Register today for San Diego CMMI Training

Dear CMMI Appraiser – I am a Vice President at a leading engineering and technical services company serving the U.S. Defense, Intelligence, Civil and Homeland Security Communities with over 2,000 employees worldwide. After our Northern Virginia team had such a good experience in your introductory class about CMMI last month, we decided to put our Southern California group through the same CMMI training. Do you have an Introduction to CMMI training in Southern California scheduled in the weeks or months ahead? Thank you. ~ John L.

John – I’m glad to hear that last month’s CMMI Training in Northern Virginia was useful to your company. Yes, I will be conducting San Diego CMMI training classes very soon. In fact, we’ll be on location in sunny San Diego at the end of this month. See details below.

Yes, indeed! On May 28-30, 2013, we are joining with Epsilon Systems Solutions to host a 3-day CMMI training class in paradise!

The training course is an ideal experience for any executive, project manager, engineer, software developer, line manager, analyst, tester, or process or quality professional who would benefit from learning how to use the CMMI to make software and engineering performance even better. Registration is open for Introduction to CMMI-DEV v1.3.

Click the links below for more details and to register for San Diego CMMI training classes:

Introduction to CMMI-DEV v1.3

INTRODUCTION TO CMMI TRAINING: SAN DIEGO
May 28-30, 2013, in San Diego, CA, hosted by Epsilon Solutions.
Learn about CMMI, process models, and how to use them to be a great company!
Click here to register for: the Introduction to CMMI training in San Diego

Earn 21 PDU's or 2.5 CEUs!

It’s great that you are planning to send your Southern California team to our San Diego CMMI training class, John. I hope you’ll feel free to invite colleagues from other companies, as well. As you know from your previous experience, this practical, relevant CMMI training class gives engineering and software professionals new insights into addressing persistent problems, and helps them improve upon what they are ALREADY doing. So share the news!

In the meantime, I’ll see your team in paradise!

Like this blog? Forward to your nearest engineering or software exec!

Jeff Dalton is a Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, Certified CMMI Instructor, author, and consultant with years of real-world experience with the CMMI in all types of organizations. Jeff has taught thousands of students in CMMI trainings and has received an aggregate satisfaction score of 4.97 out of 5 from his students.

Visit www.broadswordsolutions.com for more information about engineering strategy, performance innovation , software process improvement and running a successful CMMI program.

To download more eBooks about CMMI, visit Jeff’s Author Page on Amazon.

Top 5 CMMI Info Sites

Hey, CMMI Appraiser, we are big fans of your blog, and have noticed that you sometimes post links to other resources on CMMI, like videos and electronic books that we’d love to dig deeper into. Is there one central place to get this information from you? ~ David Z.

David, you made my day! I love that kind of question. We are ALL OVER the social media. And on every media outlet we provide a wealth of FREE information about CMMI, engineering strategy and organizational performance innovation that can help you improve the speed of software delivery, reduce defects, eliminate rework and make your projects more predictable and manageable.

Here are our 5 most popular sites - so take your pick!

#1 CMMI-TV – If you are looking for short, informative video clips about Agile, CMMI and performance innovation, we invite you to subscribe to our CMMI-TV channel.

#2 CMMI eBooks – Like to get your CMMI info on screen? Check out the highly useful and always entertaining eBooks we’ve written about CMMI.

 #3 @CMMIAppraiser on Twitter – Could you use a daily tip on CMMI, engineering performance and software process improvement? Follow us on Twitter.

 #4 Broadsword Client User Group on LinkedIn – Interested in joining a community of like-minded engineering and software professionals for discussion and CMMI info? Join our group on LinkedIn:

#5 www.broadswordsolutions.com – For your all-around information source about CMMI, performance innovation and process improvement planning , join us on the Broadsword website.

You can find us elsewhere online (such as Facebook, Google-Plus andTumblr), offline (such as in the Cutter IT Journal) and in person at seminars, conferences and CMMI Training classes all around the world – but this should give you a good start.

Enjoy!

Like this blog? Forward to your nearest engineering or software exec!

Jeff Dalton is a Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, Certified CMMI Instructor, author, and consultant with years of real-world experience with the CMMI in all types of organizations. Jeff has taught thousands of students in CMMI trainings and has received an aggregate satisfaction score of 4.97 out of 5 from his students.

Visit www.broadswordsolutions.com for more information about engineering strategy, performance innovation , software process improvement and running a successful CMMI program.

We got our CMMI Level – NOW what?

Hey CMMI Appraiser – we got our CMMI Level. I’m proud of our Appraisal Team, but now what do we do? ~ Loa P, IT executive 

Hey Loa,

Congratulations! I hope by “getting CMMI Level” you mean you precisely determined the strengths and weaknesses of your engineering or software organization - and you're using that today to make yourself better!  aIf you learned to use CMMI that way – as one of the tools you can use to accelerate performance while making the team more agile, stable, and valuable – then, way to go, team! You should be jumping for joy!

