How can CMMI give us more visibility into Scrum projects?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser – I run a CMMI Maturity Level 3 rated IT firm in Fairfax, Virginia. We recently made the shift to start using agile methods on certain projects, but it is very difficult for me to see what was going on. The teams all tell me "don't worry," and fortunately, Scrum seems to be working. But how can I get more visibility to make the results more sustainable and repeatable? ~ Ryan H.

Hey Ryan,

I feel your pain.  As a former CIO and VP of Engineering I suffered from the same problem when Scrum first started to come online.  I wish more executives of companies using traditional software development methods had your open mind to solving business problems. Your desire for more visibility is the right question to ask.

But first let’s understand what you’re up against. Like most obstacles in business, it comes down to the inability to get good information. You can’t make good business decisions without good information, and right now, it sounds like your Scrum teams are leaving you in the dark.

Why is this happening?  It's not that they are cruel and unusual -- well, maybe some are a BIT unusual.  But the real reason is that Scrum teams operate very differently from the rest of the company. They tend to be self-organizing, independent, process-light, and quick to adapt. They have an iterative and incremental way of getting work done, which typically does not include things like weekly status reporting and weekly meetings. Most of them don’t even have a project manager (Eeeek!).

So how do you get the information you need to run the business?

Since you've already adopted the CMMI at your company, one solution is to integrate Scrum and CMMI. At my company, Broadsword, we do just that. We strengthen Scrum with the CMMI, based on the needs of our company.

For example, let’s take one popular aspect of Scrum, the Daily Stand-up. As you know, Scrum Teams opt for Daily Stand-ups as opposed to the traditional sit-down status meetings. We don't want to change that because it's a powerful construct for communications and risk management. Instead, we want to use the CMMI as a framework to make sure we are talking, in a very light and agile way, about things in the Daily Stand-up that are really important. And most importantly, that we are sharing that information with the right people in the company!

Applying the guidance of the CMMI to the Daily Stand-up gives us two major advantages. One, by using the simple Daily Stand-up mechanism, we get a really crisp, robust view of the project, so we can understand what’s going on in real-time. We understand it early, and we understand it often. And two, by adopting some of the best practices that the CMMI provides, we get more value out of the Daily Stand-up, allowing us to make it even stronger than it already was.

Let me be clear. If you like your daily stand-ups you can keep them. Period.

The CMMI doesn't change that. But it can make them a little better - and everyone wants that.

This is just a glimpse of all you can do with agile and CMMI, Ryan. For more information on getting CMMI and Scrum to work together, I encourage you to check out my article, "CMMI vs. Scrum? NO! CMMI + Scrum!" The article, originally published in the Cutter IT Journal last year. It is now available for download to all of our loyal readers.

Click HERE to access the article – and good have fun scaling agile!

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

Jeff Dalton is a Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, Certified CMMI Instructor, ScrumMaster, author, and consultant with years of real-world experience with the CMMI in all types of organizations. Jeff pioneered agileCMMI, the leading methodology for incremental and iterative process improvement. He 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.

Happy Thanksgiving from the CMMI Appraiser's Family to yours!

Dear Readers,

This Thanksgiving, as Mrs. CMMI Appraiser and I sit down at the holiday table with our Little Appraisers, friends, and extended family, we are thankful for all of the opportunities we've had to meet so many companies that are adopting the CMMI for the right reasons.

Yes, by taking the right approach to adopting the CMMI in 2013, companies are experiencing higher quality, faster delivery, and more predictable, repeatable results. These outcomes are helping the entire industry improve.  That's why, looking forward, we feel an even greater sense of gratitude for all those in 2014 who will choose to adopt the CMMI for the right reasons:

• Because the CMMI is a time-tested, industry-proven model for positive outcomes;
• Because the CMMI is a framework and set of guidelines for changing behaviors and changing culture;
• Because the CMMI allows you to do what you are already doing, only better.

Last but not least, we’re grateful for YOU, the Reader. You’re the one who puts these truths in action every day by following the guidance of the CMMI to keep your company on the path to greatness. Ultimately, YOU are what the CMMI is all about, and we couldn’t feel more fortunate than to be sharing this journey with you!

To show our gratitude, we’re offering you a hassle-free download of our popular article, "CMMI vs. Scrum? NO! CMMI + Scrum!" Originally published in the prestigious Cutter IT Journal, the article is designed to help you learn to maximize your investment in agile and the CMMI.  Read, learn and enjoy!

