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.

Agile Resiliency: 2 Ways to Learn on 4/3/13

Dear Readers,

A few weeks ago, as the nation's capital braced for the “snowquester” storm, my presentation on Agile Resiliency at DC SPIN was postponed.

Well, the sun is shining again, and we're doubling our efforts to help you learn about using the CMMI to strengthen the agile values, methods, and techniques in your company, making them resilient and strong.

Check it out. On Wednesday, April 3rd, your friendly neighborhood CMMI Appraiser is live ONLINE and ON LOCATION in Northern Virginia, bringing you two ways to learn:

Both presentations are LIVE, both are FREE, and both provide useful information about putting your company on the path to greatness. Choose to attend the Webinar at 1pm ET, or the presentation at DC SPIN in Fairfax, VA at 7pm ET ... or both!

Click HERE to register for the Live Webinar (April 3rd @1pm ET):
 "Agile Resiliency: How CMMI Enables Agile to Thrive and Survive"

Click HERE to register for the Live Presentation at DC SPIN (April 3rd @7pm ET, Fairfax, VA):
"Agile Resiliency: How CMMI Enables Agile to Thrive and Survive"

Why do we need Agile Resiliency?

One of the hottest issues right now is how to make agile strong, scalable, and accepted by an enterprise that is anything but agile  – or, as we say, how to create “agile resilience.”

Agile is, by definition,  a loose collection of methods and techniques. And, yes, there are always concerns that TOO much discipline will cause us different problems.  What to do?

 If we want agile to remain agile, and not go down the same road that "waterfall" went down (it wasn't always top-heavy and burdensome) we need to agree on a resilient model that can withstand the pressures of the large adopters that are comingon-line:  the DOD, the federal government, and manufacturers in the aerospace and automotive industries.  It is time to start building a resilient agile architecture.

That’s what the Live Webinar and Live Presentation at DC SPIN on April 3rd are all about. We hope you can make it!

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.

Final Thoughts on Integrating OCM Deliverables in Your Process Improvement Plan (Phase III, Operate, continued)

Dear Readers,

Today’s post is a continuation of our response to a question from a federal government contractor in Central Ohio, who asked about integrating Organizational Change Management (OCM) deliverables into his process improvement plan. Julie Calfin, Broadsword’s Director of Consulting and our resident expert on OCM, has done great work helping software and engineering professionals who are leading their organizations through large scale change. Take it away, Julie! ~ The CMMI Appraiser 

Thank you, CMMI Appraiser!

Before I address Organizational Alignment Assessment and Action Plan, which make up the final component of the Third Phase (Operate) of integrating OCM deliverables into your process improvement plan, I want to take a step back and remind everyone why this work is important in the first place.

There is a very simple reason that organizations invest in OCM. They want to have a smooth transition that keeps their projects on time and budget while they are asking their people to do things differently.

For that reason, OCM should always be embedded in whatever the transfer initiative is. In this case, we are talking about integrating OCM deliverables with the process improvement plan.

In previous posts, we discussed the OCM deliverables that can be added to each phase of your Process Improvement Plan that will help you affect the change you are striving for. The Phases that we have outlined for your Process Improvement Plan are: 1) Initiate; 2) Implement; and 3) Operate.

Today, our focus is on the Organizational Alignment Assessment and Action Plan deliverable in the third phase, Operate:

Organizational Alignment Assessment – The purpose of the Organizational Alignment Assessment is to identify which of the organization’s “systems” need to change to align with the changes that your process improvement program implemented. Some examples of organizational systems are:

• Organizational design and structure – jobs, the number of people performing each job and the relationships between/among jobs
• Performance management – measures used to gauge performance and the methods used to evaluate employees
• Compensation, benefits, and incentives – pay, vacation, rewards, and benefits that are offered to attract talented professionals and to incent high performance
• Hiring and promoting – practices and criteria used to hire new talent and to promote existing employees to higher level jobs
• Education and development – resources available to equip employees with the knowledge, skills, and abilities they need to perform their jobs effectively
• Corporate communications – resources and methods used to disseminate important information to employees and collect their feedback

Organizational systems are really performance levers that help you change the culture of the organization. Just like the levers on the instrument panel of an aircraft, we can bring performance up or down by utilizing our organizational systems as performance levers.

