The Flex Factor: Changing the Process Mindset

by Jim Highsmith

A couple of recent client engagements with very large companies reminded me about the fixation on process in many companies. Having used agile, iterative methods for so many years, I lost track of how pervasive process orientation can be in some organizations. Explaining my high-level process (envision, speculate, explore, adapt, close) to one group, I finally realized that its members were looking for more -- much more -- detail. They were looking for subprocesses that were broken down into sub-subprocesses that were further broken down into steps and then tasks, with specifically defined inputs and outputs for each process, subprocess, step, and task.