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

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

Jeff Dalton is a Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, Certified CMMI Instructor, ScrumMaster, author, and consultant with years of real-world experience with the CMMI in all types of organizations. Jeff pioneered agileCMMI, the leading methodology for incremental and iterative process improvement. He 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, including the complete “CMMU Users Stories,” visit Jeff’s Author Page on Amazon.

CMMI Institute to Help Companies Elevate Organizational Performance

PITTSBURGH — The CMMI Institute announced today its strategy to extend the reach of the CMMI model to enable businesses of every size in every industry to elevate performance and to provide tools that equip CMMI practitioners to begin and to grow their journey with CMMI.

The CMMI Institute, established by Carnegie Mellon University, is home to the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), a gold standard of excellence in software and systems development. The Institute will continue to help this market to solve business problems while advancing the use of the model to new industry sectors around the world.

CMMI is used by some of the world’s most admired and innovative organizations, including Samsung, Accenture, Proctor & Gamble, and Siemens. CMMI adoption has been a powerful differentiator for businesses and a catalyst for economic growth in regions that invest in its broad adoption.

“To compete in the global market, leaders must build organizations that can consistently deliver quality and value in products and services,” said Kirk Botula, CEO of CMMI Institute. “The CMMI Institute enables organizations committed to excellence to achieve measurable results in the facets of their business that matter most to their goals. CMMI provides a framework of practices that can help organizations to identify and address key challenges to improve performance and the bottom line. We all know work is not the way it is supposed to be—CMMI helps make it better.”

The CMMI model was developed at Carnegie Mellon’s Software Engineering Institute (SEI) through collaboration of government, industry, and academia to help the Department of Defense and its contractors like Raytheon, Northrup Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing improve their software engineering capabilities. Widely trusted as a mark of reliability, many organizations require CMMI adoption as a pre-requisite for bidding on contracts.

Thousands of companies across multiple industry sectors in 94 countries have adopted its practices to elevate performance and have been appraised for capability and maturity using CMMI methods. The CMMI product suite includes product development, service delivery, procurement, and staff management—making it a worthwhile investment for any business. Carnegie Mellon University founded the CMMI Institute in order extend the benefits of CMMI beyond software and systems engineering to any product or service company regardless of size or industry.

KK Raman, Partner Business Excellence, KPMG India says, "Carnegie Mellon is a pioneer in developing best practices and transitioning them to industry, and this is reflected in the global adoption of the CMMI. KPMG is one of the premier organizations around the world with over a decade long partnership with CMU. We help use the CMMI Institute product suite—frameworks, training, certifications, and appraisal methods—to achieve organizational goals by enhancing processes.”

Extending the Benefits of CMMI

The global adoption of CMMI is supported through a vast network of partners who guide organizations in the successful adoption of the CMMI models. As part of today’s news, CMMI Institute is advancing the practice of CMMI with an online self-assessment tool as well as new professional credentials for practitioners.

• CMMI Self-Assessment Tool: A new online tool that allows organizations to begin their journey of elevating performance as well as to diagnose their existing implementation by assessing the current state of their organization. By answering a brief set of questions, users will gain critical insights that provide an analysis of an organization’s strengths and weaknesses as well as solutions to improve the capability of their organization.
• CMMI Associate and CMMI Professional Certification: The CMMI Institute will be offering certifications to help individuals translate their experience with CMMI into professional development opportunities. CMMI Associate and CMMI Professional Certifications will provide confirmation of an individual’s knowledge of basic and advanced concepts in CMMI and demonstrate to current and prospective employers they are dedicated to excellence and have valuable skills to help elevate organizational performance.

“As a professional who uses CMMI daily in my work, I am committed to advancing my understanding of the models and to helping my clients and my organization position themselves to successfully meet their goals. The practitioner credentials will not only provide a clear path for my growth, it will also help me to communicate and validate my skills to my clients as well as my organization,” said Capri Dye of Hubbert Systems Consulting, Inc. 

The CMMI Self-Assessment Tool and Practitioner Certifications will be available in early 2014.