This tool is separate from the Stakeholder Commitment Assessment. It is bigger, broader and more strategic in nature. Here’s how it works. Now that the organization has implemented process changes and new tools to enable the process, and has created new roles and new jobs in the organization, leadership can use the Organizational Alignment Assessment to look at all of the organizational systems and see if they are still aligned with all of the changes introduced. You build an assessment tool to investigate each of the organizational systems in the context of the changes to people, process, and technology. Then, you evaluate all the systems that the organization has, and decide if (and how) those systems need to change to align with the changes that you’ve just introduced.

The Organizational Alignment Assessment tool is highly useful. It helps you answer, “Are things getting better?” as well as, “How do you know?” It gives you information to make the changes necessary to establish the type of environment that can make you a great company.

Organizational Alignment Assessment Action Plan – This Action Plan helps you answer additional questions, such as, “Are your organizational systems (like performance management and compensation) still aligned with the new processes and tools? Which organizational systems need to change to align with the changes implemented by the process improvement program?”

As its name implies, the Organizational Alignment Assessment Action Plan is based on the results of the organizational alignment assessment. This assessment helps you identify which of the organizational systems needs to change to align with the changes that your process improvement program implemented.

This Action Plan will include actions that the organization needs to take to align its systems with its new jobs, processes, and tools. Each action will have an associated owner and a due date. Actions typically include changes to the organizational systems that are no longer aligned with the way the organization does its work. For example, if new jobs were created or additional workload was added to existing jobs, the organizational design and structure need to change. Actions may include writing new or updated job descriptions and evaluating how many people are needed to perform each job. Other actions may involve changing the reporting structure within the organization to enable new relationships between jobs.

This concludes my answer to the question about how to integrate OCM deliverables into the process improvement plan. I hope you have found it useful! If I could leave you with one insight, it is this: OCM is not some ethereal or ambiguous concept. OCM is a strategy and a set of tactics that help you get your people to change their behavior without hurting them or your business.

The rest is up to you.

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.

How to Integrate OCM Deliverables in Your Process Improvement Plan (Phase III, Operate)

Dear Readers,

Over the course of many poignant blog posts here at Ask the CMMI Appraiser, Julie Calfin, Broadsword’s Director of Consulting and our resident expert on Organizational Change Management (OCM), has been responding to the inquiries of software and engineering professionals who are leading their organizations through large scale change. Today’s post is a continuation of our response to a question from a federal government contractor in Central Ohio, who asked about integrating OCM deliverables into his process improvement plan. Take it away, Julie! ~ The CMMI Appraiser 

Thank you, CMMI Appraiser!

For those just joining us, this conversation has been about applying the discipline known as OCM in a structured but agile manner, using the CMMI as one of your tools, in order to help your organization transition from wherever you are today to wherever you want to be tomorrow.

As I mentioned in previous posts, there are OCM deliverables that can be added to each phase of your Process Improvement Plan that will help you affect the change you are striving for. The Phases that we have outlined for your Process Improvement Plan are: 1) Initiate; 2) Implement; and 3) Operate.

Today, our focus is on the OCM deliverables in the Third Phase, Operate:

Phase III, Operate, is a critical part of your OCM strategy. The Operate Phase is the point in the Process Improvement Plan where you have deployed your new processes and are now monitoring their deployment. This phase is all about measuring the results of the processes. How well are the processes performing? Are they achieving the desired results? And most importantly: How do you know?

The Operate Phase gives us data about how well the process works. After all, if we don't know that - why are we doing this?

