Business of Process Improvement and Assessment

Increased uncertainty in the marketplace, quantum and frequency of changes in the business climate, ever increasing competition, demanding customers, vocal employees and always-under-pressure executive management has led to organizations focus more and more on improving how they work. What business an organization does is important along with how it doesthe business . The 'what' part relates to product and product innovation whereas the 'how' part relates to process and process maturity improvement and assessment.

ISO 9001, ISO 27001, CMMI, ISO 14001, Six Sigma are but a few commonly known terms when one thinks of the frameworks and models which have emerged in the last few decades to cater to the needs of organizations for process maturity improvement and assessment.

The rise of the plethora of process frameworks has also given rise to the phenomenon of businesses getting established to cater to the market needs around this.

One would come across companies which are into advisory, consulting, training, assessment, third party certification, etc. around these frameworks. There's also another trend where suchcompanies offer services where an organizations can outsource its process and certification requirements to them. Such companies can be collectively labeled as "Quality/Process Consultants" for lack of a better term.

The need to engage "Quality/Process Consultants" for assessment and third party certification can't be wished away due to the requirement of independence for such activities. So this will continue to be there.

The need to engage "Quality/Process Consultants" for advisory, consulting, training, etc. can't be wished away completely. This is a way for an organization to inject the emerging and latest improvement concepts and methodologies into the organization. Organizations should set-up internal quality/process department to internally fulfill this need to the extent possible and as required selectively bring in external experts to supplement or enhance the internal expertise.

The need to engage "Quality/Process Consultants" for outsourcing process and certification to them is not really a strategic idea. The way an organization treats its core products ("What") as strategic similarly it should treat its core processes ("How") as strategic. Selective outsourcing of not-strategic products and processes is fine but needs to be done after thorough evaluation of their strategic impact both in short- and long-term.

The above would apply to medium- and large-sized organizations. What about small-sized organizations? Small-sized organizations can start with outsourcing process and certification activities to "Quality/Process Consultants" but should eventually set-up internal quality/process department to gain strategic advantage. In fact, small-sized organizations should view engaging "Quality/Process Consultants" at the start as the first step towards creating internal capabilities in respect of process and process maturity improvement and assessment.

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