Establish Tailoring Criteria and Guidelines

This article talk about how to establish and maintain the tailoring criteria and guidelines for the organization's set of standard processes.

For IPPD Addition, in creating the tailoring criteria and guidelines, include considerations for concurrent development and operating with integrated teams. For example, how one tailors the manufacturing process will be different depending on whether it is developed serially after the product has been developed or in parallel with the development of the product, as in IPPD. Processes, such as resource allocation, will also be tailored differently if the project is operating with integrated teams.

The tailoring criteria and guidelines describe the following:

• How the organization’s set of standard processes and organizational process assets are used to create the defined processes
• Mandatory requirements that must be satisfied by the defined processes (e.g., the subset of the organizational process assets that are essential for any defined process)
• Options that can be exercised and criteria for selecting among the options
• Procedures that must be followed in performing and documenting process tailoring

Flexibility in tailoring and defining processes is balanced with ensuring appropriate consistency in the processes across the organization. Flexibility is needed to address contextual variables such as the domain; nature of the customer; cost, schedule, and quality tradeoffs; technical difficulty of the work; and experience of the people implementing the process. Consistency across the organization is needed so that organizational standards, objectives, and strategies are appropriately addressed, and process data and lessons learned can be shared.

Tailoring criteria and guidelines may allow for using a standard process “as is,” with no tailoring.

Typical Work Products in this specific practice is Tailoring guidelines for the organization's set of standard processes.

To implement this specific practice, simply follow sub-practices below:

1. Specify the selection criteria and procedures for tailoring the organization's set of standard processes.
Examples of criteria and procedures include the following:

• Criteria for selecting lifecycle models from those approved by the organization
• Criteria for selecting process elements from the organization’s set of standard processes
• Procedures for tailoring the selected lifecycle models and process elements to accommodate specific process characteristics and needs

Examples of tailoring actions include the following:

• Modifying a lifecycle model
• Combining elements of different lifecycle models
• Modifying process elements
• Replacing process elements
• Reordering process elements

2. Specify the standards for documenting the defined processes.

3. Specify the procedures for submitting and obtaining approval of waivers from the requirements of the organization’s set of standard processes.

4. Document the tailoring guidelines for the organization's set of standard processes.

5. Conduct peer reviews on the tailoring guidelines.

6. Revise the tailoring guidelines as necessary.