Some of the OCM deliverables in the Operate Phase include topics we’ve already covered, such as the status dashboard, ongoing training and mentoring, and ongoing communications. But there is an important deliverable we have not yet discussed, the Stakeholder Commitment Assessment and Action Plan.

Stakeholder Commitment Assessment – The purpose of the Stakeholder Commitment Assessment is to determine how committed your stakeholders are to the behavior changes that you are asking them to make. A Stakeholder Commitment Assessment helps you inform management where you think the stakeholders are with regard to the changes that your Process Improvement Program has implemented. Are they onboard with little evidence of change resistance? Are there some issues? Is a stakeholder group resisting the new ways of doing things? Are there any correlations between the stakeholder groups’ commitment levels to indicate that one group is influencing another?

I recommend assessing the different stakeholder groups that were identified in your Stakeholder Identification and Analysis deliverable from the Initiate Phase. The assessment can be a survey or an interview questionnaire that includes questions to reveal the level of commitment from each stakeholder. For example, the survey may include a statement such as, “Most people in my group seem committed to making the changes that are necessary to perform the company’s new CMMI-based processes.” Survey-takers would indicate their response to this statement by a six-point scale that ranges from “Strongly Agree” to “Strongly Disagree”.

We may choose to represent this information using a simple stoplight chart where red (danger), yellow (potential problem) and green (no problem) indicators are provided for each stakeholder group. Or, we could demonstrate this information using a dashboard with gauges (like in your car) that point to a number between 0 and 10. Such a dashboard would indicate the current commitment level of each stakeholder group.

Keep in mind, regardless of how you display the data, this is anecdotal information. It is based on interviews and survey results and is not intended to be ultra precise. Instead, it serves to help you understand where your stakeholders are on the commitment curve.

Do you remember that, when you created the Stakeholder Identification and Analysis (in the Initiate Phase), you gave each stakeholder a rating about how impacted they would be by the changes, and another rating for how influential could they be to influence people either for or against the change? The Stakeholder Commitment Assessment helps you determine how accurate you were in that initial analysis. Because this is ongoing, the Stakeholder Commitment Assessment is performed multiple times throughout a process improvement program. Based on the results, you can identify any problems and develop your action plan to address those problems, outlining the steps the organization needs to take to bring these stakeholders up the commitment curve to adoption and institutionalization.

Now, to put the Stakeholder Commitment Assessment into action:

Stakeholder Commitment Assessment Action Plan – The Stakeholder Commitment Assessment Action Plan helps you answer the question, “What are you going to do for each stakeholder group to get them on board with the change, and bring them up the Commitment Curve?”

This Action Plan contains specific actions that the organization will take to gain the commitment of high risk stakeholder groups and to sustain the commitment of stakeholders who are adopting the changes. Each action will have an associated owner and a due date. Actions typically include communications, mentoring, training, and incentives. In cases where there is a large segment of the organization’s stakeholders who are resisting the changes, the organization may need to take more significant actions such as reorganizing departments, changing reporting structures, hiring new people, or reassigning people who cannot adopt the changes.

There is one more aspect of integrating OCM deliverables into your process improvement plan that I would like to address in a separate post: your Organizational Alignment Assessment and Action Plan. Check back soon!

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.

Can you tell us how to get a CMMI Level in the next three weeks?

Dear Appraiser,

Emergency!  We've won a new contract and they tell us we have to be CMMI ML3 in the next three weeks.  We don't know anything about CMMI, but my boss says if we use Agile we can make it.  Can you tell us how to do that? ~ Desperate

Dear Desperate:

No.


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.

Where can I find resources to help me use CMMI and Agile?

Dear Appraiser,

When we read the CMMI it doesn't appear to support the use of Agile.  But on your blog you talk about it all the time.  Where can I find more information?  ~Tyra

Tyra,

You're right!  The CMMI does not read like an "agile friendly" model.  In fact, it's methodology agnostic, and doesn't read like ANY methodology  (although if it "leans" one way or the other, it's towards the "waterfall" world).  

