5 Minutes with the CMMI Appraiser, Fifth Question: What is the CMMI Appraiser’s mission?

[Over the past several days, the CMMI Appraiser has been sharing snippets from a conversation with Bill Fox on 5 Minutes to Process Improvement Success™. Bill interviewed the CMMI Appraiser about how the CMMI can be used to create resiliency in the agile method. Here’s “An Iterative and Incremental Approach to Process Improvement with Jeff Dalton.”]

Hey, Jeff, you are addressing typically unseen issues that are below the waterline of the iceberg that, so often, many organizations seem to learn the hard way. How would you describe the mission of your company? ~ Bill Fox, 5 Minutes to PI Success

Hey, Bill, Broadsword’s mission is simple. We want to help people understand – really understand – that this discussion is about culture. It’s not about CMMI certification.

That’s the big message that I most often deliver to clients. As a matter of fact, I’m on my way to give a CMMI training in Dayton, Ohio on this subject. I will tell them that process isn’t overhead. Process is the definition of how we do work every day. That’s our mission.

At conferences, I use a little trick to shake people out of their old way of thinking. I talk about how I have a new way to spell “process.” Then I bring up on the screen a phonetic spelling of the word “engineering.” I let people look at it for a minute and decode it. Ultimately, you hear some folks say, “Ah-ha!” along with some laughter.

Why do I do this? I think it really makes the point that process isn’t this thing we do that adds overhead, time and energy. No, if you do it that way, then you did it wrong. Process is about how we perform engineering tasks every day.

Is that hard to accept? Not at all. Every engineer in the world, if he thinks about it and it’s presented to him the right way—and we think our agileCMMI method is that right way—any good engineer who hears this argument will be in agreement and will embrace it.

That’s the mission we’re on at Broadsword. That’s what we’re all about. We invite folks to learn more at our web site, www.broadswordsolutions.com.

Five minutes with the CMMI Appraiser is up.

And this concludes our “Five Minutes the the CMMI Appraiser” series. Please check back soon for information on downloading the free eBook, “Five Minutes the the CMMI Appraiser”. 

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 running a successful CMMI program.

5 Minutes with the CMMI Appraiser, Fourth Question: What makes the light come on?

[Over the next several days, the CMMI Appraiser has been sharing snippets from a conversation with Bill Fox on 5 Minutes to Process Improvement Success™. Bill interviewed CMMI Appraiser about how the CMMI can be used to create resiliency in the agile method. Here’s “An Iterative and Incremental Approach to Process Improvement with Jeff Dalton.”]

Hey, Jeff, when I have been involved with a successful implementation, I can see that idea take hold in people as they observe things happening and results happening and things changing. What makes it so that, all of a sudden, a light switches on with regards to agileCMMI? ~ Bill Fox, 5 Minutes to PI Success

Hey, Bill, I think the term "consultant" is used rather loosely with a lot of people. I believe that to be a total consultant means helping them understand culture, helping them communicate vision, helping them learn. These things are all above and beyond the CMMI certification discussion, right?

Anyone can claim to be a CMMI consultant. But only a small amount of people in the world have the requisite skills, training, experience, and certifications that qualify them for the task - and an even smaller group of them have a proven track record.

To make the light bulb come on, here are some things this CMMI Appraiser tries to make engineering and software professionals be aware of:

CMMI is about CHANGE. And change is hard. If your CMMI consultant doesn't demonstrate an understanding of the complexity of culture change, and have the consulting skills to help your organization set goals, communicate, solve problems, and help you transform in a positive way, then they don't have the skills to do the job.

CMMI is about leadership. If your CMMI consultant isn't experienced at bringing leadership into the process, isn't skilled with executive interaction, and doesn't know how to speak with and motivate your management in a professional and substantive way, then they don't have the skills to help you.

CMMI is about improvement. And improvement succeeds by applying incremental and iterative techniques to steadily improve performance over time. If your CMMI consultant doesn't come with a structured methodology that leads you through this process, they probably don't have what it takes to do the job.

