or most mature level. 1. Initial – Processes, if they are defined at all, are ad hoc. Successes depend on individual heroics and are generally not repeatable. 2. Managed – Basic project management practices are established and the discipline is in place to repeat earlier successes with similar projects. 3. Defined – Processes are documented and standardized and all projects use approved, tailored versions of the standard processes. 4. Quantitatively Managed – The performance of processes and the quality of end-products are managed with quantitative measurement and analysis. 5. Optimizing – Continuous process improvement is enabled by quantitative feedback from the process and from piloting innovative ideas.
The five levels should be understood as a kind of staircase, lowest maturity on the bottom and highest on the top, with each level serving as the foundation for the level above
Using the CMMI can be a relatively informal process that involves understanding and applying process-improvement best practices to your organization. Or, it can be a formal process that involves extensive training, creation of a process improvement infrastructure, appraisals, and more. To avoid confusing people who are familiar with heavy-duty process-improvement efforts I must draw a distinction between the formal CMMI process defined by the Software Engineering Institute and what I’m talking about here. In this paper I argue that many organizations can benefit from what CMMI has to offer, but I am not advocating a full-fledged CMMI program which typically involves formal assessment teams, rigid interpretations of CMMI, a great deal of work: these kinds of efforts don’t deliver good return-on-investment for organizations at emerging maturity levels. What I advocate is a kind of CMMI- Lite in which organizations borrow the most useful aspects of CMMI without becoming overly bound to the formal doctrine. As Gartner, Inc. says, “Organizations should use CMM as a guidebook, not a ‘cookbook.’ Results-based improvement should be the key.”
Unless you’re working with a formal CMM assessment team the first step to understanding and improving your capability maturity is to look at Table 1 and identify the statements that best describe how your team does work. You don’t have to think across every kind of project your organization does: pick one or two projects or activities that you think would benefit from some improvement. Note that it’s not uncommon for organizations to have some processes that are very mature and some that are very immature. CMMI orthodoxy recognizes this and encourages a methodology of continuous improvement at varying levels of maturity. You may find it useful to modify table 1 or the overarching CMMI levels of maturity listed above and to cast them in terms that better describe your organization, or your project. For example, in 2006 I modified the out-of-the-box CMM level definitions to be more meaningful to a data-strategy project at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The definitions shown below helped me understand the roadmap and projects that were needed to get us from where we were (level 2) to where we wanted to be (levels 3 and 4). Level 1 – Limited data federation; often with redundant and inconsistent data. Data strategy is not even on the organizational radar. Level 2 – Limited data consolidation; documenting redundancies and inconsistencies. Some isolated departments are trying to raise awareness and initiate projects. Level 3 – Data integration initiated; new ‘disintegration’ is discouraged. Multi-departmental teams begin working on policies and procedures to advance a data strategy. Level 4 – Data integration widely adapted; ‘disintegration’ is penalized. All projects in the organization adhere to data integration policies and managers are held accountable for variances. If you conclude that you’re at a low level of maturity, you’re not alone. Gartner research finds that most organizational software development teams function at Level 1 or Level 2, “which means that, at best, they have some reasonably good project management practices,” and less than 25% of teams function at level 3 or higher (Hotle, 'Just Enough Process' for Applications). Taken at face value, this means that most software development efforts can be expected to produce inconsistent results with little control of budget and timelines. Though this is appalling, the good news is that basic process improvement initiatives could have a dramatic effect on the productivity and predictability of a great many software projects.
Ratchet up one level at a time If you’re at level 1, what small steps can you take to get to level 2? The Software Engineering Institute says that you can get from level 1 to level 2 just by establishing sound project management practices ( CMMI for Acquisition , 2007). Such practices might include activities such as tracking and communicating project status, measuring effort and outcomes, or ensuring roles-and-responsibilities are adequately defined. These process-improvement efforts don’t need to take a lot of time and effort. Matt Hotle of Gartner says that he very seldom sees an basic process improvement effort that takes more than a couple of weeks” (interview with the author, 4/24/08). The Software Engineering Institute notes that improvements that move a group from level 1 to level 2 may depend on “heroics” of individual staff members until the concepts of process improvements are more widely understood and supported (CMMI for Acquisition, 2007).