The other wrinkle is that, unlike agile, it doesn't speak directly to values - although they are embedded throughout the model more than you might think.

The trick to making this all work is to understand the INTENT of the practices, goals, and process areas, instead of reading it literally and trying to "comply" with what is written.

In my talk on "Agile Resiliency" (which I'm giving at the Boston SPIN next week), I discuss turning the CMMI into a set of questions, instead of a set of statements.  "HOW do we estimate the scope of the project?" instead of "Establish a WBS to estimate the scope of the project."  If you do it with story points and planning poker, that's OK!

For example, a "Work Breakdown Structure," used for estimating the scope of the project in the CMMI ("PP SP1.1"), is intended to scope out the project size, along with all of it's major components.  In an agile world, a product backlog, set of epics, and maybe a product plan ALSO do these things.  So, if they're done well, they will meet the INTENT of the CMMI, if not the literal words in the book.

For more information check out some of the many posts on this blog about Agile and CMMI.  You can also check out:


Cutter IT Journal article on Scrum and CMMI that I wrote (free download): http://www.cutter.com/offers/agiledalton.html

SEI Technical Report I co-wrote for the SEI on CMMI and Agile  (free download):  http://broadswordsolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/CMMIandAGILE.pdf

My eBooks on Amazon: www.broadswordsolutions.com/cmmiebooks

Hillel Glazer's excellent blog: www.agileCMMI.com

Good luck!

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.

7 scary situations that CMMI can help you overcome

Hey CMMI Appraiser, the CMMI seems very mysterious and I’m worried it might actually hurt the way we do business. Why do companies choose to adopt the CMMI? ~ from a recent phone conversation 

Dear Readers,

The other day I spoke with a Quality Assurance Manager who said she was doing some research on engineering performance improvement methods and tools. From what she had gleaned from the so-called CMMI experts, the CMMI requires companies to fill out a lot of forms and document everything.  Worse, it forces everyone to all behave in exactly the same way, completely without creativity, and destroys the company culture. “The CMMI is a mystery to me,” she said. “Why do companies choose to adopt it?”

It sounded more like a horror movie to me!

I reassured my new friend that the CMMI is none of those things. It is intended as a tool to help you make your job environment much better. Spoiler alert! This is supposed to be fun.

So why do companies choose the CMMI? In my work as a CMMI Appraiser, I see the same seven scary situations that software and engineering professionals have overcome with the CMMI.  If you share their challenges, these are the advantages you are likely to receive:

1. If you are having trouble with estimates, CMMI can help make your estimates better.
2. If you are having trouble with late projects, CMMI can help improve predictability.
3. If your bosses are micromanaging you, CMMI can give them more information to help them understand what is going on with projects.
4. If you have a lot of tedious rework, CMMI can help avoid that by making sure the requirements are right when you get them, bringing clarity and validation to the process.
5. If you have unhappy customers, CMMI can help put a framework in place that helps you manage their expectations.
6. If you experience a lot of chaos in your business, CMMI can help you bring stability to that as well.
7. If you are a great company but are struggling to define and scale the Way you do business, companywide, the CMMI can help.

For more information on how the CMMI can help solve common business problems, everyone is invited to check out our upcoming learning opportunities:

CMMI ON LOCATION: BOSTON
March 19, 2013, in Bedford, Massachusetts @ Boston SPIN – "Agile Resiliency: How CMMI Can Make Agile Thrive and Survive"

CMMI ON LOCATION: DETROIT
April 26, 2013, in Detroit, Michigan @ PMI Great Lakes 2013 Symposium – “Agile Resiliency” and "Process Innovation at the Speed of Life"

CMMI ON LOCATION: NORTHERN VIRGINIA
May 8, 2013, in Fairfax, Virginia, in partnership with CC Pace – "Agile CMMI Learning Day"

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.

Pilot Testing: Real World Problems (and their Solutions)

Dear CMMI Appraiser, I find your posts about pilot testing very useful. What do we do when we don’t have enough projects using the process we want to test? ~ Kevin D.