CMMI is about behavior. It's not about forms, documents, and templates. If your CMMI consultant focuses on making you fill out forms and templates for everything, and wants you to produce hundreds of the deliverables, you should be asking yourself why this is useful - and decide if your consultant's approach makes sense for you.

CMMI is about choice. It's not about making everyone do the same thing. Every consultant comes with biases and past experience, but the good ones are open minded and focus on leading you to the right conclusions - not telling you what you should do. Trust me, they don't KNOW what you should do, because it depends on what you ARE doing. They don't work at your company and can't know what works until they spend some time with you. A lot of time.

These things are above and beyond the actual CMMI knowledge, which is routinely and astoundingly inadequate among many people who claim to be “CMMI consultants.”

So our methodology has all that built into it. It sort of came about over the years as just a reaction to all these problems that so-called CMMI consultants were causing our clients, before our clients came to us.  It's been great to see that light bulb come on.

Today's five minutes with the CMMI Appraiser is up.

Please check back soon for Question #5: What is the CMMI Appraiser’s mission?

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 running a successful CMMI program.

The Art of CMMI: Laying Plans

[Our good friend Shawn Rapjack, CMMI expert and seasoned consultant, is back with an interesting treatise on CMMI based on Sun Tzu's "The Art of War.” We're excited that Shawn has agreed to share segments of his article with you here on "Ask the CMMI Appraiser"]

Laying Plans

Reinventing the wheel is never wise.  As process improvement professionals, we strive to establish sound engineering strategies, to help our coworkers work more efficiently, to provide mentorship, and to be sound, diplomatic mediators. 

But such noble pursuits have already been invented and successfully employed – thousands of years ago by Sun Tzu.  (Talk about GP 3.2!!!!)

Sun Tzu was a Chinese military strategist and philosopher who authored the Art of War – a broad strategic masterpiece spanning military training, strategies and tactics – but also governance and social interaction. This book has been the bulwark of military institutions and the foundation of business strategies.  But let’s focus on its application to CMMI and process improvement!

The Art of War is divided into 13 chapters – for this, our first blog in a series, let’s discuss Chapter One, ‘Laying Plans’.

Sun Tzu knew that planning was where the ‘war’ was fought – and he provides us with many teachings to this effect.  This excerpt summarizes the Laying Plans chapter nicely:

The general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand.  Thus do many calculations lead to victory and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all!  It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose.

So, in our CMMI implementation experiences, promoting initial organizational planning is vital. The process team must establish and analyze business goals; implement organizational change management; and define / tailor engineering solutions.

Project plans must be written and tailored, reviewed, agreed upon and updated.  Such plans are valuable resources for reference, but importantly, it’s the thought that goes into them that’s key – this is where the ‘general is making his calculations’. 

Providing resources and creating estimates (more important calculations!) are crucial to winning your campaign!  Good estimation anticipates and counters many problems before they appear.  Cost and schedule estimates must be comprehensive and well-considered – for Sun Tzu, this would have been a matter of life and death, for us, this is a matter of project success.

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 running a successful CMMI and performance improvement program.

Five Minutes with the CMMI Appraiser, Third Question: Do companies need to be “sold” on agileCMMI?

[Over the next several days, the CMMI Appraiser will be sharing snippets from a conversation with Bill Fox on 5 Minutes to Process Improvement Success™. Bill interviewed the CMMI Appraiser about how the CMMI can be used to create resiliency in agile methods. Here’s “An Iterative and Incremental Approach to Process Improvement with Jeff Dalton.”]

Hey, Jeff, in terms of working with new clients, do you need to find organizations that embrace the agileCMMI methodology, or do you have to sell it? ~ Bill Fox, 5 Minutes to PI Success

Hey, Bill.  It’s an interesting question in our industry. If you talk to some of my peers, they would tell you about their reluctance to engage with clients who seek "CMMI certification" versus clients who really want to achieve greatness. Staying away from the former and only working with the latter is kind of a thing for some of them.  That's cool.