Unfortunately, not everyone feels this way after achieving a CMMI Capability Rating. The adoption of CMMI carries with it many complex emotions. Some software and engineering executives feel strongly that they want organizational performance improvement. Sometimes they covet "CMMI certification" – or both. Sometime, they  don’t know WHAT they have.

One of the things that I try to get my clients’ heads around – whether we’re guiding them through a CMMI appraisal, CMMI consulting or CMMI training – is that a 'process' is simply about how you do work and how you do business.

So you did your process improvement planning and designed your process. But all the while you were gathering evidence during your SCAMPI A, you were actually working toward something of far greater value than achieving your Maturity Level 3. You were validating a new system that will drive your company from process improvement to performance innovation.

And now you want to know what to do next? How about improving performance with the processes that you’ve built? It’s the next frontier. It’s time to operationalize your strategy for continuous improvement. It’s time to operate the infrastructure you’ve developed.

Now, I say this to some pretty smart engineers sometimes, and they have no idea I’m talking about. “What infrastructure?” they’ll say. “I didn’t know we were building an infrastructure. I thought we were just filling out forms!”

Others get it. They understand that CMMI is about much more than filling out forms; it’s about creating a system of systems. It’s about architecture and integration points between processes.

No matter where you are at this point, Loa, I encourage you to look beyond CMMI. Achieving a Maturity Level was merely a tactical objective. Now you are learning to operate like a great company. That’s a strategic initiative of far greater import. It calls for a higher awareness of the architecture (the model we designed) and the infrastructure (the physical instantiation of that model) in which you have invested.

In a nutshell, what you’ve done is build a multi-faceted organizational infrastructure that is at once a process infrastructure and a performance infrastructure. You’ve built this infrastructure in part because you were trying to achieve a CMMI Level – and if you worked with Broadsword, we helped you build it with an agileCMMI approach – but what we really helped you build is an architecture with which to run your business. You can take that and run – far beyond CMMI.

Going beyond CMMI is a passion of ours here at Ask the CMMI Appraiser. I have more to share on this topic. Please check back soon.

Like this blog? Forward to your nearest engineering or software exec!

Jeff Dalton is a Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, Certified CMMI Instructor, author, and consultant with years of real-world experience with the CMMI in all types of organizations. Jeff has taught thousands of students in CMMI trainings and has received an aggregate satisfaction score of 4.97 out of 5 from his students.

Visit www.broadswordsolutions.com for more information about engineering strategy, performance innovation , software process improvement and running a successful CMMI program.

To download more eBooks about CMMI, visit Jeff’s Author Page on Amazon.

How to adopt the CMMI without creating more overhead?

Dear CMMI Appraiser, we’re a mid-sized San Diego IT company, trying to grow, and we realized that in order to grow, we had to have standard procedures on how things needed to get done that would be easy to learn, follow and would be successful. We started by defining and adopting our own methodology. One year later, we are interested in graduating to the more rigorous CMMI model, but have some concerns. What is the best way to adopt the CMMI without dramatically increasing overhead? ~ Ned A.

Ned, welcome to the CMMI! It sounds as though your research has led you to conclude (correctly) that the CMMI is a process model that can help you improve upon the way you already do your work. I would expand this to say that the CMMI provides a clear definition of what an organization should do to promote behaviors that lead to improved performance. Those behaviors include eliminating what we call “Process Debt.”

What Is Process Debt?

Process Debt is our name for the unintentional consequence of trying to reach a CMMI Maturity Level without trying to be a great company. It can be an insidious problem for companies that don’t understand the real value of the CMMI. Instead of focusing on learning new behaviors that can transform the culture of their company, they take a documentation-focused approach. The result? Too many forms, meetings, reviews, and sign-offs. Quality audits are heavy-handed and there is much too much oversight. The resulting Process Debt crushes your engineers, damages creativity, and destroys any productivity gains you were hoping for.

How to Avoid Process Debt?

You can avoid Process Debt simply by understanding that the CMMI is about supercharging engineering performance, increasing productivity, reducing risk, and doing what you do, better. It is NOT about certificates, plaques, and ratings. It’s NOT a test you need to pass. And it’s NOT about creating more overhead.

Many newcomers to the CMMI don’t realize this at first. Often, someone has been pumping them full of misinformation. We see some CMMI consultants exhorting their teams to finish the projects and present documents with no real insight into how things are going or how they can be made better.

That’s a mistake. Rushing to create documents and processes to satisfy the CMMI Appraiser just adds to the Process Debt, making it even worse. Instead, you should be working to eliminate crushing Process Debt – and help you learn the behaviors that can put your company on the Path to Greatness.

OK – How Do You Do THAT?

