How to survive the trend of reorganizations, mergers, management changes, and corporate takeovers and continue to retain an effective process focus is a challenge that may be best met at the "grass roots" level through collegial teams working to maintain their culture. This presentation defines the use of teams from multiple projects to define and implement a strong process improvement program that provides continuity over time. Team involvement in establishment of goals, development of training to support the process, evaluation of project metrics, and sharing lessons learned, all establishes a culture of sharing that helps prevent deterioration when there are changes in management and new challenges in the marketplace.

Examples from process programs in place within various organizations are included, with emphasis on the Command and Control Systems division of Hughes Aircraft Company, now a part of Raytheon. In this division a long-established culture of planning and managing software projects has led to a shared understanding of how projects "should" be organized and managed for greater effectiveness. The ongoing use of collegial teams to discuss process issues and lessons learned, propose solutions shared between projects, and implement process initiatives has proven to be successful in obtaining buy-in and enthusiasm.

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