Process Improvement Example - Baking a Cake
Imagine you are producing cakes of poor quality.
You ask a friend for help.
The friend asks: "What's wrong with the cake? Is it burned? Is it too
dry? Is it not cooked in the center? Did it collapse on itself?"
You can't improve a process unless you know what's wrong with the
product.
The friend asks:
"How old was the baking powder?"
"What temperature did you set the oven?"
"How long did you bake the cake?"
"Did you use a non-stick pan or a regular pan?"
You can't improve a process that you don't understand and haven't
measured.
For a software development process, similar questions might be:
"How many defects do you have?"
"How do you know when your design is complete?"
"When are the tests written?"
"What kind of reviews are performed?"
"In what order do you integrate units?"
The Process Improvement Cycle