To learn more about CMMI, I encourage you to take advantage of some of our upcoming CMMI training, webinar and eBook experiences:

INTRODUCTION TO CMMI TRAINING: SAN DIEGO
May 28, 2013, in San Diego, CA, hosted by Epsilon Solutions.
Learn about CMMI, process models, and how to use them to be a great company!
Click here to register for: the Introduction to CMMI training in San Diego

CMMI: Everything you need to know! WEBINAR REPLAY
Learn the ins and outs of the CMMI, and how to ask yourself what I call “CMMI questions” as an engineering strategy for addressing common business problems such as late projects, over budget projects, unhappy customers, etc.
Click here to watch the “CMMI: Everything You Need to Know” Webinar Replay

HOW TO SPELL CMMI: eBOOK
How to Spell CMMI is an introduction CMMI for engineering and software professionals looking for ways to improve software delivery, achieve a CMMI “certificate” or rating, develop a strategic weapon that can help attract and retain new customers, or get on the path to becoming a great company. Click here to download How to Spell CMMI

Like this blog? Forward to your nearest engineering or software exec!

Jeff Dalton is a Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, Certified CMMI Instructor, author, and consultant with years of real-world experience with the CMMI in all types of organizations. Jeff has taught thousands of students in CMMI trainings and has received an aggregate satisfaction score of 4.97 out of 5 from his students.

Visit www.broadswordsolutions.com for more information about engineering strategy, performance innovation , software process improvement and running a successful CMMI program.

To download more eBooks about CMMI, visit Jeff’s Author Page on Amazon.

OCM? What’s in it for me?

Hey CMMI Appraiser, I’ve seen a few posts here about OCM, and my team is interested in learning more. Can you tell us how would OCM benefit our organization and its process improvement planning effort? We are a CMMI Level 3 organization ~ Jonathan A.

Jonathan, thank you for stopping by.  The discipline you have been reading about here at Ask the CMMI Appraiser, known as Organizational Change Management (OCM), is the specialty of our resident expert, Julie Calfin, Broadsword’s Director of Consulting. Julie does amazing work with companies that are undergoing large scale business transformation like yours. Take it away, Julie! ~ The CMMI Appraiser 

Thank you, CMMI Appraiser!

Jonathan, great question! “What’s in it for me?” is generally the first thing anyone wants to know when they find out about OCM. Depending your role in the organization, I give my answer one of two ways:

1) From the organization’s perspective:

The benefit of OCM is it gives you a way of making your future state a reality. In other words, OCM is a discipline for helping you transform your company into whatever you want it to be.

As a practical matter, the organization benefits by embracing OCM because change is incredibly disruptive to any organization. OCM allows you to manage the change with minimum disruption. That’s the main benefit for the organization.

Is there an ROI? Absolutely! Organizations that embrace OCM make a significant investment in tactics and tools such as communications, training, stakeholder involvement, recognition & rewards, and what they get out of it is the ability to implement all of these changes, without burning out their workforce, without missing all of their project deadlines, and without losing their customers.

2) From the individual’s perspective:

The individual benefits from the adoption of OCM practices as well. After all, the organization is investing in you so that you can have a role in its future state. OCM tactics employed by your organization give you the ability to make the necessary changes without burning yourself out or harming your work product in the process.

Oh, I understand that sometimes they don’t make themselves clear. Tell me if this has ever happened to you. The order comes down from above that a specific change is coming. Unfortunately, the person sponsoring the initiative does not know how to make the change a reality. They know WHAT needs to change (they know, for example, they need processes that are CMMI-based), but don’t know HOW to go about affecting that change.

This is the purpose of OCM. Using OCM, the leaders of your team can create a blueprint for how to make these changes a reality, how to change their culture, and how to sustain that culture change over time.

There are three more ways OCM helps individuals do their jobs better.

Efficiency: Nowadays, more people are asked to do a lot with a little. OCM techniques allow people to implement large scale changes without overtaxing themselves in the process. For example, by involving the right people in the change initiative at the right time, you can avoid delays that are caused by false starts and negative emotions.

Learning: There is a learning component to OCM as well. Each individual has to acquire some new knowledge, skills and abilities – and potentially some new attitudes – in order to make the change a reality. One of the things we do in OCM, for each stakeholder group, is to quantify the learning that is needed and schedule it to be acquired at the right time. The advantage is that the organization is not going to just ask you to change. Instead, they will give you the learning opportunities you need to make these changes.

Influence: Finally, the adoption of OCM practices will equip individuals in the company to positively influence those around them. Change leaders are needed throughout the organization, not just at the top. Individuals become influential by disseminating valuable information, modeling desired behaviors, and eliminating barriers to change. Influential leaders emerge when we provide opportunities for them that are aligned with our future state vision.

I appreciate your question, Jonathan.  Please check back in the weeks ahead as Broadsword Solutions is planning to announce the availability of our first OCM eBook!

Like this blog? Forward to your nearest engineering or software exec!

Julie Calfin is the Director of Consulting at Broadsword Solutions Corporation. She has years of real world experience using OCM strategy and tactics to help her clients achieve their goals. Julie also uses the CMMI, in partnership with her clients, to set-up, monitor, and sustain process improvement programs.