Dear Kevin, thanks for making Ask the CMMI Appraiser a part of your day! All posts on pilot testing come from Laura Adkins, a Senior CMMI Consultant with Broadsword. Laura does amazing work with companies that are piloting processes that are strengthened by the CMMI, throughout North America. Take it away, Laura! ~ The CMMI Appraiser

 Thank you, CMMI Appraiser!

Kevin, great question! We always love to hear from companies like yours that are applying our piloting tips and techniques in the real world. Since we all live in the real world, I will take this opportunity to answer your question by listing the top three problems (and their solutions) that companies are telling us about.

Top 3 Problems with Pilot Testing:

1) Not enough projects – As you pointed out, Kevin, sometimes organizations do not have enough projects of the right type, size, or complexity to pilot the process they want to test.

2) Not enough time – Organizations are in a hurry. They may feel they don’t have the time to pilot processes. Management may not see the benefits of performing pilot testing.

3) Misaligned projects – Schedules don’t align, where projects are already past the point where you need them to be, or the Lifecycle Phases aren’t measuring up the way you’d want them to be for piloting specific processes.

Top 3 Solutions for Pilot Testing:

1) Not enough projects? It’s important to analyze the project pipeline ahead of time and anticipate what is coming up. That way, if you know a viable project is available within a couple weeks of when you want to pilot test, you can adjust your piloting timeline so that it captures that project at the right time. You might also consider widening the scope of the pilot to other parts of the organization that are not going to be a part of your CMMI appraisal. For example, you can take some other business unit in the company, and have them test the processes. It’s better to have some feedback than none at all.

2) Not enough time? We find the best approach is to build a process release plan, up front, that includes time for pilot testing processes. It should be clear to management that, when you take the extra time to pilot processes and update the processes with feedback from the pilot, you are preventing rework down the road, and eliminating the need to deploy a process a second time. This saves time and effort, and avoids confusion.

3) Misalignment? We recommend that you take what you can get, even if it means piloting a project that’s already in progress. For example, a project may already be past a certain point, but there will still be other phases that you can learn from. It also may make sense to review a project that is recently finished. In that case, you can go through and analyze what they did, and how your new processes would have affected them, and identify some lessons learned that way. It’s kind of like an on-paper pilot testing. If it’s recent, you can find value in that.

I hope this information is useful, Kevin. Please let us know if you encounter any other challenges with piloting your processes. We’re here to help!

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.

Can I get PMI PDU's for sitting on a SCAMPI appraisal team?

Dear Appraiser,

I was a member of a SCAMPI A Appraisal team.  The appraisal lasted for 10 days.  My subteam focused on the Project Mgmt PA(s).  Would I be eligible to report any PDUs based on this activity? ~Wendi

Wendi,

Thank you for writing in!  Being on a CMMI SCAMPI Appraisal team is a rewarding and enjoyable event - although you might not have thought about it that way at the time!

I am not aware that the PMI offers PDUs for being part of an appraisal team, but you should be able to get at least EIGHT PDUs for taking the SCAMPI Appraisal Team Training class, and another twenty-one for taking the required "Introduction to CMMI" class (both are pre-requisites for appraisal team members).  Neither class (or provider) is listed in their database, but if you enter it in as "other" (and keep your certificate), you should be golden.

Hope this helps!

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.

Just getting started with CMMI and engineering process Improvement?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser, I am just getting started with CMMI and engineering process improvement. Is there a good book for beginners? ~ Rikin F.

Hey, Rikin! It’s always a pleasure to welcome new professionals to the rapidly expanding world of engineering process improvement and the CMMI. Personally, I find the CMMI to be highly engaging and rewarding, both personally and professionally. That’s why I spend so much time creating content – including Webinars and eBooks -- to help new engineering and software professionals, like you, learn about using the CMMI as one of the tools that can help improve performance, and put you on the path to greatness.

