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The Distributive ENote
A monthly e-newsletter from Distributive Management
October 2009 Issue 118
"When you can measure what you are speaking about, and can express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind." ~ Lord Kelvin, a physicist |
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 CMMI Measurement Process in a Box
From Dashboards to Documentation, DataDrill Guides and Automates the Entire Measurement Process
When implementing CMMI practices for process and performance gains, organizations often struggle with establishing and maintaining a measurement program that is effective, efficient and compliant.
On the other hand, the majority of CMMI Level 2 and 3 organizations implementing CMMI measurement using DataDrill are able to meet 90% of their information needs by deploying out-of-the-box metrics from the DataDrill Library of indicators. And that gives CMMI Level 4 and 5 organizations a real head start.
Designed to satisfy the demands of the M&A area of the CMMI, DataDrill provides all the wizards and tools needed to quickly and easily meet the measurement requirements of any CMMI level:
- Support for all activities and tasks of the CMMI measurement and analysis area
- Ready to use library of CMMI indicators
- Show compliance mapping of indicators to CMMI process areas
- Support for tailoring across the organization
- Easily push measurement changes/best practices to projects
- Pre-built integrations to popular data sources
See it in Action! Join our live, complimentary webinar and demo session. Register Now
When: Thursday, November 19, 2009 @ 1pm ET (GMT-5)
Cost: Free
Where: Online with Distributive Management
Register: http://www.distributive.com/prodres_webinars.htm |
| Distributive to Speak at INCOSE Decision Analysis Conference
Peter Baxter, President and Head of Product Development, will speak at the 2009 Decision Analysis Conference hosted by the Hampton Roads Area INCOSE Chapter and the Hampton Roads Society of Cost Estimating and Analysis.
Decision Analysis and Its Applications to Systems Engineering
When: November 17 - 18, 2009
Where: Omni Hotel, Newport News, VA
The presentation, entitled Using Measurement and the Saaty Method to Choose the Best Decision Alternative, gives attendees a revealing look at how much the Saaty method's input data and all of its quantified output is most easily maintained in a measurement process. Because all decision analysis techniques benefit from the application of measurement, the insights from this presentation can be successfully applied to the advantage of any decision analysis method.
Presentation slides will be available by request after the conference.
To learn more about the conference, please visit our Events calendar online at www.distributive.com/events_events.html |
New Wizards Get Your Measurement Process Going Faster
When you first start a measurement process, or begin measuring a new program, there are always new indicators and new data. Distributive has recently expanded the tools available in DataDrill EXPRESS to get your new measurement process or program up and running. These new tools are available in DataDrill EXPRESS 3.7.4, released on 23 October 2009.
Give a program a simple description and data entry form for the data they need to provide.
Based on information needs selected from our extensive best-practice Library of indicators, DataDrill generates the Excel file to be used for data entry. Gather your common information needs and metrics into a DataDrill template and instantly have an Excel file you can share with projects and programs for data collection without the bumps and bruises.
The file itself can be used as an interim data entry form while processes and automated interfaces are being setup and configured. This means you don't have to wait until the second half of the program to start measuring, you can do it right from the beginning.
When replacing an Excel-based measurement process with DataDrill, capture existing Excel data so it can be part of your organizational repository.
Trying to replace a tangle of desktop files with a central measurement repository? In our experience, most "tangles" contain Excel and CSV files which have been manually merged and jiggled into graphs each month. DataDrill captures these files and brings them into its central repository.
DataDrill's File Capture Wizard now automatically scans your data files, configures the central repository and then builds an initial set of basic metrics and analyses for you. The capture wizard can do in one minute what it would take an IT group a day to do. So you're ready to start tailoring graphs and business rules and not stuck messing around with file formats and data.
Remember, once your desktop data is in the repository, it can easily be combined with other data, for example, combining cost data from a CSV file with defect data from a tool that uses a SQL database.
Join our next webinar to see these wizards in action
Or give us a call at 800.779.6306; we'll gladly answer your questions. |
Green Metrics
3 Ways to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle Your Metrics Effort
It might or might not directly benefit the environment, but reducing, reusing and recycling will almost certainly save your team time and money, and probably improve focus, productivity and performance.
Here is a compilation of several practical strategies that can help your measurement program make some forward progress with its "eco-friendly" efforts.
Strategy #1: Map every metric back to a specific goal
Just because you have the data, doesn't mean it's a metric that you should be tracking. Align your goals with your metrics and trim out the ones that aren't contributing to top priorities. This will reduce the time spent gathering and reviewing metrics.
Strategy #2: Seek consistency in your metrics
Consistency in the process from month-to-month. Consistency in the metrics that are rolled-up organization-wide. Consistency in the data being reported and compared across projects. Consistency in adding new projects to the system. Refine and reuse your metrics - you'll improve the metrics as well as their trustworthiness and the insight they provide.
Strategy #3: Share the metrics that work
When you hit on a metric, or combination of metrics, that lights up the understanding and improvement meters let others on your team or in your organization in on it. Spread the word and recycle your best practices for the good of the company.
Remember, every bit helps. So, whether your organization makes just one change or a multitude of changes, you can be sure that any "green" effort you undertake will make a difference in the health of your measurement program.
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Read more ENotes on our web site at www.distributive.com/company_newsletter.html. The Distributive ENote is a free, subscription-based electronic newsletter produced by Distributive Management as a service to the performance management community. The ENote provides insight and information on performance management and improvement processes, as well as Distributive Management product information. |
| Conundrum: Word Builder |
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Using the letter grid below, how many words can you find? Each word must contain the central R and no letter can be used twice in one word, however, the letters do not have to be connected. Proper nouns are not allowed, however, plurals are. There is at least one nine letter word. B E N K R A M H C Excellent: 69 words. Good: 51 words. Average: 35 words.
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