That approach doesn't fit for me, however.  I believe that everybody deserves a chance to be great, whether they realize it or not. At our company, we refer to this as the “Path to Greatness," and it’s our slogan.

Would we want more companies to come to us already looking for more ways to be great? Sure! But the truth is 50% of clients in our space come to us saying, “I need a CMMI certification,” or “The federal government says I need this piece of paper,” or “I need to be CMMI Level Two or CMMI Level Three.”

We say, that’s OK, business is business! And that’s the difference between this CMMI Appraiser and some other folks. If they don’t already have the “Path to Greatness” mentality, or appreciate the power of agileCMMI, I consider it part of my job to turn them, to change their minds.

But it goes even deeper than that. This is bigger than my company or my clients. I believe it’s our responsibility – all of us – to help companies understand the tremendous advantages of cultivating a strong desire to achieve greatness with the CMMI as one of their tools. As process improvement experts or CMMI consultants, it’s our job to help our clients understand why having a broader, more holistic attitude toward the CMMI is good for them.

See, the more we use the CMMI, and the more we work with companies that are using the CMMI, the more we realize that this is a model that's about how great companies perform.

Rarely does someone come to us with that understanding in advance. They just want a "CMMI certification," and they want to know the cost. My job is to say, “We can help you with this. We can help you get the certification.” I then start working with them and really start to change their attitude about how agileCMMI works and how it can benefit them.

Change doesn’t happen overnight. I would say that I need about three-to-six months with a client to change their cultural understanding of what it is they’re trying to do with CMMI anyway. The great thing is, once you help them believe it, they’re evangelists. They go off and spread the word very quickly among their people.

In my opinion, this is what is missing from our industry. There are a lot of so-called CMMI consultants out there because, frankly, it’s not that hard to put the acronym on your business card. Some of them  are pitching CMMI work, or process improvement work, and doing a disservice to the industry.  They tell clients that the CMMI is all about ratings and certificates.  They never mention paths or greatness.  Without that the CMMI is just an empty shell.

Sadly, there are very few guys and gals in our industry that get this.  But this is the real consulting help we can give to our clients. We can help them understand why this is approach is valuable to them, and how they can use it as a strategic weapon to grow their business.

That’s why I’m so passionate about this, Bill. I consider it part of my duty to educate everyone on that fact. I hope people who read this interview really get that CMMI is not about certifications or achieving levels, although that certainly is an outcome. Instead, the CMMI is about an organizational improvement strategy that can help companies be more powerful and productive.

Today's five minutes with the CMMI Appraiser is up.

Please check back soon for the Fourth Question: What makes the light come on for a successful agileCMMI adoption?

And don’t miss our next "CMMI: On Location" professional development experience. The CMMI Appraiser is on location in Washington DC on the topic of agileResiliency and using CMMI to make agile stronger at AgileDC conference on October 23rd.

Click to register here.

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 running a successful CMMI program.

Five Minutes with the CMMI Appraiser, Second Question: What was the genesis of agileCMMI?

[NOTE: Over the next several days, the CMMI Appraiser will be sharing snippets from a conversation with Bill Fox on 5 Minutes to Process Improvement Success™. Bill interviewed the CMMI Appraiser about how the CMMI can be used to create resiliency in the agile method. Here’s “An Iterative and Incremental Approach to Process Improvement with Jeff Dalton.”] 

Hey, Jeff, what was the genesis of getting to that strategy of using an iterative and incremental approach that you call agileCMMI? Did you evolve it over time? ~ Bill Fox, 5 Minutes to PI Success 

Hey, Bill.  My background is in consulting. I was with Ernst & Young for ten years, and in software development. In my days at Ernst & Young, when I was doing a lot of business consulting or process consulting, I noted that almost every process implementation was a failure. It’s a little bit like large-scale software development implementations often fail.