Visit www.broadswordsolutions.com for more information about running a successful CMMI program.

SEPG North America 2013, Coming to Pittsburgh

SEPG North America 2013, Coming to Pittsburgh in October by bosikowicz

Reposted from the SEPG Conferences Blog

As the new host of the SEPG Conference Series, the CMMI Institute is pleased to announce that SEPG North America 2013 will be held at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on October 1-2, 2013. As the host of the SEPG North America conference, the CMMI Institute is thrilled to welcome a worldwide community of professionals to its home city for two days of high-quality learning and networking. The conference will deliver high-value, practical information to end users and practitioners and will offer excellent opportunities to connect with others in the performance improvement community.

The CMMI Institute and the SEPG program committee are working quickly to be able to announce information on speakers, registration, and more.

Moving forward, please visit www.sepgconference.org for all information related to SEPG conferences. 

Pilot Testing: A Tale of Two Companies

Hey, CMMI Appraiser, in my last company, we tested all of our new processes before deploying them. My new boss doesn’t think piloting is necessary, and I don’t have any hard data or evidence to fall back on. What can I say to change her mind? ~ Kim L.

Hey, Kim– great to hear that you are being an advocate for pilot testing in your new company! Helping people transform company culture with CMMI is an area of expertise of Laura Adkins, a Senior CMMI Consultant with Broadsword. Laura does amazing work with companies who are trying to institutionalize new processes within the Agile and CMMI frameworks. Take it away, Laura! ~ The CMMI Appraiser 

Thank you, CMMI Appraiser!

Kim, hard evidence can be gathered to prove the value of piloting in your organization. But rather than trying to convince your boss with a lot of facts and data, I’d recommend telling her a story.

I call it, “The tale of two companies …”

Once upon a time, there were two companies: The Foolish Company and the Wise Company. The Foolish Company believed they needed to achieve CMMI Maturity Level 3 right away. So their quality group got to work designing the Foolish Company’s new CMMI-based processes. They didn’t have time to consult process users. Instead, they went forward designing large volumes of process assets, and immediately deployed them to all of their process users.

The Foolish Company chose to build their process on a foundation of sand because it was much quicker.

Now the Wise Company had a different approach. The Wise Company was a good company that wanted to be great. After learning about CMMI, they selected it as their process framework because they believed in the model’s best practices. The Wise Company commissioned small groups of employees to define processes that would improve their performance. These small groups designed processes iteratively so they would be “Just Enough, Not Too Much”. Before deploying their new processes, the Wise Company tried them out on projects of varying sizes and types.

The Wise Company chose to build their process on a foundation of rock because it was much stronger.

Let’s fast-forward several months and see what became of the two companies’ very different process improvement planning efforts.

The Foolish Company, which chose to build its process on a foundation of sand, because it was much quicker, didn’t take the time to pilot test their processes before releasing them. The team tried to use the new processes, but found defects and areas that they missed. After just a few weeks, the Foolish Company realized that their processes were not designed for small software maintenance projects. Since the Foolish Company is primarily in the business of performing software maintenance, they had to go back and re-design their processes to meet the needs of small projects. Months later, they were still in the rework mode …

The Wise Company, which chose to build their process on a foundation of rock because it was much stronger, spent time pilot testing their new processes on projects of varying sizes and types. The Wise Company listened to their pilot participants and made the changes they suggested. The Wise Company caught some areas that needed to be changed, implemented the change, and are going forward with the deployment, releasing the new processes with confidence that they will work.

Ask your boss: Which company are we going to be?

The real value of pilot testing is it helps accelerate the institutionalization of new processes. By planning and conducting a process pilot, your company can use the feedback from pilot process-related experiences to update your assets … and be a Wise Company.

Encourage your boss to look back through our blog posts on pilot testing, Kim. We hope we’ve shared enough tools, tips and guidance on validating process that the value of testing will be clear. If you need any more help convincing her, you know where to find us!

Like this blog? Forward to your nearest engineering or software exec!

Laura Adkins is a Senior CMMI Consultant with Broadsword Solutions Corporation. She has years of real world experience using pilot testing strategies and tactics to help her clients achieve their goals. Laura also uses the CMMI, in partnership with her clients, to set-up, monitor, and sustain process improvement programs.

Visit www.broadswordsolutions.com for more information about running a successful CMMI program.

2 New Webinar Replays ... Watch one, or both!

Dear Readers,

Recently, I presented two Webinars on topics of growing interest to software and systems engineering executives and professionals who are seeking out new strategies, tools and techniques that can help them establish the type of environment that can make them a great company.

• "CMMI: Everything you NEED to know!"
• "Agile Resiliency: How CMMI Enables Agile to Thrive and Survive"

If you missed these Webinars, or would like to view them again, here’s your opportunity! The replay recordings are available for viewing on your own time and at your own pace. (And they are still free!)

