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| Company History |
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For nearly eleven years, I have managed a very successful consulting company, providing CMMI-based process and quality improvement services. I have conducted dozens of CMM/CMMI appraisals (at all maturity levels), helped organizations define, measure, standardize and improve their processes, and educated thousands of executives, managers and engineers on the value of a process focus. During this time, I have also had opportunities to learn and share my knowledge in system dynamics with software companies. I have helped clients:
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| Company Mission |
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| Through these experiences, I have come to believe that improving software engineering and management processes must go beyond focusing on operational models (e.g., process descriptions, procedures, standards, form and templates) as a basis for improving performance. Software organizations must also focus on understanding the internal dynamic structures that produce a system's (for example, a team, group, project or business unit) performance. Without understanding the feedback that occurs and the delays inherent in a system, process improvement staff are less likely to understand where the critical leverage points for change are, or to predict the effects proposed changes will have on the performance of these systems .
It is my belief that system dynamics and systems thinking are critical and necessary skills if people are to better manage, support and improve the development of quality software on time and under budget. Software Process Dynamics is dedicated to bringing practical systems thinking/system dynamics technologies, techniques and methods to the software community . My Strategy |
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Most improvement strategies focus on attacking the behavioral aspects of the system (an organization, a department, a project) as a way to positively affect events, as shown here. The static or operational models commonly deployed include policies, how-to process descriptions, procedures, roles and responsibilities lists, acquiring resources and providing training. Working together, these static models provide clear descriptions how to perform the work, which yield a better result than simply focusing on events, as they shift focus to the patterns of behavior that cause the events to happen. |
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| My strategy is to go one level deeper into the system, to help our clients understand, model and change the dynamic interdependencies of components within the system. We believe that this is the only way to truly manage change because systems we are attempting to change (collective groups of people) are driven by non-linearity, openness, and non-deterministic behavior. And as we attempt to create solutions faster, better and cheaper, it becomes essential to understand these conditions. Unfortunately, static models alone do not provide the insights necessary to understand why systems behave the ways they do. For example, few process models show elements of feedback which is essential for understanding system behavior. Our strategy will also help you understand how dynamic and static models can be integrated to provide the best solution for deploying process changes.
My strategy includes helping clients develop their system dynamic skills through the use of a number of tools: |
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| I work client sites to develop their systems thinking and system dynamics skills by focusing on the right tools to assist with the specific needs.
Jim Hart, President and Principal Consultant |
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