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About CMMI Institute

The CMMI Institute, a subsidiary of Carnegie Mellon University, is dedicated to elevating organizational performance through best-in-class solutions to real-world challenges. The Institute is the home of the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) for Development, Services, and Acquisition; and the People Capability Maturity Model which are process improvement models that create high-performance, high-maturity cultures. The models are used in thousands of organizations worldwide to deliver business results that serve as differentiators in the global market.

To learn more about how CMMI can help your organization elevate performance, visit cmmiinstitute.com.

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

 Jeff Dalton is a Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, Certified CMMI Instructor, ScrumMaster, author, and consultant with years of real-world experience with the CMMI in all types of organizations. Jeff pioneered agileCMMI, the leading methodology for incremental and iterative process improvement. He 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, including the complete “CMMU Users Stories,” visit Jeff’s Author Page on Amazon.

Will agile ever scale?

Dear Mr. CMMI Appraiser, truthfully, will agile ever scale? ~ Bohee R.

Dear Bohee, that’s what we all want, right? As engineering and software professionals who care about software process improvement, engineering strategy and performance innovation, we understand how useful agile values, methods and techniques are for solving business problems. Scaling agile across the enterprise is the Holy Grail for agile teams.

Now, some people complain that agile just doesn’t work across the enterprise. In their opinion, agile doesn’t scale. Even when they hear about a tool like the CMMI, which was designed to help companies scale the way they work, they are reluctant to take the first step.

But that’s the cool thing about the CMMI. When adopted properly, it’s the perfect tool for making agile scale across the enterprise. The CMMI gives you the ability to make immediate improvements that strengthen agile in your company, which shores it up for wider adoption.

How does CMMI strengthen agile? By helping you know more about the way you work.

Knowledge is important. Any smart engineering or project manager would agree with that. Knowing how to do something and knowing what to do are very important parts of succeeding, and making the customers happy.

CMMI accelerates that process. It jump starts your knowledge, and makes you much more successful, much quicker.

Example? Let’s pick one of our agile values that we want to scale across the enterprise. Let’s say we want to scale our value of having an agile way of dealing with risk.

The CMMI guides us to ask questions that will help us learn more about how we work. Specific to this value, it guides us to gain more knowledge about the way we deal with risk. So the first CMMI question we need to ask, as we roll this out, is the following:

“What are the methods and techniques that we’re going to use to support the value of having an agile way of dealing with risk?”

It starts with our values. We want to approach risk management iteratively and incrementally. We want to get those issues of risk when they’re young, and deal with them in small pieces. We want to prioritize them and get them out of the way.

The CMMI helps us decide HOW we will do what we WANT to do.

So let’s say Scrum is the tool we are going to use to deal with risk iteratively and incrementally. We plan to execute a Daily Stand-up, where we’re going to be talking about risk.

This is a resilient way of dealing with risk. Our Techniques (Daily Stand-up) support our Methods (Scrum) which support our Values (being a company that deals iteratively and incrementally with issues and risks).

Notice the traceability. Everything we do traces back to why we’re doing it. In this way, the CMMI helps us define HOW we do what we do. It strengthens agile and makes it more resilient, so that it can scale.

You see, Bohee, scaling agile is enabled by defining our agile values, methods and techniques, and making them stronger and more resistant to change.  The CMMI helps us do that. It puts the Holy Grail of scaling agile within reach.

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

 Jeff Dalton is a Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, Certified CMMI Instructor, ScrumMaster, author, and consultant with years of real-world experience with the CMMI in all types of organizations. Jeff pioneered agileCMMI, the leading methodology for incremental and iterative process improvement. He 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, including the complete “CMMU Users Stories,” visit Jeff’s Author Page on Amazon.

How do we police our engineers for adherence to the CMMI?

Hey CMMI Appraiser, we are currently being audited / assessed as a CMMI Level 3 company and are driving toward a CMMI certification. What’s the best way to police our people to make sure they are following the CMMI-based process? ~ Ben T.

Hey Ben  - whoa…police?  First you need to understand what the CMMI really is. Adopting the CMMI is not about being audited. It’s not about getting a certificate. The CMMI is meant to be an ongoing journey to learn about the way your company works, and to learn new techniques that can put you on the path to being a great company, using CMMI as one of your tools.

Yes, there are practices within the CMMI that can help you make sure your team is doing what you need them to do. But we don’t want to treat this as a policing exercise. The CMMI isn’t meant to be punitive. It won’t work if you try to get everyone to line up and do things the same way every time, and punish them when they fail.

