Mark Frazer

Manager, Process Management

Welch Allyn Inc.

"Welch Allyn decided to base its process improvement program on the Rapid Performance Improvement (RPI) methodology in mid 2003, and selected the CMMI as its primary reference process. A great feature of RPI is the immediate and constant focus it brings to improving performance with respect to a set of well defined business goals. These goals are elicited as part of the RPI process, and then form the backbone from which all future process improvement efforts extend. Welch Allyn has seen the rapid adoption of improved, CMMI Level 2 practices. This has resulted in savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars that has dwarfed the investment made in process improvement. Welch Allyn now continues to use RPI as its primary process improvement method, and expects a multi-million dollar return as it moves towards higher process maturity."

Terrence McGillen

VP of Quality Management

FiServ Corporation

"Having the responsibility of change management for our Division Group, I can attest that using the Rapid Performance Improvement (RPI) and the associated methodology has brought significant, quantifiable gains to our software development group. The developers themselves are pleased with the improvements that they see, processes continue to improve, and customer satisfaction is increased. Additionally, we conduct internal audits that substantiate real change in an accelerated way, I would recommend anyone wanting to make marked improvements in their product development best practices to take a close inspection of the RPI method and see the gains to be made from employing this proven technology, the change will be positive for your developers and for your business bottom line."

K. J. Moland, PhD, PMP

Process Mentor

IBM Global Services

"I was part of a Software Process Improvement team that used the RPM for attaining SEI CMM Level 2. We found the RPM to be an effective methodology for: " involving various project resources (requirements, designers, developers, testers) to assess our current level , " building on our current level based on our existing processes and procedure that were already SEI CMM Level 2, and " documenting and implementing the appropriate Level 2 processes and procedures to address any gaps. We were able to effectively implement the processes and procedures due to the involvement of various project resources throughout the RPM and because we continued to use our existing practices that were SEI Level 2. We added our newly developed SEI CMM Level 2 processes and procedures where appropriate, which minimized the learning curve and increased the level of acceptance by the organization."

Anonymous US Government employee

"We use RPM for our process work in organizations that range from SW-CMM Maturity Level 1 through Maturity Level 4. We have applied RPM in software groups, hardware groups, and business groups. Compared to the way we previously modeled processes, changing to RPM is like changing to the speed and power of an F-18 after using the original Wright brothers' aircraft. The best part is that it is less costly and involves everybody in the effort while still producing quality processes."

DataScan Technologies

Alpharetta, Georgia

"Using RPI was very beneficial to our process improvement effort. It allowed us to easily identify what gaps we had both in relation to CMM and in general with our software development process and our stated goals. Additionally, because we were trained as facilitators during the process, we are able to use this same methodology for other improvement efforts that are not directly related to CMM."

Stephen Yuran

VP of Development

FiServ Corporation

"RPI helped us jump-start our process improvement efforts. Recently, we used RPI to develop, document and deploy a Software Quality Assurance process in our organization. In less than one week of modeling and preparation, our staff were ready to begin conducting reviews of work products and activities. There has been a tremendous value to the organization. With greater visibility into the process, I am better able to manage and control our efforts, and based on the SQA audit results, we have begun to identify process improvement suggestions in other areas."

Martin Watkin

RBS Technical Consultant

Nationwide

"The workshops were considered to be a very positive experience and we are already seeing the new ideas generated being applied in our project work. The main areas with improvements are planning, business requirements, configuration management, tracking/corrective action and peer reviews. Our enthusiasm for RPM has even brimmed over into the Commercial Lending team who have used it for pure business process modelling. Over the next four months we will be demonstrating how much more work we are producing, whilst maintaining our standards. RPI will help us to achieve both the business and technical strategies for supporting Personal Loans. We are really keen to share our experiences of RPI/RPM and the best practices produced so far."