I really struggled with this.  I asked, “What’s the reason behind all this?” and I discovered two things. One is that human beings don’t learn in a Waterfall way; they learn in an incremental way. And adopting and using new processes is, above all else, a learning experience. People learning how to do things; people learning that this is good for them; people learning how to change the way that they think, because that’s really what process improvement is all about — changing the culture and changing the way we think.

So going back almost ten years, I really started thinking about, “How do we turn this on its head so that we can make process implementation a learning experience?” and I came to the conclusion that taking an iterative and incremental approach was the way to do that.

The second part of that is, as a software person, I realized that there are so many process experts out there in the industry, talking about Six Sigma, CMMI and process improvement, and ISO, and using all these sort of process-centric languages, and I realized that until we started talking to software developers and project managers in language they can understand—things like object orientation, encapsulation, polymorphism and all the words, phrases, and concepts associated with software development—that they really wouldn’t get what we were talking about.

This agileCMMI method not only takes the first concept of incremental and iterative design and deployment, but it also embraces the second concept, by presenting everything to developers in a language they understand and using UML diagrams and data flow diagram, things they’re used to using, as opposed to trying to shove them into the process world, which is a world they don’t want to be in.

All of these things together sort of brought me to the conclusion that process isn’t overhead.  Process isn’t this foreign thing that we make people do.  Process is another word for engineering.  And we, as a process-proven industry, have done an awful job over the decades really explaining that well enough.

Our agileCMMI methodology solves both of those problems, and we’ve had really good success with it. Clients embrace it wholeheartedly.  Some have even gone and started using it in other parts of their business, like sales, marketing, HR and finance.  It has really been a very successful adventure for us.

Today's five minutes with the CMMI Appraiser is up. 

Please check back soon for the Third Question: Do companies need to be “sold” on embracing agileCMMI?

And don’t miss our next "CMMI: On Location" professional development experience. The CMMI Appraiser is on location in Washington DC on the topic of agileResiliency and using CMMI to make agile stronger at AgileDC conference on October 23rd.

Click it for a ticket, and register here. 

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 running a successful CMMI program.

Meet an agile legend

Hey, readers. I have a question for YOU today. How many times in life do you get to meet someone who changed the course of your industry? ~ The CMMI Appraiser

Jim Highsmith, an outstanding author, and one of the original signatories of the Agile Manifesto, is such a man. And we all get a chance to meet him. Jim will be the Keynote Speaker at AgileDC 2012 on October 23.

Are you getting excited? This is a great opportunity to learn something new for those of you who work in the federal government sector. And it’s a great opportunity to meet Jim for agilistas, ScrumMasters, engineers, and software executives whose careers and lives have been shaped – like mine – by Jim’s work.

This CMMI Appraiser will be presenting at AgileDC as well. All are invited to come and learn about ways to make agile survive and thrive in the Federal Government.

If you’ve been reading Ask the CMMI Appraiser’s recent posts, you know how passionate I am about making agile survive by making it stronger. I think the way to make it stronger is with CMMI.

One point I emphasize in my presentation is that agile methods and values – indeed, every part of the agile architecture except for the techniques – are applicable to both agile and Waterfall. And CMMI is applicable to those also! This means, no matter what approach you take to developing software engineering solutions, the CMMI helps you get better at what you are ALREADY doing.

Here’s the link to register for the AgileDC conference, October 23, 2012, in Washington DC.

Come learn more!

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 running a successful CMMI program.

Five Minutes with the CMMI Appraiser: What’s the best process improvement strategy you've used?

[Over the next several days, the CMMI Appraiser will be sharing snippets from a conversation with Bill Fox on 5 Minutes to Process Improvement Success™. Bill interviewed the CMMI Appraiser about how the CMMI can be used to create resiliency in agile methods. Here’s “An Iterative and Incremental Approach to Process Improvement with Jeff Dalton.”]

Hey, Jeff, I’d like to start by asking: What’s the best process improvement, strategy or tactic that has worked really well for you or your clients? ~ Bill Fox, 5 Minutes to PI Success

Hey, Bill.  The hardest part of process improvement is not telling clients what they should do—that’s not even part of what we do.  It's not writing a process for them.  It’s not even getting them to write a process and propose one and deploy it, although that is useful. The hardest part, and the thing that’s most impactful and what works most for us, is how you deploy process improvement to the community. In other words, how you get people to embrace it and use it.

