To have a successful process improvement program, which will enable your company to increase your efficiency and effectiveness, and to grow your company, you will need to establish a process improvement infrastructure.
Too many companies get appraised and obtain a maturity level just to meet an RFP requirement, but drop all process improvement activities and process discipline immediately after their appraisal. This is short sighted and does their clients and themselves and disservice. The few clients I have who truly embrace process improvement have benefitted greatly from the CMMI. And those companies have the following process improvement infrastructure.
Senior management support. Senior management must actively and periodically support process improvement. This includes vocally praising and recognizing process improvement success at all hands meetings, and writing about them in the company newsletters/website. They are also part of the executive management committee. This committee set the company goals and objectives, including the process improvement goals, and they provide adequate resources (personnel and financial) to achieve the goals.
Organization Process Group. This group consists of project manager/tech lead level individuals within the company. The group is responsible for all company process assets, and reviews process improvement suggestions to determine which improvements will implemented which will benefit the company. The group meets periodically, typically monthly, to review project status and measurements, and see what improvements can be made. The most successful process group I have ever seen, without a doubt, is one that assigned the CTO as the senior manager representative. And the CTO attended every meeting, which ensured no one missed a meeting.
Working Groups. This is a temporary group assigned to perform a certain task. It is made up of SMEs most closely associated with the task. For example, if an improvement idea is submitted to obtain a new tool and the process group thinks it warrants additional information, they can form a working group comprised of the individual who will be working with the tool. This group will obtain information about the tool, different makers of the tools, price, etc., and report their findings/recommendation to the process group. Once the decision is made, this group disbands.