So rather than think about policing your team, I recommend that you look to the CMMI for guidance on objectively evaluating your teams’ adherence to the values that are important to your company. The ninth Generic Practice (GP2.9) helps us do that by encouraging us to ask questions, like the following:

“Are people living up to the values? Are they doing the things that we need them to do? Are they using the techniques that we’re asking them to use? Are they adhering to the methods that we’re asking them to adopt?”

If they are not, we need to know why. But treat this as coaching and mentoring opportunity. Remember, this is less about an audit, and more about mentoring. By turning into Process Police, we run the risk of creating a lot of unnecessary overhead, and we don’t want that. Instead, we want to understand.

Go to your team with specifics. Engage them in a dialogue. Have conversations like, “We asked you to do this. You are not doing this. Why is that?  What might be a better way?”

I’ll say it again. The CMMI isn’t punitive. It is explorative. By properly applying the CMMI’s guidelines, you’ll be in better position to understand what happened – with the team as well as with yourself as their manager.

“What do you mean?” I hear some managers complain. “It’s their fault if they aren’t adhering, not mine!”

Oh, really?  Keep in mind, this is coming from someone who has been an executive in IT and engineering organizations, and who, today, runs a business dedicated to helping companies with performance improvement and the CMMI. I’ve worked with many, many clients over the years to help them improve process, and I can tell you this: A lot of times, management gets it wrong.

We’re human. We make mistakes. Sometimes we task our teams to do something, and it turns out, it was the wrong thing!

It’s no secret that engineers, software developers and project managers are pretty smart people. They will figure out how to get around your instructions if they don’t think what you’re asking them to do is useful.

So this is a good learning opportunity for everyone involved. As management, we don’t want to force our folks to do things they don’t want to do. Instead, we want to guide them to do the right thing.

That’s why we want to know WHY things aren’t working. We want to know WHY our engineers aren’t following certain processes. Whether it’s because we gave the wrong direction, or the team is not following the right direction, we want to make it better.

So be careful when you talk about driving toward a certification, quality audit or CMMI maturity level rating. You may be asking your team to do things that aren’t the right things. You may be asking them to adopt methods that don’t make sense, or to use techniques that add a lot of overhead. That’s why they are resisting.

The wonderful thing about the CMMI is that it is all about training and mentoring. As management, you get to use it to understand what’s going on in the field and why people have not adopted what they’re being asked to work on.

Then you get to fix it. And the CMMI can guide you on that, too.

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

Jeff Dalton is a Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, Certified CMMI Instructor, ScrumMaster, author, and consultant with years of real-world experience with the CMMI in all types of organizations. Jeff pioneered agileCMMI, the leading methodology for incremental and iterative process improvement. He 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 do you think about using Planning Poker with the CMMI?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser, Planning Poker sounds like a fun way to collaborate with our customers when trying to figure out sizing. What do you think about using Planning Poker with the CMMI? ~ David (from a conversation at SEPGNA)

Dear Readers,

Several weeks ago, at SEPGNA in Pittsburgh, I had many conversations with software engineers from organizations that were either using or looking into agile. In one of those conversations, I was asked what I thought about Planning Poker, and whether it could be used by a company that uses the CMMI.

My reply was that Planning Poker can be a fun, collaborative tool that is highly useful. The real question is "will it work with your company?"  I have no problem with it if it does - whether or not you use the CMMI.

But here’s what I do have a problem with: Teams that don’t know WHY they are using techniques like Planning Poker. Management tells them they want to “be agile,” but gives little thought to their agile values, methods and techniques. In my opinion, these companies are dealing themselves a bad hand.

Estimating and sizing is a business challenge, and the great thing about the CMMI is that it is all about solving business challenges. Think of the CMMI as a framework that provides guidance about how great organizations perform.

So, in this case, you want to be great by having an environment in which you collaborate with your customers. That’s a value worth striving for. To get there, you want to be agile, so the method you’re going to use is XP, Scrum, or both (or any number of other choices). And the technique you heard about is called "Planning Poker."

Why start with the value? A lot of times, agile and non-agile teams will adopt a technique like Planning Poker or Wide Band Delphi, or something else. That’s fine, but they make a mistake in not tying the technique to a business value. They are essentially choosing their techniques ABSENT any traceability to the value.

