Outlook Point of View October 2008, No. 2 By Craig Mindrum To read offline:
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PDF Help Craig Mindrum is a visiting research fellow for Accenture, a contributing editor to Outlook and a strategic and talent management consultant. An important development in enterprise learning, especially over the past half decade, has been a maturing ability to link learning investments to business results. One natural step in this maturation is seeking appraisal and certification from professional-quality organizations for learning development processes. Although world-class processes do not guarantee innovative, high-impact learning experiences and products, they can create an effective foundation that puts the learning organization in a more powerful position to deliver business results. One such appraisal is the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), used to assess process excellence across a variety of disciplines. Accenture’s Global Capability Development group, the company’s internal enterprise learning organization, has participated in CMMI assessments along with Accenture Learning BPO Services, which provides outsourced learning solutions for Accenture and other clients. The assessment results, which confirmed that Accenture’s learning organization met high CMMI level standards, are evidence of the benefits that process and quality appraisal can have on enterprise learning, improving its efficiency and ability to run learning like a business. The Organizational Benefits of CMMI Appraisal
The Capability Maturity Model Integration was developed by Carnegie Mellon, a leading US research university. CMMI can be the means by which an organization improves its processes across a project, a division or an entire organization. CMMI helps integrate traditionally separate organizational functions, set process improvement goals and priorities, provide guidance for quality processes and serve as a point of reference for appraising current processes. During a CMMI evaluation, an independent assessment team analyzes an organization’s processes—based on extensive documentation and interviews—against a maturity or capability level. The organization is then given a rating from 1 to 5. Levels proceed from “ad hoc” through “repeatable,” “defined” and “managed,” up to level 5, “optimized.” The experiences of thousands of global companies suggest that CMMI can lead to impressive improvements in both process and organizational performance. Some companies and government agencies also may require CMMI appraisal of vendors with which they do business. Over the past several years, Accenture—a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company—has been submitting its processes for systems integration, industry consulting and outsourcing for CMMI appraisal. Accenture’s goal is to have all its major operating units appraised at least at level 3 (a significant achievement), with the company’s delivery center network appraised at level 5. According to Scott Sargent, Accenture managing director for global delivery excellence, who oversees the extensive CMMI evaluation initiative for Accenture, “We have used CMMI to enable our global methods to meet or exceed industry standards and to drive consistency across all groups within Accenture, whether internal or client facing. Ultimately, the goal is to leverage this CMMI appraisal to achieve high performance through delivery capabilities that are continuously improving and that serve the ongoing needs of our clients.” The benefits of CMMI appraisal have been impressive for Accenture. Says Sargent: “A key value derived from using CMMI is process industrialization. CMMI provides an objective framework that organizations can use to ensure that processes are adequately defined and then being followed. We used CMMI for this purpose and realized a significant return on investment.” CMMI Appraisal Comes to the Learning Function
Recently, Accenture Global Capability Development has participated with the company’s various industry groups and business function service lines in the CMMI appraisals. Because all evaluations of Accenture’s operating units involve a training dimension, the capability development organization has now been a part of more than 14 such assessments. Why would a learning organization participate in a CMMI evaluation? According to Joe Kotey, who helped direct the involvement of the capability development organization, “The rigor of a quality evaluation process based originally on software development can help a learning organization identify process improvement opportunities that can lead to more efficient operations.” The CMMI appraisal begins by asking an organization to gather examples of various artifacts and deliverables in support of that function, including reports, process samples, correspondence and meeting minutes. In Accenture’s case, the appraisal process has also involved Accenture Learning BPO Services, which provides global learning outsourcing solutions for Accenture employees and clients. Based on a questionnaire and then extensive on-site interviews, the CMMI team assesses a learning organization by examining its curriculum planning; design and development; and deployment operations processes. Kurt Olson, director of capability solutions for Accenture, notes: “The appraisal process gives you an opportunity to think through your effectiveness across the entire learning development and operations lifecycle. Have you established appropriate processes? Do you have the infrastructure in place to support your learning programs? Ultimately, CMMI is a way to help any organization run learning like a business.” Learning as a Competitive Advantage
The CMMI appraisal involving Accenture Global Capability Development and Accenture Learning BPO Services was extremely positive for the company. According to Kotey: “The results of the appraisal were that our learning development and operations processes met CMMI standards for level 3 in each appraisal. In the most recent appraisal, several training strengths were recognized in the final report. Rarely does an appraisal team recognize organizational strengths that indicate practices that exceed CMMI standards.” This was a significant result, not just for the learning function at Accenture, but for the whole organization. According to Sargent: “The CMMI appraisal points to the fact that our enterprise learning capabilities give the entire company a competitive advantage in recruiting and retaining top talent, and in serving clients. This is another way in which we are continuously driving toward high performance.” Based on Accenture’s experience, where might other learning organizations be particularly challenged when it comes to fulfilling the requirements to achieve CMMI level 3 or higher? Mark McDowell, who manages the global content development center in Chicago for Accenture Learning BPO Services, notes that one important requirement relates to the ability to have insight into how your learning programs are performing. McDowell asks: “Can organizations assess the end-to-end performance of their learning programs? Can they construct a cohesive story—one that starts with identifying a business need, which then is translated into an overarching curriculum plan, and then used to create a series of specific assets whose completion and effectiveness is tracked for each person in the organization?” “Those are questions we were able to answer using robust supporting data,” McDowell continues. “Many organizations our size might not be able to answer process and performance questions with the amount of rigor necessary to meet CMMI standards.” Driving High Performance through Process Rigor
An important aspect of the CMMI process to keep in mind is that the appraisal is based on process optimization. That means that assessing the quality of output must be done through other means. As Kurt Olson notes: “Think of CMMI as something that looks at how well your factory is performing. That’s important as long as you’re also looking at whether the factory is creating a product that will be successful in the marketplace. So from a learning perspective, great content, innovative delivery and the ability to measure improvements in business performance are some of the other things a learning organization must also work on if it is to help its company drive better business performance through phenomenal learning experiences.” CMMI can be a valuable and important part of any learning delivery excellence program for organizations that are focused ultimately on delivering a measurable business impact. Businesses and governments that are committed to improving the performance of their learning organizations should find CMMI to be a valuable tool to improve their internal processes, develop and retain top talent, serve customers and, ultimately, achieve high performance. To Top |