The approach my company Broadsword Solutions uses has been very successful.  It is an iterative and incremental approach we call agileCMMI, our branded approach.

agileCMMI uses agile methods such as incremental delivery, continuous build, collaboration, etc. It applies the same techniques we use when writing software to deploy process and get people to embrace process.

Embracing the process is key to overall success.  After all, the best process in the world is useless if you can’t get people to actually embrace it and adopt it.  And until they embrace it and adopt it, you don’t even know if the process you developed is even useful. 

agileCMMI helps organizations embrace processes successfully.  agileCMMI is an incremental method where we deploy small components of the process in releases over time. For example, we might release two or three sub-processes and test it out, and then once the company has embraced those small, easy to digest, useful things, we’ll give them another set of small, digestible, useful things.

We plan it all out in advance.  You are getting appropriate pieces at the appropriate times. And the reason it works is that’s how we learn. We learn as human beings by digesting things in very small pieces. So when you look at so many process implementations that have failed, you see some commonalities.  Typically the company tried to throw a big binder or a big website at all their employees and said, “This is going to be your new process.”  They were trying to get them to eat an elephant in one bite.

agileCMMI goes about this differently.  We're not going to force you to do anything.  We’re giving people very small components to start working with.  We'll keep feeding them those small bites over time until they have their complete process suite and their process improvement architecture and their methodology and everything they need will be implemented.  Sometimes this will take months.

During that time, you get these things in small, right-sized pieces, so that you can understand them, can put them in context.  Then you can start to embrace them and use them successfully.  That's what agileCMMI is all about, and that's why I would say it is the best process strategy we've used.  It's how we learn. 

Today's five minutes with the CMMI Appraiser is up.  Please check back soon for the Second Question: What was the genesis of the agileCMMI methodology? 

And don’t miss our next "CMMI: On Location" professional development experience. The CMMI Appraiser is on location in Washington DC on the topic of agileResiliency and using CMMI to make agile stronger at AgileDC conference on October 23rd.

Click it for a ticket, and register here. 

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 running a successful CMMI program.

How do I develop a pilot plan for our new CMMI-based processes?

Dear CMMI Appraiser, we are getting ready for our first SCAMPI-A appraisal, and have differing opinions among the managers about how to develop a pilot plan for our new CMMI-based processes. What do you recommend for a mid-sized life sciences product company in Dayton, Ohio? ~ Hersch E.

Dear Hersch, great question! The answer will apply not just to Ohio-based life sciences product companies like yours, but for any company seeking information on developing a pilot plan for any new CMMI-based processes. Of course, we don't like to think of them as "CMMI Process," but your own processes super-charged by the CMMI . . .but I digress.  Let me pass it along to Laura Adkins, a Senior CMMI Consultant with Broadsword, who does amazing work with companies who are piloting processes that are strengthened by the CMMI, in Ohio and throughout North America. Take it away, Laura! ~ The CMMI Appraiser

Thank you, CMMI Appraiser!

Hersch, at Broadsword we pilot all of the processes we develop as part of our agileCMMI methodology, before deploying them. The reason? You’ll hear us saying over and over that CMMI is not about “getting a CMMI rating.” It’s about changing your company to radically improve performance. The advantage of using an agileCMMI approach to radically improve performance is that it incrementally decreases risk and ensures your success.

As you go about developing a pilot program for your new CMMI-based processes, we recommend that you create a formal, written Process Pilot Plan that clearly spells out what your expectations are and who is included.

Here’s an example Table of Contents from a Process Pilot Plan:

As you see, beyond the agileCMMI methodology, we also recommend that your Process Pilot Plan includes the following elements: Scope, Approach, Duration and Timing, and Pilot Testing Participants.