So, yes, for anyone looking for good information about CMMI for beginners, I invite you to check out some of my popular eBooks available on Amazon (see below):

The CMMI Appraiser’s CMMI Ebooks Available at Amazon:

“How to Spell CMMI”

"How to Spell CMMI" is an introduction to the popular performance improvement model known as the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI). In this book, executives, engineers, and business professionals learn how to think about applying the CMMI to solve their most pressing business challenges. Improving software delivery, achieving a CMMI “certificate” or CMMI Level 2 or CMMI Level 3 rating, developing a strategic weapon to help attract and retain new customers, or getting on the path to becoming a great company – whatever your goals, you’ll find refreshing strategies, insights and humor in, "How to Spell CMMI, An Introduction to the Organizational Performance Improvement Model Everyone’s Buzzing About!"

“Secrets of SCAMPI”

“The Secrets of SCAMPI” is a practical guide that takes engineering and software professionals inside the changing SCAMPI Appraisal. You will be introduced to the new concepts in the latest release of SCAMPI. You will see how they impact the way CMMI Appraisals are conducted. With this guide, you will come to understand how your Lead Appraisers and Appraisal Teams will be evaluating your organization. “The Secrets of SCAMPI” demystifies the process, and lets you in on the secrets of having a successful Appraisal. Spoiler alert – the first secret might shock you: This is supposed to be fun!

There are some other good "hard-copy" books you might want to check out.  One of them is "Real Process Improvement Using the CMMI" by Michael West.  Michael is a good friend and a great author.  It's been around for a while, and it's a good read.  Michael is coming out with a new book in April called "Return on Process: Getting Real Performance Results from Process Improvement."  I'm looking forward to reading it and reviewing it on this blog.

Another one is "High Performance Operations" by Hillel Glazer.  Hillel's also a good friend and an all-around awesome guy.

Hope you enjoy these quick, informative reads, Rikin!  For more eBooks about CMMI, please visit my Author Page on Amazon.

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.

How do we test our process without adding even more process?

Dear CMMI Appraiser, is there a way to test our new process without adding even more new process? It seems we are at risk of getting bogged down by layering process of top of process. ~ Samuel B.

Dear Samuel, great question! We are often answering this question for our clients – whether we’re doing a CMMI appraisal, CMMI consulting or CMMI training – which shows that there is a lot of confusion about what process actually is. Allow me share your question with Laura Adkins, a Senior CMMI Consultant with Broadsword, who does amazing work with companies who are piloting processes that are strengthened by the CMMI, throughout North America. Take it away, Laura! ~ The CMMI Appraiser

Thank you, CMMI Appraiser!

Samuel,

As the CMMI Appraiser likes to say, engineering IS process. Process is nothing more than a name for how we perform our tasks. There should be no heavy rule book hanging over our heads that gives us overhead and makes us do extra work. We like to say that, done properly, process is “underhead,” not overhead.

To answer your question, yes, there is a way to pilot your new process efficiently and effectively. We recommend three actions to perform when testing projects that are using a new process: Mentor, Monitor and Measure. To help make them memorable, we call them “The Three M’s”.

M is for Mentoring

Mentors are a valuable aspect of piloting your projects because they are responsible for teaching others, so that the new behaviors they’ve learned can be tested. We recommend that you use criteria to select mentors, including the following:

• Availability: The people you select as mentors must be able to commit the necessary time (perhaps 2-3 hours per week, depending on how many projects are in the pilot) to do the mentoring.
• Knowledge: Mentors need to be knowledgeable enough of the process to be able to educate others to use it. Not everyone is a teacher.
• Proactivity: Mentors need to meet weekly with pilot projects, and they have to be proactive about approaching them and setting up meetings, then regularly meeting with them and following through.

M is for Monitoring

In addition to meeting weekly with the participants in the pilot project, the mentor should then report the status of the pilot to your SEPG or EPG so that the engineering process group is current on how the pilot is progressing. They will also be making sure that PPQA evaluations are planned at the end of pilot projects to see how they did.