To watch and listen to the recordings, presented by Broadsword and attended live by software and engineering professionals from companies large and small, around the world, click the following links:

• "CMMI: Everything you NEED to know!"  
• "Agile Resiliency: How CMMI Enables Agile to Thrive and Survive"

What are these Webinars about?

By watching the replay of the “CMMI: Everything You Need to Know” Webinar, you'll gain an understanding of the popular Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), and learn about answering what I call “CMMI questions” as an engineering strategy for addressing common business problems such as late projects, over budget projects, unhappy customers, etc.

By watching the replay of the “Agile Resiliency” Webinar, you'll be introduced to the concept of using the CMMI as one of the tools that can make agile stronger by building a resilient agile architecture. In this Webinar, I lay out my vision for how the entire family of Agile methods can be made resilient and strong through the application of the CMMI.

Designed specifically for executives, engineers and business professionals, both Webinars help you learn to think about the CMMI as a set of guidelines you can use to create an environment in which the organization can manage its uniqueness in a structured way.

But that’s just scratching the surface of the strategies, tools and techniques you’ll take away from these fast-paced, lively presentations.

• Click here to watch the “CMMI: Everything You Need to Know” Webinar Replay
• Click here to watch the “Agile Resliency” Webinar Replay

And when you're through with the Webinar replays, if you would like more insight into using the CMMI as one of the tools that can help you establish the type of environment that can make you a great company, check out our upcoming LIVE learning opportunities:

KEYNOTE SPEAKING: MIDWEST
April 26, 2013, in Detroit, Michigan @ PMI Great Lakes 2013 Symposium – “Agile Resiliency” and "Process Innovation at the Speed of Life"

AGILE LEARNING DAY: EAST
May 8, 2013, in Fairfax, Virginia, in partnership with CC Pace – "Agile CMMI Learning Day"

INTRODUCTION TO CMMI: WEST
May 28, 2013, in San Diego, CA, in partnership with Epsilon Solutions. Learn about CMMI, process models, and how to use them to be a great company! http://cmmi-training-san-diego.eventbrite.com

Like this blog? Forward to your nearest engineering or software exec!

Jeff Dalton is a Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, Certified CMMI Instructor, author, and consultant with years of real-world experience with the CMMI in all types of organizations. Jeff has taught thousands of students in CMMI trainings and has received an aggregate satisfaction score of 4.97 out of 5 from his students.

Visit www.broadswordsolutions.com for more information about engineering strategy, performance innovation , software process improvement and running a successful CMMI program.

To download eBooks about CMMI, visit Jeff’s Author Page on Amazon.

Should we make everyone follow the same process?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser, should we force our project teams to accept either agile or Waterfall methods, and not allow any deviation? ~ DC SPIN Attendee

Today’s episode of CMMI-TV was filmed ON LOCATION at a recent DC Software Process Improvement Network (DC SPIN) gathering in Fairfax, Virginia, where I presented on “Agile Resiliency.” An attendee asked if it was important to make everyone on their project teams follow the same process. Below is a video clip with my answer, followed by a synopsis of my response. Enjoy!

OVERVIEW

Consultants love talking about the CMMI as being all about everybody doing the same thing every time. According to them, the CMMI is repeatable and predictable, and that means that everybody has to have the same behavior. One size fits all.

But one size -- whether Waterfall, agile, CMMI or any other method, tool or technique -- does not fit all.  It's unrealistic and counterproductive to expect everyone to demonstrate the same repeatable behavior. What needs to be repeatable are the OUTCOMES.

What kind of outcomes should be repeatable?  How about high quality software, efficient production and happy customers?  These outcomes are possible even when many projects are unique and require their own "way of doing things" (otherwise known as the PROCESS).

To allow for companies' uniqueness, this CMMI Appraiser recommends that organizations have a SET of software process improvement models and methodologies from which projects can choose. That might include using both Scrum and Waterfall, for example. From that set, projects assemble the processes they want to use.

Keep in mind, a “set” means more than one. And “more than one” means you need some flexibility and agility to decide how you are going to do something.

For example, a team leader might say, “We’re going to adopt Scrum, but we’re going to use Wide Band Delphi for estimating.”

Those are from two different "communities." Is that OK?

Why not? You are trying to meet the needs of the project, right? So go for it. Have a SET of standard processes from which each project can derive their unique process, and then assemble process patterns to use depending on the needs, goals and objectives of the project.

For more insight into using the CMMI as one of the tools that can help you establish the type of environment that can make you a great company, check out our upcoming learning opportunities:

KEYNOTE SPEAKING: MIDWEST
April 26, 2013, in Detroit, Michigan @ PMI Great Lakes 2013 Symposium – “Agile Resiliency” and "Process Innovation at the Speed of Life"

AGILE LEARNING DAY: EAST
May 8, 2013, in Fairfax, Virginia, in partnership with CC Pace – "Agile CMMI Learning Day"

INTRODUCTION TO CMMI: WEST
May 28, 2013, in San Diego, CA, in partnership with Epsilon Solutions. Learn about CMMI, process models, and how to use them to be a great company! http://cmmi-training-san-diego.eventbrite.com

Like this blog? Forward to your nearest engineering or software exec!

