Should our Process Team extend its scope to other parts of the company?

 Dear Appraiser,

Our Process Team ("SEPG") was created as part of our CMMI ML3 effort [PCM 1.1], and we've built and deployed processes required for CMMI.  But the question of HR training, Business Development processes, and IT.  Those teams don't seem to have much process, and they are very resistant to being part of our program.  How should we proceed? ~Hung yup B HR.

Dear Hung,

Let me tell you a sad, all-too-familiar story.

A brave little Process Team is born. It’s full of hope. Energy. PowerPoint decks. They work day and night, fueled by caffeine and blind optimism. And finally, after 12 grueling months… they pass the appraisal.

🎉 Cue the confetti, the pizza party, the obligatory “We Did It!” email. 🎉

Then what happens?

Poof.
The team vanishes into the corporate abyss like a rogue Post-it note under a desk. Why? Because the “process” wasn’t about improving the company — it was about surviving the audit. And once that badge is earned, it’s off to the next fire drill.

But here’s the plot twist:
CMMI isn’t your process.
It’s not even A process. It’s just a model. A suggestion. Kind of like a recipe you “loosely follow” but end up adding sriracha to anyway.

Meanwhile, other departments — like BD and HR — are off doing their own thing. You suggest, “Hey, let’s align our training processes!” and they look at you like you’ve just asked them to share a toothbrush.

“Oversight? Collaboration? Standardization? In this economy?”

But here’s the kicker: if Engineering has one training process and HR has another, you’re creating a game of “Which Form Do I Fill Out Now?” Multiply that chaos across every team, and congrats — your company is now powered by confusion and duplicated effort.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

What we need is a mindset shift:

❌ “Let’s Get That CMMI Level 3!”
✅ “Let’s Make Our Company Suck Less!”

Because frameworks like CMMI, CMMC, ISO, NIST, PMBOK, SAFe, and their acronym-istic friends are tools, not goals. They’re cheat sheets for good behavior. But they only work if everyone’s reading from the same playbook.

So should you extend your SEPG to other departments?

HELL YES, YOU SHOULD.

Process isn’t just for the engineers. It’s for anyone who does work.  That's another word for process....WORK!.  And who wants to stop reinventing the wheel… while it’s already rolling downhill… on fire.

So stop worshiping the audit gods.
Start building something that actually works.
And maybe — just maybe — get HR to return your process improvement meeting invites.

Feel free to leave me a question here or email me at AskMe@broadswordsolutions.com.

Like this blog?  Forward to your nearest engineering or software exec! 

Jeff Dalton is a Certified Lead Appraiser, Certified CMMI Instructor, author, and consultant with years of real-world experience with the CMMI in all types of organizations. Jeff has taught thousands of students in CMMI trainings and has received an aggregate satisfaction score of 4.97 out of 5 from his students.

What is CMMI?

Visit www.broadswordsolutions.com for more information about running a successful CMMI program.

Visit CMMI-TV to see some cool videos about CMMI, Agile, and More

Visit https://askthecmmiappraiser.blogspot.com/ to see the old (V2) Blog (lots of content!)