Transforming a Method Department

Large software organizations establish method departments to manage methods and tools aimed at supporting their software development activities. This division between software development and new technologies for software development helps develop specialized competencies, it supports standardization across software projects and departments, and it provides dedicated resources for innovation. In practice, however, such method departments are seldom perceived as sufficiently successful in diffusing new methods and tools. Reasons for this unsatisfactory performance may be found in the selfperception, learning mechanisms, and diffusion practices of these method departments.