People Over Process?

The very notion that one thing "trumps" another in the management of projects is troubling at best and mis-guided at worse. Mis-guided because the statement has no context, no business domain, no boundary for assessing the applicability. Let's consider two domains:

• Say you are building web parts for SharePoint than connects MOSS (Microsoft Office SharePoint Services) to a legacy system. Process is likely not that critical. Other than maybe some source code control, some User Acceptance Testing and maybe some disaster recovery considerations.
• But let's say you're building software for the Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GN&C) boxes on a spacecraft. Its job is to dock with the International Space Station using a "hands off" mode.

Now these two domains have different needs for process. But first let's get something out of the way.

No process is going to fix the situation of unqualified people – period, end of discussion

That's usually a red herring used by the agilest, but unspoken. The complete myth that the folks interested in process, use process to replace skill, experience, and capabilities of the engineers building software. In the high process (CMMI Level 5) shops where I travel, the software engineering staff is also top notch. Why because the CMMI Level 5 shops build stuff the kills people, or kills billions of dollars of tax payer money if it doesn't work right.

So, now let's get to the real issue. Process provides guidance on what to do when the people move on or when strangers come on the scene. For example a subcontractor produces a GPS sense array that is integrated into the larger system.

"How should we verify and validate the interface of the GPS sensor with the computing platform of the space craft?" "I don't know, let's look at our standard systems integration and test process." "That'll tell us where to start, what test fixtures are needed, etc." "Since we're new to this program, and the old gray haired guy is on vacation, we can get started by looking at the process guidance."

Or how about the same integration and test for SAP or PeopleSoft (oh yea they're the same company now).?

So when someone pipes up and says People Over Process and doesn't have a context and domain – walk away, they don't know what they're talking about. They're just yammering about the theory with no connection to the practice of writing software for money.