Back to Basics
Once we realize that we're not getting everything we had hoped for from our technology, where do we turn next? We could always search for better (newer) technology, but how has that been working for us?
At some point we have to realize that the failure might actually be in us. When that realization eventually hits, the real work begins. We have to bring our processes and the people who execute them to a point where the technology can mesh.
Community, Communication, Credibility
Three Cs are at the root of our answer. Whenever two or more people must cooperate to produce something, attain some goal, or to create something new, it is essential that
- they become a community (or a team if you'd like)
- they learn to communicate within the community
- they learn to create and preserve credibility amongst the community's members
The Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, creators of the Software Capability-Maturity Model (SCMM) have also developed a People CMM (Wikipedia entry) which specifies the activities that a mature organization must do well in order to become a "learning" organization. Our people are the structural framework of our organizational architecture. Just as the failure of a single gusset plate can lead to the collapse of a major bridge, problems of community, communication or credibility anywhere in our organization may, if left unattended, cause a major collapse.
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