It’s very tempting to try to skip from low levels of maturity to high ones without going through the intermediate steps. For example, if your organization really wants to use new technologies on the cutting edge, but your current state is that the “introduction of new technology is risky” (Level 1 from Table 1) then you would be well served to work first on ratcheting your technology adoption capabilities up to level 2, “technology supports established, stable activities” and see how that goes. Trying to leapfrog from level 1 to level 4 or five doesn’t give your organization time to establish the core competencies needed to succeed at high levels of expected performance. The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) says “Because each maturity level forms a necessary foundation for the next level, trying to skip maturity levels is usually counterproductive.” (CMMI Project Team, 2007.) The SEI further notes that “processes without the proper foundation may fail at the point they are needed most—under stress.” John P. Kotter, in the Harvard Business Review notes that “Skipping steps creates only an illusion of speed and never produces a satisfying result.” (Kotter, 1995)
Don’t Slip Back A recent book on evolution stated that Charles Darwin’s greatest contribution was not that he thought up modification with descent (natural selection), but that his research and writing tied the idea down so firmly so that it could never drift away. There’s an important lesson here for process improvement: try to ensure that whatever improvements you do make to software development processes become codified and formalized so that as staff and managers come and go and teams adapt and change your hard won progress doesn’t atrophy. Remember that every level is a foundation for the one that comes next. I read this somewhere recently but have not been able to track down the citation!
This is related to “don’t skip steps” pattern, but is more focused on tailoring what you need to get done with what you’re capable of doing. Usually, at lower levels of maturity this means breaking ambitious visions into smaller, less costly, and less risky sub-projects that together, achieve the vision. This approach is harmonious with a lot of recent thinking, particularly in Web application development, there are significant beneficial consequences for organizations at all levels of maturity. (More on this later.)
This is related to “don’t skip steps” pattern, but is more focused on tailoring what you need to get done with what you’re capable of doing. Usually, at lower levels of maturity this means breaking ambitious visions into smaller, less costly, and less risky sub-projects that together, achieve the vision. This approach is harmonious with a lot of recent thinking, particularly in Web application development, there are significant beneficial consequences for organizations at all levels of maturity. (More on this later.)
And museums can’t choose not to focus on technology. Witness the story of Doug Morris, Chair and CEO of Universal Music Group, which I offer as a cautionary tale. Mr. Morris, by all appearances, is a successful tycoon, running a $7 billion-a-year pop culture empire and hobnobbing with the rich-and-famous—he would be recognizable and comfortable as a donor and member on museum boards. (He was Director of the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame.) Mr. Morris is also a creative person: he wrote "Sweet Talkin' Guy for The Chiffons in 1966 and produced "Smokin' In the Boys Room" for Brownsville Station in 1973. But at the helm of his $7 billion-a-year business Mr. Morris chose to opt-out of the technology business in the 1990’s, just when digital music and the Internet went supernova. The awkward stumbling of the music business in the last 15 years, the acrimony caused by the relentless pursuit of its customers, and a cascade of technology failures, missed boats, and squandered opportunities was the result. From a Wired Magazine interview: "There's no one in the record company that's a technologist," Morris explains. "That's a misconception writers make all the time, that the record industry missed this. They didn't. They just didn't know what to do. It's like if you were suddenly asked to operate on your dog to remove his kidney. What would you do?" "We didn't know who to hire," he says, becoming more agitated. "I wouldn't be able to recognize a good technology person — anyone with a good bullshit story would have gotten past me." As New York Entertainment’s blog Vulture observed this about Mr. Morris’s confession: Even though we shouldn't be, we're actually a little shocked. We'd always assumed the labels had met with a team of technology experts in the late nineties and ignored their advice, but it turns out they never even got that far — they didn't even try! New York Entertainment continues: Understanding the Internet certainly isn't easy — especially for an industry run by a bunch of technology-averse sexagenarians — but it's definitely not impossible. The original Napster hit its peak in 1999 — kids born since then have hacked into CIA computers. Surely it wouldn't have taken someone at Universal more than a month or two to learn enough about the Internet to know who to call to answer a few questions. They didn't even have any geeky interns? So what’s the headline here? It’s that large and small businesses have a lot to gain from focusing on how to get good and stay good at technology, nobody is immune from failure, and nobody gets to opt-out. The irony is that many museums are drawn to complex technology initiatives and the risks of getting in over their heads just as they reach the point where successful technology projects can have a positive impact.