This is a problem. If we don’t have our values, methods and techniques well defined and aligned, we run the risk of having our customers roll over us and tell us how to do our work. That’s the last thing we want. And if you think about the state of the Waterfall methodology today, that’s exactly what happened.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want that to happen to the agile community. There’s only one way to stop that, and that’s for us to get resilient about how we do our work.

How do we get resilient? It goes back to alignment of the values, methods and techniques. What value do we stand for? What is the method we are going to use to execute on that value? What are the techniques that can help us get the value that we’re looking for?

Questions like these – I call them “CMMI questions” – help us be resilient. They help us create traceability to the value that runs through the methods and continues all the way down to the tools we choose to support the techniques.

Here’s why this is important. I was working with a customer the other day who told me that Planning Poker was their desired technique. I said, “No problem – the CMMI is designed to help you get better at what you are already doing, and if you are already using Planning Poker, you should keep using it…. just make it better.”

But there was one small problem. Nobody had any Planning Poker cards! They didn’t have the right tools to do their jobs (for you nerdy CMMI-types, this is PP GP2.2 - Provide Resources for performing the process).

When you look at great companies, everything is aligned: the values, methods and techniques, along with the appropriate tools. The CMMI helps you establish and strengthen that alignment. It helps you be the winning company you’ve always wanted to be.

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

Jeff Dalton is a Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, Certified CMMI Instructor, ScrumMaster, author, and consultant with years of real-world experience with the CMMI in all types of organizations. Jeff pioneered agileCMMI, the leading methodology for incremental and iterative process improvement. He 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, including the complete “CMMU Users Stories,” visit Jeff’s Author Page on Amazon.

How to read the CMMI book (without falling asleep?)

Hey, CMMI Appraiser, we’re a Maryland-based systems engineering company getting ready for our first CMMI appraisal. Our Lead Appraiser said he wants us to memorize the Generic Practices frontwards and backwards, but the CMMI book is so boring! Any tips on how to read this thing without falling asleep? ~ Peter A

Hey, Peter, you may be falling asleep, but your Lead Appraiser is dreaming if he thinks it is somehow worth your time to be memorizing the Generic Practices frontwards and backwards. We all need to wake up to the fact that the real value of the CMMI is that it’s not about memorizing, following rules or being compliant. With the proper adoption, the real value of the CMMI is about putting your company on the path to greatness.

So it’s a good thing you came here for help. It's important to know how to read the CMMI book.  With the right approach, it can work magic.

How to read the CMMI book

Since you’re new to the CMMI, Peter, let’s start by asking, what is the CMMI? Simply stated, the CMMI is a Model to help us learn what a great company looks like. Its practices were designed to help us prioritize our behaviors, so that we, too, can see a great company when we look in the mirror.

How do we get there? How do we become that company? Part of it includes taking the right approach to reading the CMMI book.

So let’s get started. The CMMI book, as you’ve found, consists of a set of statements, or “Practices.” They say things like, “Do this. Do that. Have estimates. Have peer reviews.”

Here’s how to turn on the magic. Instead of memorizing the Practices, as your LA suggested, turn those statements into questions. For example, take the statement, “Have estimates,” and turn it into a question, as follows: “How do we estimate?”

Here’s another example. Take the statement, “Have peer reviews,” and make it into a question: “How do we peer review our code?”

These are good questions. You will learn a lot from your answers. The way you answer should be based on how you want to run your business.

Try it! By turning the practices in the CMMI book into what I call “CMMI questions,” your reading of the book will be far more interesting to you, because it will help you discover what’s most important to you. This information, in turn, will help you prioritize the way you run your business.

Reading the CMMI book as a set of questions gives you gain tremendous insights about what kind of company you want to be, because the issues that most affect performance improvement will stay front and center. How can it be otherwise? You will be regularly asking questions such as, “Well, how DO we want to run our business? How DO we want to have these types of design reviews?”

Here are more questions distilled from the guidance offered in the CMMI book:

“What’s our plan for rolling this out? What methods are we supporting, and why are we supporting that? What’s the plan for getting everyone trained and up to speed? Which projects use which methods, and how do we choose that?”

In the CMMI, we call that tailoring. You are custom designing the CMMI to work the way you work. For example, if you’re a Scrum shop, you ask the CMMI questions about the way you want to be agile:

“How long are our sprints going to be? How many sprints in each release? When do we do backlog grooming? When do all these things happen?”