Jeff Dalton is a Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, Certified CMMI Instructor, author, and consultant with years of real-world experience with the CMMI in all types of organizations. Jeff has taught thousands of students in CMMI trainings and has received an aggregate satisfaction score of 4.97 out of 5 from his students.

Visit www.broadswordsolutions.com for more information about engineering strategy, performance innovation , software process improvement and running a successful CMMI program.

To download eBooks about CMMI, visit Jeff’s Author Page on Amazon.

Save the date! SEPG 2013 in Pittsburgh!

The CMMI Institute is pleased to announce that SEPG North America 2013 will be held at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on October 1-2, 2013. We are thrilled to welcome the community to our home city for two days of high-quality learning and networking. With a more compact schedule designed to maximize each moment, the conference will deliver high-value, practical information to end users and practitioners and offer excellent opportunities to connect with others in the performance improvement community. 

SEPG North America 2013 aims to provide "structured informality," encouraging spontaneous discussions amidst a strategically planned schedule of discussion-rich lightning talks, keynotes, and brief presentations. New this year, the program will primarily feature invited speakers who will deliver powerful, compelling presentations. We anticipate that the program committee will round out the line-up with a smaller number of speakers selected from an open call for participation. 

As we speak, the CMMI Institute is forming the program committee that will build the technical program. We are working quickly to be able to announce information on speakers, registration, and more at  www.sepgconference.org in the coming weeks.

Developed with community feedback in mind, SEPG North America 2013 will bring together users, Partners, and the CMMI Institute to demonstrate to users CMMI's measurable, powerful impact on business performance and to help us cultivate the next generation of adopters.

We look forward to seeing you in Pittsburgh. 

Don't run your projects using Process Models!

Hey, CMMI Appraiser, our projects use multiple process models, including CMMI, ISO9000 and ITIL to name a few. How do we audit these projects? ~ QA professional at DC SPIN meeting

Dear Readers,

At a recent DC Software Process Improvement Network (DC SPIN) event, where this CMMI Appraiser was speaking on "Agile Resiliency: How CMMI Will Make Agile Thrive and Survive," I took a question from a QA professional on how to "audit" projects that use so many process models like CMMI, ISO, ITIL, etc. Below is a CMMI-TV video clip with my answer, followed by a synopsis of my response. Enjoy!

OVERVIEW

There is a philosophical difference between companies that identify their projects by process model, and companies that have identified and defined their company’s "Way," the Way their work gets done, they Way their values are demonstrated, and the Way they are successful with their customers. Having a well defined Way helps you evaluate and improve all areas of the business, and reach your goals faster.

DEFINING PROJECTS BY PROCESS MODEL

Many companies apply different software process improvement models for different projects. That is often perfectly acceptable and useful. But what is not useful is segmenting and defining the projects by process model. For example, the Head of Corporate Quality of an award-winning federal contractor recently told me, “We have our Agile projects over here, our ISO9000 projects over here, and our CMMI projects over here.” He did not realize he was missing an opportunity to help make his highly successful company even better.

A BETTER WAY

My advice to companies that are segmenting their projects by process model is to stop, take a step back, and consider that there may be a better approach. Rather than thinking of projects by process model, they should think of projects by the Company Way, as in “We’re a great company and here’s how we work.” They should apply this definition to everything the company does. No longer do they say, “Our agile projects are over here.” Now they say, “We run all of our projects in accordance with our Company Way.”

HOW TO “AUDIT” OR EVALUATE PROJECTS

For this philosophical shift to take hold, QA people should be trained in the aspects of the Company Way, and you should be able to evaluate your projects based on those aspects.

That doesn’t mean you all do everything the same way. Some projects will be Waterfall. Some will be Agile. Some will be R&D and won’t be using any process model. It just depends on what the goal is.

But regardless of process model, the approach you use to evaluate them should come from the same place. That is: “We are a great company, and here’s how we do projects.”

So stop thinking about models and standards and all of those things. Models and standards are good inputs into defining how you do your work. But don’t let them define how you run your projects.

For more insight into defining your Way and using tools like the CMMI to help you establish the type of environment that can make you a great company, check out our upcoming learning opportunities:

KEYNOTE SPEAKING: MIDWEST
April 26, 2013, in Detroit, Michigan @ PMI Great Lakes 2013 Symposium – “Agile Resiliency” and "Process Innovation at the Speed of Life"

AGILE LEARNING DAY: EAST
May 8, 2013, in Fairfax, Virginia, in partnership with CC Pace – "Agile CMMI Learning Day"

INTRODUCTION TO CMMI: WEST
May 28, 2013, in San Diego, CA, in partnership with Epsilon Solutions.  Learn about CMMI, process models, and how to use them to be a great company! http://cmmi-training-san-diego.eventbrite.com


Like this blog? Forward to your nearest engineering or software exec!

