Book Review: “Process Improvement Essentials” by James R. Persse, PhD

tl;dr: A well-written book I’d recommend to all in the IT field who have any interest in working smarter rather than harder to bring their projects in on time, on budget and to customer spec.

Process Improvement Essentials, written by James R. Persse, PhD, delivers on its title. The field of process improvement is large, detailed and complicated—much more so than I would have expected before reading this book—yet Persse manages to curate, condense and present the topic in a highly effective and approachable manner. Which, I suppose, is to be expected considering the subject matter in question.

One method Persse uses to curate and condense is by limiting his target audience to IT professionals. The entire book is presented from the point of view of improving the quality of IT deliverables in whatever form they may take so, as a techie yourself, you can pick up this book without fear of getting mired in descriptions of processes (billing, accounting, manufacturing, marketing, sales, etc.) in which you may have little direct interest.

The book itself is organized into two sections. The first discusses process improvement in a more general sense and was the part of the book which I most enjoyed. The philosophies of process improvement resonated well with me, however that’s no surprise as I’m already predisposed toward the concept. Persse’s writing is clear, engaging and filled with quotes which struck me enough to write them down. Some examples:

From my experience, technology industries—corporate software, systems development, and operations—have been somewhat immune from the cleansing light of public failure.

Companies that are doing well are rarely motivated to initiate process improvement programs or quality initiatives.

…everything we do should be somehow traceable to satisfying the customer.

After all, if you hire competent people, you should probably get out of their way and let them do their jobs.

The second section of the book is a fairly in-depth overview of three process improvement methodologies: ISO 9000, CMMI, and Six Sigma. While moderately interesting, I recommend initially only skimming this half of the book then returning to it more in depth when/if your team decides to undertake one of the methods detailed here. This half of the book will be valuable both in aiding selection of the best method for your team as well as for basic reference while implementing it.

In a profession fraught with projects which are over budget, overdue or outright canceled more often than they’re successfully concluded, I would recommend that every IT professional pick up and read a copy of this book at least once in their career. Even if they only read the first half, the raised awareness of quality and process can only help improve the overall IT project success record.