Keep in mind, I’m not saying that the CMMI book is useless as written. Far from it. You can read about the CMMI practices, and get tons of valuable detail, with pages and pages of background material, examples and ideas for how you might apply their lessons in your company. The CMMI book is excellent reference material.

But the magic happens when you turn those statements into questions. You’ll develop a crisp definition for your company about how your work gets done, which helps you manage your work.

And if part of your work is to replace your Lead Appraiser because he just won’t wake up to the value of the CMMI – well, I wouldn’t lose any sleep over that.

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

Jeff Dalton is a Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, Certified CMMI Instructor, ScrumMaster, author, and consultant with years of real-world experience with the CMMI in all types of organizations. Jeff pioneered agileCMMI, the leading methodology for incremental and iterative process improvement. He 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, including the complete “CMMU Users Stories,” visit Jeff’s Author Page on Amazon.

Why is REQM at ML2 while RD is at ML3?

Dear CMMI Appraiser, Why is Requirements Management (REQM) staged at ML2 while Requirements Development (RD) is staged at ML3? Don’t you have to develop requirements before you manage them?

[Dear Readers, our good friend Pat O’Toole, CMMI expert and seasoned consultant, is collaborating with us on a new monthly series of CMMI-related posts, "Just the FAQs." Our goal with these posts is to provide answers to the most frequently asked questions about the CMMI, SCAMPI, engineering strategy and software process improvement. To kick off the series, Pat addresses the MOST frequently asked CMMI-related question of all time - "Why is REQM at ML2 while RD is at ML3?" Take it away, Pat! ~ the CMMI Appraiser]

Thanks, Jeff! It does seem a bit strange that the CMMI authors suggest that you learn how to manage requirements better before you learn how to develop better requirements, doesn't it?  Almost like putting the cart before the horse.

But if you think about it, this situation is no stranger than the authors suggesting you learn how to plan and monitor your design, development, and test activities before you focus on performing those activities better (that is, Project Planning and Project Monitoring and Control are staged at ML2, and yet Technical Solution and Verification are staged at ML3).

In order to understand both of these situations, you have to remember that the CMMI isn't staged in the order that you actually DO things, rather it's staged in the order that the model authors suggest that you IMPROVE them. So the authors are suggesting that you should get better control over your ever-changing requirements as part of ML2’s focus on basic project management. They suggest you will be better served to wrestle this particularly sticky problem to the ground before you invest significant time and effort trying to get better requirements through ML3’s focus on more sophisticated and consistently performed engineering activities.

As indicated above, most people think that “project management” is the foundational concept of ML2, and if that works for you, then fine. But some of us view ML2 as “project triage” – let’s first focus on stabilizing the patient’s vital signs before we perform major surgery. In other words, we believe you should attempt to get some level of control over each project’s chaotic requirements, estimates, suppliers, and configuration items at ML2 before you start trying to establish better ways of performing the various engineering activities at ML3. After all, if you don’t allocate sufficient time to do more than “code and test” today (or, worse yet, just “code”), then what’s the point of trying to improve the engineering practices that you don’t allocate sufficient time and resources to perform anyway?

However, just because the CMMI authors felt that way should not prevent you from doing what is right for YOU – which, by the way, is the underlying philosophy of the continuous representation. If you perceive that your pain is more in the area of RD than REQM, then don't let the way the model is staged dissuade you from addressing things that you believe will alleviate your pain. After all, reducing pain and improving performance is what model-based improvement is really all about!

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

“Just the FAQs” is written/edited by Pat O’Toole and Jeff Dalton. Patrick OToole is Principal Consultant at PACT and Owner, PACT. Jeff Dalton is a Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, Certified CMMI Instructor, ScrumMaster, author, and consultant with years of real-world experience with the CMMI in all types of organizations. Jeff pioneered agileCMMI, the leading methodology for incremental and iterative process improvement. He has taught thousands of students in CMMI trainings and has received an aggregate satisfaction score of 4.97 out of 5 from his students.

Please contact the authors at pact.otoole@att.net and jeff@broadsword.com to suggest enhancements to their answers, or to provide an alternative response to the question posed. New questions are also welcomed!

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.

Can the CMMI help us do more than write better software?

