Introduction
PP provides you with the process you need for each project. Since projects, customers, people and organizations can be vastly different, PP has no one standard process. Instead it allows you to "match the hatch" by quickly selecting the process components you need for a particular project. You can add your own components to PP, as well as modify those supplied. PP has extreme flexiblity.
When a project starts PP is used to prescribe the optimum process, using components from the Component Library. Usually the process will be one you've used before, but with small variations to fit the particular project. Gone is the muddiness of a poor fit or the high frustration of no fit a all, such as using a heavyweight process on a small project.
While the project is running you can use PP to adjust the process. This helps you to fix problems and seize opportunities. For example developers may find themselves bogging down in Refactoring. The prescription might be to add the Class Modeling activity if there was none, or take some training. Another example is the customer suddenly adds major new requirements, causing more developers to be hired. The prescription might be to add Workflow Management since the project has moved from medium to large.
Benefits
PP has three main features causing its benefits:
1. Descriptiveness - Very clear representation, making learning and using fast, easy and a real pleasure.
2. Prescriptiveness - Active guidance to help you:
A.
Create a process for a new project.
B.
Adjust the process to fix process problems.
C.
Adjust the process to sieze opportunities.
3. Configurability - Due to creating custom processes from components, each process fits the project much better througout the project's lifetime.
These three features combine to cause greater project efficiencies resulting in better quality, less cost, less time or more scope. They also increase personal satisfaction (which we feel is the biggest benefit) by reducing stress, making people feel they are using the best engineering approaches available, and turning people on to the confident attitude they've done their very best. The latter two increase self esteem immensely.
PP is a modest effort to do better with process. It's not a magic cure all. Fundamentally People x Process = Results, so be sure to staff with good people.