Team members know they are the originators of their processes and that they can change them quickly when necessary. It is easier to keep the documented process and actual practice consistent. Not only is institutionalization achieved more quickly, it is far more likely to be sustained over time. There is a tendency for organizations to backslide after a maturity level is achieved. If the practitioners own the processes and make the decisions, this backslide is less likely to occur.
Empowerment is one of the keys to institutionalization.
The SEPG manages the process assets across an organization. Members of the SEPG should include the key leads and domain experts from all projects in the organization. The SEPG is not an outside group that tells the engineers how to do their job. Figure 2 shows an example SEPG makeup for a medium-size organization. As you can see, all key functions associated with software development are represented.