Hey, Jeff, we recently achieved a CMMI Maturity Level 3 rating as a result of learning to ask challenging questions about the way we do our work, and understanding how to apply the CMMI as one of the tools that can drive behavior change and performance improvement in our organization. Now we’re writing much better software – but is there more we can do with the CMMI? ~ Terry U.

Terry, great question. It sounds like you were working with a good CMMI Appraiser who helped you realize that the CMMI is more than documents, forms and achieving a so-called CMMI certification. Adopting the CMMI is about the transformation of the culture of your company.

Now you’re writing good software, but you want to do even better.

Clearly, you are pointed in the right direction. I might add that, along with asking challenging questions and adopting the guidance of the CMMI, you have been developing a new engineering system for the company. And even beyond that, you were engaged in building an architecture that is multifaceted and organizational in nature. This architecture involves a process infrastructure, a performance infrastructure, a financial infrastructure – all the company’s business systems.

Did you realize that? Let me re-state this, because it’s important. As a result of your adopting the CMMI, you’ve now got two drivers of performance improvement: an architecture and an infrastructure. The architecture is the performance improvement model, and the infrastructure is the physical instantiation of that model. This is YOUR infrastructure, developed by you, and based on an architectural model with which to run your business.

To get more out of your investment, your goal now should be to integrate your engineering system with your other business systems. This includes your finance system, HR system, sales and marketing, and all the other systems in your company. They all have to work together to help you maximize your investment in the engineering system you’ve developed.

Examples? HR has to measure performance. Sales and marketing have to demonstrate an ROI. Finance has to budget the operation of the new infrastructure.

So you see, building the architecture and infrastructure for process improvement and performance improvement goes beyond engineering. It’s beyond CMMI. For the architecture with which to run your business to be successful, all other business systems have to be in place and aligned.

It comes down to operationalizing your engineering strategy.

So how do you do that?

First thing to do is to have a funding model that supports the infrastructure. In other words, you need ways to pay for your engineering system as an operational funding model. This includes charge codes and a budget set aside to operate the infrastructure you’ve invested in developing. Part of it is a continuous improvement model. This is a loop, made up of components like requests being submitted, approved and implemented. It includes training, policies and procedures for revving the process. This infrastructure item needs to be funded, resourced, and to have time provided for it, or it won’t be successful.

As you know, the experience you’ve just gone through as a company was about more than just getting a level. It was about more than filling out forms or checking a box. It was about creating an infrastructure for helping your company operate like a great company.

You are operating that infrastructure now. You need to continue operating that infrastructure in order to continue to improve. Operationalize your strategy across the entire organization is the next logical step toward getting better at everything you do -- not just writing better software.

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 can we get our agile teams to comply with the CMMI?

Dear CMMI Appraiser, we are a CMMI Level 3 rated company that is getting some pushback from our agile team as we try to scale agile methods across the organization. They have all received our policy binders, but it’s unclear that anyone has even looked at them. How can we get our agile teams to comply with the CMMI? ~ Marcos

Marcos, let’s talk about those binders. They sound important to you. Are you using them to run the company?

If you are like many organizations, your honest answer is, “No."  So let me ask another question: Do YOU even look at them?

Chances are, again, your answer is no. I know this is happening because I conduct appraisals of a lot of companies that want to show me their binders as objective evidence, to prove that they are CMMI Level 2 or CMMI Level 3. But all this proves to me is that they have a culture that led to the creation of a massive policy binder that everybody in the company is forced to sign the day that they walk in, and nobody reads.

If YOU aren’t looking at the binder, how can you expect anyone else to look at it?

Turns out, there’s a very good reason no one will look at the binder.  The binder doesn’t work as a tool to run your company!

But the problem isn’t the binder. The problem is the type of behavior you drive if you try to be COMPLIANT with the CMMI.

To illustrate my point, let’s pick a Practice out of the CMMI. Say you wanted your agile team to be compliant with Generic Practice 2.1. The first GP guides us to set organizational expectations for all practitioners for performing the processes.

If you read this as an instruction to follow, or a rule to comply with, what would you do? Well, you’ve proven what you’d do. You’d create a binder.

The wording of the Practice, and your desire to be compliant with the Practice, are driving misguided behavior.

So what’s the proper wording? What’s the proper approach to the CMMI that will lead to the results you want?

In working with organizations large and small, I’ve found that the best way to scale agile across the entire organization is NOT to force teams to try to be compliant with the CMMI, but to ask what I call “CMMI questions” about their agile methods.

