The purpose of Organizational Process Focus (OPF) is to plan, implement, and deploy organizational process improvements based on a thorough understanding of the current strengths and weaknesses of the organization’s processes and
process assets.
The organization's processes include all the processes used by the organization and its projects. Candidate improvements to the organization's processes and process assets are obtained from various sources, including measurement of
the processes, lessons learned in implementing the processes, results of process appraisals, results of product evaluation activities, results of benchmarking against other organizations’ processes, and recommendations from other improvement
initiatives in the organization.
Process improvement occurs within the context of the organization’s needs and is used to address the organization’s objectives. The organization encourages participation in process improvement activities by those who will perform
the process. The responsibility for facilitating and managing the organization’s process improvement activities, including coordinating the participation of others, is typically assigned to a process group. The organization provides the long-term
commitment and resources required to sponsor this group and to ensure the effective and timely deployment of the improvements.
Careful planning is required to ensure that process improvement efforts across the organization are adequately managed and implemented. The organization’s planning for process improvement results in a process improvement
plan.
The organization’s process improvement plan will address appraisal planning, process action planning, pilot planning, and deployment planning. Appraisal plans describe the appraisal timeline and schedule, the scope of the appraisal,
the resources required to perform the appraisal, the reference model against which the appraisal will be performed, and the logistics for the appraisal.
Process action plans usually result from appraisals and document how specific improvements targeting the weaknesses uncovered by an appraisal will be implemented. In cases in which it is determined that the improvement described in
the process action plan should be tested on a small group before deploying it across the organization, a pilot plan is generated.
Finally, when the improvement is to be deployed, a deployment plan is used. This plan describes when and how the improvement will be deployed across the organization.
Organizational process assets are used to describe, implement, and improve the organization's processes (see the definition of “organizational process assets” in the glossary).
Refer to the Organizational Process Definition process area for more information about the organizational process assets.
Specific Goal and Practice Summary
SG 1 Determine Process Improvement Opportunities
SP 1.1 Establish Organizational Process Needs
SP 1.2 Appraise the Organization’s Processes
SP 1.3 Identify the Organization's Process Improvements
SG 2 Plan and Implement Process Improvements
SP 2.1 Establish Process Action Plans
SP 2.2 Implement Process Action Plans
SG 3 Deploy Organizational Process Assets and Incorporate Lessons Learned
SP 3.1 Deploy Organizational Process Assets
SP 3.2 Deploy Standard Processes
SP 3.3 Monitor Implementation
SP 3.4 Incorporate Process-Related Experiences into the Organizational Process Assets