On Processes - Part IV

Let us take a break here. What was going on? The team definitely had some process. Even though it was not well documented, still the team members followed them. People were accountable. They were responsible for their part and the product manager used to get the work done at the end of the day. But what was done wrongly was, the big bang way of introduction of process / methodology, which senior management felt was conducive to product development. Also the senior management was not certain what it wanted and was probably doing a lot of experimentation. Again, the same was not being followed through. Thus nothing much was achieved. What could have been done is to document whatever process the team was following and make minor changes to the same so as to formalize the same. Since the team was anyway following the processes, it would not have had the resistance to it. The next step would have been to introduce minor changes into the process and mandate collecting metrics. Continuous smaller changes over a period of time would have achieved all the objectives which the senior management failed to achieve with big bang changes. Now, had it been a new team which is being formed, big bang changes will work as no process would have been institutionalized.