M is for Measuring

We all know measuring is important with process and performance improvement initiatives – otherwise it is impossible to know if you’ve improved. But what measures should you look at when piloting projects? Each of the newly developed processes that you are looking at should have had measures defined. Your goal during the pilot is to collect those measures. You want to make sure that the measures you’ve defined make sense, and that people are able to understand what they are and capture them. You also will collect process related experiences when you have your retrospective, which is another form of measuring. Finally, you will analyze your PPQA findings when the project does finish.

As you go forward, Samuel, remember that you are building a product, and that product is the process you use to do your work. Furthermore, that product has work products and training and tools and techniques associated with it, just like any software product does. And the product needs to be tested.

At Broadsword, we use our branded agileCMMI approach, which allows organizations to build things, pilot them, learn as they go, get feedback, determine what changes to make and make them. Because agileCMMI calls for performing incremental actions and building upon everything that has come before, work is done in short iterations. Organizations go through an incremental and iterative process over time, until they have a complete, high performing engineering process.

The reason I share this is to reinforce our statement that process is nothing more than the way you do your work. You can call it “process,” “engineering,” or even “fixing egg salad sandwiches,” but the one constant with adopting the agileCMMI approach, or any other approach to piloting, regardless of constellation or model, is the ability to take what you are already doing, and make it better.

Performing the three M’s will help you do that.

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.

What do you do when you can’t get people to embrace a new process?

Dear CMMI Appraiser, since our merger last year, my role has been to help the new organization embrace process improvement companywide. I have experience with the CMMI (we achieved a CMMI Level 3 rating in 2011), so I assumed this would be a smooth transition. Unfortunately, people here have been resisting the new process we've designed. What can you recommend? ~ Sandy M.

Sandy, you aren’t alone with this challenge. As the adoption of CMMI has grown over the years, many executives have told me they were eager to bring their successful engineering strategies and tools to their new companies, only to meet with resistance. Though they use different words when asking for help, what I often hear them saying is: “How do I get people to eat an elephant in one bite?”

The answer is self-evident: You don’t.

What this CMMI Appraiser often recommends instead is an iterative and incremental approach we call agileCMMI. The agileCMMI approach uses agile techniques such as incremental delivery, continuous build and collaboration, strengthened with the architectural structure of the CMMI. It feels more familiar to engineering and software professionals because it applies the same techniques to deploy process that they use when writing software. As you might expect, familiarity is a good way to get people to embrace the new process.

But beyond mere familiarity, the agileCMMI method helps organizations embrace processes successfully because it is an incremental method that helps you deploy small components of the process in releases over time.  This is a proven approach to helping people learn new behaviors.

Consider this scenario. Imagine that, using agileCMMI, you release two or three sub-processes, and test them out. Then, once the company has embraced those small, easy to digest, useful sub-processes, you give them another set of small, digestible, useful things. And they start to learn.

Just as with any strategic initiative, you'll want to make sure you are giving them appropriate pieces at the appropriate times. The reason this works is that this is HOW we learn. As human beings, we learn by digesting information in very small pieces in a logical sequence.

Now, why do so many process implementations fail?  Typically you will see that the company tried to throw a heavy binder or a big website at all their employees and said, “This is going to be your new process.” In other words, they were trying to get folks to eat an elephant in one bite.

With agileCMMI, you can go about this differently. You can help your team understand fairly quickly that you are not trying to force them to do anything. Instead, you are giving them very small components to start working with. You are feeding them those small bites over time until they have their complete process suite, their process improvement architecture, their methodology, and everything they need will be implemented. Sometimes this will take months.

During that time, they will continue to receive things in small, right-sized pieces, so that they can understand them, can put them in context. Then they can start to embrace them and use them successfully.

That's what agileCMMI is all about, and that's why I would recommend it in your particular case. It's HOW people learn.