Jeff Dalton is a Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, Certified CMMI Instructor, author, and consultant with years of real-world experience with the CMMI in all types of organizations. Jeff has taught thousands of students in CMMI trainings and has received an aggregate satisfaction score of 4.97 out of 5 from his students.

Visit www.broadswordsolutions.com for more information about engineering strategy, performance innovation , software process improvement and running a successful CMMI program.

To download eBooks about CMMI, visit Jeff’s Author Page on Amazon.

13 things the CMMI is not

Dear Reader,

Recently this CMMI Appraiser posted a link for folks who are gathering information about CMMI.  If you would like to expand your knowledge of the Model, click here to read "What is CMMI?"

Fortunately, more organizations are benefiting from embracing the CMMI as a tool for solving business problems.  Unfortunately, there continues to be a lot of misunderstanding about CMMI that needs to be untangled before the lasting value of the framework can be fully grasped.  And so, to help you better understand what the CMMI is, here's my top 13 list of what the CMMI is not.

1. CMMI is not about getting a CMMI certificate or achieving a CMMI Maturity Level, although that certainly can be an outcome
2. CMMI is not about forms, documents, and templates
3. CMMI is not about making everyone do the same thing every time
4. CMMI is not a methodology
5. CMMI is not a process
6. CMMI is not a philosophy or a way of life, although it can influence those things
7. CMMI is not a set of requirements
8. CMMI is not a tool that can make you “CMMI compliant” in six months or less
9. CMMI is not something you “do”
10. CMMI is not something you “implement”
11. CMMI is not a document-heavy command-and-control rulebook
12. CMMI is not an oppressive death march that zaps your team’s energy and turns them into zombies
13. CMMI is not a race

What the CMMI is: The CMMI is an organizational improvement model that can help companies be more powerful and productive. It is an excellent tool to improve software and engineering product development, and is extremely useful in lighter, agile environments, as well as in larger, structured organizations. In fact, the more we work with the CMMI, and the more we work with organizations that are adopting it, the more we understand that CMMI is a model that's about how great companies perform, regardless of their size or industry.

So what do you get when you untangle the knot? A model for helping you do what you do, better. A framework for putting your company on the path to greatness – that’s what the CMMI is all about.

(Click to read “what is CMMI?”)

Like this blog? Forward to your nearest engineering or software exec! 

Jeff Dalton is a Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, Certified CMMI Instructor, author, and consultant with years of real-world experience with the CMMI in all types of organizations. Jeff has taught thousands of students in CMMI trainings and has received an aggregate satisfaction score of 4.97 out of 5 from his students.

Visit www.broadswordsolutions.com for more information about engineering strategy, performance innovation , software process improvement and running a successful CMMI program.

To download eBooks about CMMI, visit Jeff’s Author Page on Amazon.

Wednesday Is Agile Resiliency Day!

Dear Readers,

Quick reminder that Wednesday 4/3/13 is a great day to learn about Agile Resiliency. For the next several hours, you can still register for our FREE presentations of "Agile Resiliency: How CMMI Will Make Agile Thrive and Survive."

Click HERE to register for the Live Webinar (April 3rd @1pm ET)

Click HERE to register for the Live Presentation at DC SPIN (April 3rd @7pm ET, Fairfax, VA)

Why attend?

If your organization is considering doing more with CMMI and/or Agile in 2013, you’ll appreciate the following timely and useful information about getting the two to work together:

• How integrating the architectural strengths of the CMMI with your current methodology can bring about the transformation of the culture of your company
• How using the CMMI can help you develop a useful set of processes for your company, and deploy them without bringing the company down
• How adopting the CMMI can help you build better products, win new business and retain the customers you have
• A complete overview of the Appraisal process, for those of you hoping to have an appraisal in the future

… and much, much more.

Space is limited for Wednesday’s learning sessions, so please don’t wait!

Register for the Live Webinar.

Register for the Live Presentation at DC SPIN.

Like this blog? Forward to your nearest engineering or software exec! 

Jeff Dalton is a Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, Certified CMMI Instructor, author, and consultant with years of real-world experience with the CMMI in all types of organizations. Jeff has taught thousands of students in CMMI trainings and has received an aggregate satisfaction score of 4.97 out of 5 from his students.

Visit www.broadswordsolutions.com for more information about engineering strategy, performance innovation , software process improvement and running a successful CMMI program.

To download eBooks about CMMI, visit Jeff’s Author Page on Amazon.

Sometimes we forget to answer the most important question.....

Dear Readers,

We do this so much that sometimes we forget to answer the most important question:

WHAT IS CMMI?

Click here for the answer!

