Passion and SuccessThomas M. Cagley Jr.  There are many reasons process improvement projects succeed or fail.  These reasons range from the purely technical to managerial and because they can vary so much we generally to pause rather than consider any one on an individual basis.  A conversation this week reminded me of one of the most important and potentially powerful success indicators, passion.  In software process improvement projects passion can come in multiple flavors however the person I was speaking with suggested that passion built on successful experience has power above and beyond simpe passion. Experiencing successful process improvement provides a level of knowledge that builds motivation which can be used to fight through the hard parts that all process improvement projects encounter. Successful process improvement provides the knowledge that organizations can change and what the benefits of that change are.  A corollary to the knowledge that success can create motivation and passion is that success can be manufactured.  One of the tidbits that I took away from the conversation was that when you are attempting to build passion based on success, small steps that help ensure wins for the process improvement team is an excellent strategy. One of the benefits of my job as process improvement consultant is to talk with people with a wide range of experience and backgrounds (diversity of practice and thought).  Discussions, such the one about the role of passion in motivating process improvement teams, provides a context that is easy to lose when you are operating on a day to day basis.  Another reflection is that there are philosophers among us.  This is true whether  they recognize their role as thinkers of deep thoughts or not.  Process improvement philosophers such as my new acquaintance and the Canadian Oracle (I quoted the Oracle before and will again) help keep all of us focused on more than just the day–to-day project tasks by providing an overall context to organizational change.  The discussion I had about building passion based on success was one of those events that provides context to process improvement and team motivation.  Remember, find success and use it as your anchor and motivator.