SCOPE -- The Scope is to determine which processes were recently developed, which ones will be piloted, and which ones won’t. For example, sometimes you are developing processes that don’t necessarily have to be piloted, for example, an annual process, which is hard to do in a pilot scenario. After considering what was developed and what is applicable to be piloted, you then need to determine who will do the piloting whether it is user groups or projects.

It’s possible for a SEPG or user group to pilot a process. Some processes are tailored at the organizational level. More commonly however, Scope deals with projects, not user groups. Pilot testing at the project level must include a project that is going to be executing the processes that you are piloting in the next six weeks. In other words, look for projects that align with the processes that are being piloted.

APPROACH – After determining Scope, you’ll define your Approach. This includes documenting how to train and mentor pilot program participants, and how to collect feedback, as follows:

• To train pilot participants, you don’t necessarily need formal training. Often a dry run on your training will suffice for your first time presenting it. 
• To mentor pilot participants, you’ll need to select mentors and assign them to pilot projects. Your expectations to them need to be clear. 
• To collect feedback, it’s important to talk about how you are going to collect feedback. It can be done via email, or feedback can be captured in a document. Some companies allow participants to post feedback in blog posts. Your Approach defines how you will collect those experiences: where the feedback will be stored, what format it will be in and what medium will you use to collect it are all things that should be considered.

DURATION AND TIMING – On the topic of duration and timing, we recommend that you focus on being really specific. When is the pilot test starting? When is it ending? What is your duration? When is training going to occur? You must be clear on that, and break the pilot down into specific tasks.

PILOT TESTING PARTICIPANTS – The last aspect of defining your Process Pilot Plan is to identify in detail who will participate. You need to select your project(s) and list out all of the people that are involved in the project. These are your primary contacts. If you’ve identified groups or departments, you would list them out here. Even if they are playing a supporting role, you would want to identify them. Anyone who could potentially impact the pilot or provide any kind of feedback, you would want to identify them here, as well as your mentors from the process side of it.

These are the elements of your Process Pilot Plan. Good luck, Hersch! Let me know how it goes.

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.

Labels: CMMI, CMMI Appraisal, CMMI Assessment, CMMI Assessor, CMMI Certification, CMMI Consultant, CMMI Consulting, CMMI Training, Scrum, Scrum CMMI, Pilot testing, CMMI Ohio, CMMI Appraisal Ohio, life sciences product company Ohio

How do we strengthen our agile approach when the Federal Government keeps changing what we're doing?

Dear CMMI Appraiser,

Just found your blog.  We’re a Virginia-based contractor to the Federal Government and a “Waterfall” lifecycle company. For the past two years we’ve been switching some of our projects over to agile methods like Scrum, but so far we haven’t been able to scale it beyond the smallest projects. Part of the problem is that our government clients keep trying to change what we’re doing so it looks more "waterfall."  How would you deal with this? ~ Pete McC.

Pete, welcome to Ask the CMMI Appraiser. It’s good to have new readers. Thanks for your question.

The way this CMMI Appraiser sees it, you're fighting a two-headed monster.  And it's an ugly one, at that.

The first head of the monster that you face in adopting Scrum, or any of the agile methods, is internal. While you are off trying to be a Scrum team, your company’s leaders are off trying to be a Waterfall team.  In fact, I bet if I were to look through all of your departments, not just software engineering, but accounting, marketing and sales, operations, I would find that your CEO, CIO and COO are off living in a Waterfall world.  That's one reason Scrum projects can’t scale and why you might feel you're not getting much traction. 

The second head of the monster is external. By trying to change what you are doing, the Federal Government is actively, but probably un-knowingly, weakening your agile values. And if it’s a struggle between the Federal Government and agile, we all know who is going to win!

Both of these challenges are fixable, Pete.  But neither is going to get solved this year. The problem is bigger than you and I. I recommend that you start working on techniques you can use to strengthen Agile, and build a process integration layer to get your agile teams to talk to the business leaders. The CMMI is the perfect tool for that.

