Business Objectives as Drivers for Process Improvement: Practices and Experiences at Thales Naval the Netherlands (TNNL)

Abstract

Over the last decade many organizations are increasingly concerned with the improvement of their hardware/software development processes. The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) and ISO9001 are well-known approaches that are applied in these initiatives. One of the major bottlenecks to the success of process improvement is the lack of business orientation. This paper reports on a process improvement initiative at Thales Naval Netherlands (TNNL). It presents an approach that has been followed to ensure a link between process improvement and business strategy. Main factors in this process improvement approach are goal decomposition and the implementation of goal-oriented measurement on three organizational levels, i.e. the business, the process and the team level. © Springer-Verlag 2004.