If you are interested in learning more about leading your team to embrace process improvement with agileCMMI, I encourage you to participate in one of our upcoming presentations:

March 6, 2013, in Fairfax, Virginia @ DC SPIN – "Agile Resiliency: How CMMI Enables Agile to Thrive and Survive"

March 13, 2013, online – CMMI: Everything You Need to Know! (FREE Webinar)

March 19, 2013, in Bedford, Massachusetts @ Boston SPIN – "Agile Resiliency: How CMMI Can Make Agile Thrive and Survive"

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

May 8, 2013, in Fairfax, Virginia, in partnership with CC Pace – "Agile CMMI Learning Day"

We hope to see you at one (or more) of these events!

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.

NEW INFORMATION on the SEPG 2013 Conference

Hey, CMMI Appraiser – Can you give us an update on the SEPG conference? ~ engineering and software professionals just about everywhere I go

Dear Readers,

It seems that everywhere this CMMI Appraiser goes – conferences, Scrum Team Rooms, even restaurants – curious engineers are stopping me to ask about the status of the SEPG conference. While I haven’t been able to reveal much in my tweets and blog posts lately, I do have a bit more information to share today. So, do me a favor … if you know someone who wants the latest scoop on SEPG 2013, would you be so good as to forward them this link, so I can finish my lunch in peace? THANKS!

And now, the update:

WHAT HAS BEEN HAPPENING: 

As I explained in my last post, the CMMI Institute, which is the new organization that now manages the CMMI set of products, has also assumed responsibility for producing the SEPG Conference. The regular March SEPG Conference was postponed to give the CMMI Institute team time to work with the Partner Advisory Board (of which I am Chair, and my company, Broadsword Solutions, is a Partner) to compile ideas. We conferred with Partners, end-users, sponsors, and other attendees on what they REALLY WANT in an industry conference that features the leading process improvement model.

WHAT WE HEARD: 

• Speakers and content are king
• Attendees would rather spend two days at a content-rich, fast moving, scaled-back conference than four days sifting through tons of speakers to find what was valuable to them
• People want to network, meet new colleagues and clients, and get answers to their most pressing process issues directly from those who have solved them
• The Conference location should be easy to get to, and close to large concentrations of Capability Maturity Model Integration adoption.

WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT:

• More experienced, strong, understandable speakers with fresh ideas who are proven leaders in their field
• More end-users talk about how the CMMI really helped them improve
• More relevant content

WHAT’S NOT IMPORTANT:

• Huge halls
• Opulent surroundings
• Too many speakers, especially consultants (unless they REALLY know their stuff)
• Too much focus on Levels, and not enough focus on performance

HERE'S THE CURRENT PLAN:

• A scaled-back conference that is the minimal viable product, sized to bring the most value for the lowest cost (just enough, not too much).
• A completely different speaker format that is a fast-moving mix of lightening talks, presentations, hands-on workshops, and on-stage interviews on three stages.
• A core group of speakers from a list of proven, experienced presenters
• A call for additional presenters, with a focus on end-users to tell us their stories of success (or failures)
• Multiple after-hours networking events at local establishments with featured speakers giving bonus lightening talks
• One, high-impact keynote speaker to open the conference
• Conference closes with CMMI Institute CEO Kirk Botula speaking about his vision for the future of CMMI.

DETAILS COMING INTO FOCUS:

• A two-day conference
• Potentially held in either the Washington, DC area (near BWI - Baltimore/Washington Airport) or in Pittsburgh, PA (personally, I love BWI because it's so easy to get in and out of....)
• Potentially held in late October

YOUR FEEDBACK:

One thing is clear about the future of the SEPG Conference, and that is that we ALL want something new, valuable, and packed with great learning. In short, people don't care how fancy it is, they want content. This has been – and continues to be – our focal point.

Your feedback is welcome. The plan is not yet finalized, so email me with your enthusiasm, ideas, complaints, rants, or flame-mail at appraiser@broadswordsolutions.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.