By using CMMI as a framework (as opposed to slavishly adhering to practices) you’ll be in a position to deal with BOTH heads of the monster. Consider:

First, the CMMI provides a framework for your agile teams to talk to the business leaders, helping them understand how well agile methods are working for THEM, and to communicate important information to other stakeholders like middle management, customers, and accounting. And when you're ready to test it - go ahead and have a CMMI Appraisal.

Yes, I said it.  CMMI Appraisals can be very beneficial for Agile organizations - assuming the Lead Appraiser you're working with gets it - not necessarily an easy task!

Second, the practices that CMMI makes available to you include those that help bring greater clarity and strength to the Scrum ceremonies themselves (the “Specific Practices” in the CMMI), and those that help strengthen the understanding, adoption, and continuous improvement of the Agile values and behaviors (the “Generic Practices” in the CMMI).  So, the way to make agile survive and flourish in the Federal Government is to make it stronger. And the way to make agile stronger is with CMMI.

Don't CHANGE it - make it better!

Now that you found us, keep checking this blog for updates, Pete.  I will be posting much more on the topic of using the CMMI to strengthen agile, so that you will be in a better position to defeat the two-headed monster once and for all.

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 running a successful CMMI program.

The Federal Government says we need to "do agile." Can you help us unravel that statement?

Hey Jeff,

This year all we've heard from the folks over at the Federal Government is that we have to start being "agile."  My guys are really talented, are doing daily meetings, and they've always been collaborative.  Isn't that agile? ~Name withheld (so people don't think I'm dumb)

Dear "He who shall not be named,"

I don't blame you for withholding your name!  We work in an industry where both sides of the coin, customers and engineers, are both passionate about agile without much good information.  Whenever I give a speech about agile I say to myself "keep your head down, Jeff, there's gonna be fruit flying!"

For some reason, discussions about agile generate a lot of passion.  Bring it!

Last week I was speaking to such a group of "agile evangelists" and every time I said the word "requirements" a young woman corrected me by screaming "VALUE!" Throughout my speech she insisted that there were no requirements in Agile, only VALUE.  I could have suggested she consider re-factoring her concerns so that the "most valuable" comments came first, but I held my tongue.

When the government says "be more agile," they may be thinking "give me stuff faster and cheaper."  When engineers say they want to "be more agile," too many of them seem to be thinking "no one watches over me and there is no evidence that I followed any process at all.

As far as what the government ACTUALLY means when they say "be more agile," your guess is as good as mine!  I do know that in the battle between Government and Agile, the victor is predictable.

In order to unravel the meaning of "Agile," it helps to think of it as a three-tiered architecture.

Tier 1 - Values

This tier defines the values that dictate the way we work.  Values are the agile equivalent to "policies" in the CMMI (although the implementation of so many of the "CMMI-style" policies have distorted this to mean "the rules).  The values tier defines the things that are most important to us, and the things that, presumably, the organization would like us to keep focused on.  You see? Policies.

Some of these agile values inspire transparency, collaboration, hiring the right people, fail-fast, inspect and adapt, share the work, and others.

NOTE: (or rant, however you want to interpret it).  "Traditional Waterfall" style projects can easily have these same values! And guess what?  When they do, they are called well run projects!

Tier 2 - Methods

Tier 2 defines the WAY we do work, and that WAY is derived from the values in Tier 1.  All of the methods selected must adhere to the values.  In this way we adapt the concept of "traceability" to process improvement (thank you again, CMMI!).

Clients who work with Broadsword often hear me talk about "the WAY."  Your "way" is derived from the values and methods use choose to create and adopt.

Methods describe the sequence, interfaces, style, and the workflow of much of what we do.  In this context, I use the words "method" or "framework" while I'm working with our clients.  I think of them as synonymous.

In an "agile" environment, the most common methods (frameworks) are Scrum, Extreme Programming, Spiral and Crystal, with the first two being the most common.  If I've left one out, please don't throw tomatoes . . . this isn't a user guide!