Like this blog? Forward to your nearest engineering or software exec!

Jeff Dalton is a Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, Certified CMMI Instructor, author, and consultant with years of real-world experience with the CMMI in all types of organizations. Jeff has taught thousands of students in CMMI trainings and has received an aggregate satisfaction score of 4.97 out of 5 from his students.

Visit www.broadswordsolutions.com for more information about engineering strategy, performance innovation , software process improvement and running a successful CMMI program.

To download eBooks about CMMI, visit Jeff’s Author Page on Amazon.

How long does it REALLY take to get a CMMI Level?

Hey CMMI Appraiser, I got a kick out of your response to the reader who wanted you to know if you could tell them how to get a CMMI Level 3 rating in three weeks. You said, “No.” All kidding aside, getting better by adopting the CMMI is a priority for us as well.  How long does it really take? ~ Jim F.

Dear Jim,

I'm glad you saw the humor.  I like to save my breath for readers like you who have a clue what they are asking. The timing of your CMMI-based process improvement program comes down to one simple concept:

Great companies know how to focus. Arbitrary time frames hardly matter when you are focused on being a great company. Being a great company means focusing on doing things as well as you can do them, and being better than the companies you are competing with. Because if you learn to use the CMMI as one of the tools that can keep you focused on producing the best products and being the best in your industry, then your CMMI level will surely follow, regardless of how long it takes.

On the other hand, if you focus on getting a CMMI Rating and achieving a Maturity Level as fast as you can, and you don’t care much about being a great company, you will spend a lot of time and money producing a lot of overhead that will not result in business value.

The moral of the story: Focus on being a great company, and a nice CMMI certificate will follow. That’s just the way it works.

Still, people ask me all the time, “How fast can I get a CMMI certificate?” And my answer is, “How fast do you want to transform and change your company to be a great company?”

Because if you understand that question, you’ll understand it’s not something you can do in a couple of weeks or months. It’s a major undertaking to be a great company. As I say to my clients, this is a journey, not a race. You focus on being a great company, I will focus on helping you achieve a Maturity Level, and we’ll meet at the end.

So, you ask, “How long is it going to take for us to get to CMMI Level 3?” That depends on you, Jim. There is no magic formula here. The time it takes to get a Maturity Level is largely dependent upon your company, your culture, your desire, your process improvement planning, the way you prioritize your software process improvement projects and the amount of resources (both financial and human) that you are willing to apply. But more than anything, it depends on your focus.

How focused are you on being a great company?

Like this blog? Forward to your nearest engineering or software exec!

Jeff Dalton is a Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, Certified CMMI Instructor, author, and consultant with years of real-world experience with the CMMI in all types of organizations. Jeff has taught thousands of students in CMMI trainings and has received an aggregate satisfaction score of 4.97 out of 5 from his students.

Visit www.broadswordsolutions.com for more information about engineering strategy, performance innovation , software process improvement and running a successful CMMI program.

To download eBooks about CMMI, visit Jeff’s Author Page on Amazon.

What changes do we have to worry about due to the upgrade from CMMI-DEV v1.2 to CMMI-DEV v1.3?

Dear Appraiser,

It's been three years since our last SCAMPI Appraisal, and since then the CMMI has moved from v1.2 to v1.3.  That means a lot of us will be RE-APPRAISED on version v1.3.  We're pretty anxious about getting appraised again.  Can you tell us what the major differences are?  ~Ang in Albany

Dear Ang,

There were numerous changes to the CMMI when they upgraded from CMMI v1.2 to CMMI v1.3, and there were even MORE changes with the SCAMPI Method when it switched from SCAMPI v1.2 to SCAMPI v1.3.

Since you asked, over the next several days I'll be writing about some of those changes, giving you everything you need to know to prepare for your next appraisal.

But the BIGGEST thing that has changed in the last year is the the SEI is no longer the "CMMI Steward."  That's big news, and the new organization is called the "CMMI Institute."  The CMMI Institute is still an operating unit of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), and they still are the authority on all things CMMI.  While they have a new CEO, Kirk Botula, many of the same people who were part of the SEI's CMMI team have moved over to the CMMI Institute.

By the way, Lead Appraisers from all over the world are reporting that the responsiveness of the new CMMI Institute - especially as it pertains to appraisal reviews and acceptance - is excellent!

On my next post I'll jump into which Process Areas have changed, including one brand new one, and a few big things that are gone forever!

Like this blog? Forward to your nearest engineering or software exec! 

Jeff Dalton is a Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, Certified CMMI Instructor, author, and consultant with years of real-world experience with the CMMI in all types of organizations. Jeff has taught thousands of students in CMMI trainings and has received an aggregate satisfaction score of 4.97 out of 5 from his students.

Visit www.broadswordsolutions.com for more information about engineering strategy, performance innovation , software process improvement and running a successful CMMI program.

To download eBooks about CMMI, visit Jeff’s Author Page on Amazon.