For example, Scrum defines ceremonies, artifacts, and roles, and presents a sequence (Releases, Sprints, et al) for us to deliver our service or product in the context of values.

See Rant above.....this can ALSO be done in a Waterfall world.


Tier 3 - Techniques

Techniques are the things we do everyday, within the selected method, in adherence with the values.  There as some techniques that are unique to methods, and some that span the entire family of methods.

Use of the retrospective, backlog grooming ("story time"), User Stories, Story Points, Planning Poker, Fibonacci cards, the Sprint Review (Demo), and others are examples of techniques that are normally associated with agile methods.

Rant again . . .  (see above rant).

So, adoption of techniques without the corresponding methods and values (such as "we do a daily meeting") does not make you "Agile."  If you think about it architecturally (as the CMMI does), you'll find that true "Agile" is a heckuva lot more robust than most people think, which is one reason that Agile, when executed with integrity, works.

By the way, do you know what we call all three of these tiers together?  PROCESS.

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 running a successful CMMI program.
Copyright (c) 2012 Broadsword Solutions Corporation

As we adopt the CMMI, how do we improve internal communications?

Dear CMMI Appraiser, since we launched our scientific, engineering, and technology applications company in 2005, we have grown rapidly, despite having a constant challenge with rework. Now that we are adopting the CMMI, we realize that our true challenge is not eliminating rework, but improving the way we do all of our work, including the way we communicate. On that topic, how do you recommend we go about improving our internal communications? ~ Jenn B. 

Jenn, It sounds like you have had a major breakthrough in understanding the true power of CMMI which is improving the way you do your work. A discipline known as Organizational Change Management (OCM) is a specialty of 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!

Jenn, how cool that adopting the CMMI has helped you see that the way you do your work is what’s most important. To improve internal communications, I recommend that you create a Communication Plan to disseminate key messages to your stakeholders in a timely and effective manner. Here is a free template:

I always encourage companies to use this tool after they do their stakeholder analysis (see How do I identify stakeholders for adopting our CMMI-based process improvement program?). The reason is, you need to know who is impacted by the changes that your organization is implementing before you can effectively communicate with them.

Populating the columns of the Communication Plan is fairly straight-forward. Start with audience:

• Who do you need to reach?
• What messages do they need to receive?
• Who needs to send the messages?
• What reactions do we want? In other words, what is the desired outcome? What behaviors do we desire from them? Do we want them to take action? If so, what action?

Next, let’s take a look at the medium, materials, frequency and timing.

• Medium – what type of communication channel will you use to disseminate the key message? This might be an email, post on a web site portal, a newsletter, a virtual meeting, a Daily Scrum or an all-hands meeting.
• Materials – these are the physical pieces of collateral, the email attachments handouts, cards or buttons that accompany the message.
• Frequency of communication – some of these messages are delivered regularly (e.g., monthly). Others are one-time only messages.
• Timing – Once we’ve drafted all of the key messages we want to send, we think about when they need to be disseminated to enable the desired outcomes to occur at the times in the Process Improvement Program (or other business transformation initiative) when we want them to occur. We may indicate the week or the month in which the communication takes place, or identify a specific date.

The next piece, the Key Message column, is the heart of the Communication Plan. This column allows you to assign one key message per communication. This is important to your team. Remember, it’s no small task you’re asking for. They are learning new behaviors that can improve their performance and help you be a great company. So plan well.

When you are done populating the Communication Plan template, return to your Stakeholder Analysis and Program Plan. Compare these, and confirm the following:

• Have you touched all the people listed in the Stakeholder Analysis?
• Are your communications timed to happen at the right time throughout the CMMI Process Improvement Program?

A Communication Plan can be a useful road map for disseminating the information that stakeholders need to understand and adopt the changes that their organization is implementing. Planning internal communications in a way that aligns with your organization’s CMMI Process Improvement Program will accelerate the adoption of the new processes. Timely, informative messages will also eliminate some of the confusion and change resistance that stakeholders feel along the way.

Good luck!

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.