For example, take a look at that Generic Practice 2.1 again, “establish an organizational policy.”

How to would you put this Practice to work? By turning it into a question, like this:

“Are we setting clear expectations across the enterprise about which agile values, methods and techniques will be adopted and employed?”

You may discover – as many companies do – that you aren’t setting clear expectations. But if you know what agile values, methods and techniques you want to use, it’s really easy to fix that.  Processes are about behaviors and real people, not documents. People want and need to know what’s expected of them – and the CMMI is a great tool that helps you do that.

So don’t try to be compliant with the CMMI. The CMMI is not a set of instructions that tells you what to do, and you obey. The CMMI a set of questions that you can use to drive performance improvement and software process improvement.  And it's a framework that helps you do the things that great companies do, like successfully scaling agile and getting great results.

Your agile team will be much more likely to understand your vision, Marcos, and the CMMI will be much more valuable and useful to you, when you talk about using the Model as a framework to help you think about things like how you are running your company, how you are delivering products, and how happy your customers are.

That kind of dialogue just doesn’t fit in a binder.

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

Jeff Dalton is a Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, Certified CMMI Instructor, ScrumMaster, author, and consultant with years of real-world experience with the CMMI in all types of organizations. Jeff pioneered agileCMMI, the leading methodology for incremental and iterative process improvement. He 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.

We’re frustrated! Can CMMI training help?

Dear CMMI Appraiser, earlier this year, we adopted the CMMI to help us be more productive and profitable, but we haven't seen the changes we want to see yet.  All that’s happened is our engineers are getting frustrated. Would CMMI training help? ~ Morris A.

Morris, it’s good that you are adopting the CMMI with the goals of driving performance improvement and behavioral change. Not every company that has adopted the CMMI knows to take that approach – though every CMMI consultant should know it and should advocate for it. Sounds like that might not be happening in your case.

Yes, CMMI training would help reduce frustration – but there’s something that can help you even more, and that’s a comprehensive understanding of the Generic Practices (GPs) in the CMMI. Without the GPs guiding the transformation of your organization, your company is like a boat adrift without oars or a compass. You may never get where you want to go.

The good news is, the GPs are there to help.  There are twelve GPs to guide you, and each is useful to you as you go about changing the culture of your organization without disrupting the business. Today I’ll talk about five of them, starting with GP 2.5.

The CMMI anticipates that people performing or supporting the process need to be trained in order to be successful. That’s what the fifth Generic Practice (GP 2.5) guides us to do – Train People.

You’ll find, as you expand your understanding of the Model, that there are multiple interdependencies among the GPs, particularly with regard to training. For example, let’s say one of the changes you want to see is that your Project Managers are efficient at estimating and planning. Starting with the first Generic Practice (GP 2.1), which guides us to set expectations, you are encouraged to tell your Project Managers that you expect them to be efficient at estimating and planning, and that you will TRAIN them on estimating and planning.

Here’s another example. The change you want to see is for your QA folks to run process and product quality assurance. The second Generic Practice (GP 2.2) guides us to plan, so, if you are going to plan for this change, you need to TRAIN your QA folks on running process and product quality assurance.

The third Generic Practice (GP 2.3) guides us to provide resources. If you are going to provide resources for your BA teammates to trace requirements and run JAD workshops, you need to TRAIN them on performing requirement traceability and running JAD workshops.

The fourth GP (GP 2.4) is about assigning responsibility. If you are going to assign responsibility to your engineers to perform peer reviews, you need to TRAIN them to perform peer reviews.

Starting to get the picture? Training is integral to success. But without a solid understanding of the GPs, you might not have a clue just how important training is. You might mistakenly think (as many companies do) that training is a costly overhead expense that does not fit into your tight budget. You might even assume (and we know what happens when we ASSUME!) that it’s OK to train your engineers by throwing them into the fire and asking them to learn on the job.

Is that how training currently happens at your company? Then that’s probably why you have frustrated engineers who are slow to accept change.

The CMMI guides you to take a better approach. Training increases productivity early in the tenure of a person’s employment. Where it takes an average engineer about a year to get up to speed in terms of productivity with peers, training helps them get up to speed in a matter of weeks.

Training also reduces the cost of your people’s time, eliminating their need to reinvent the wheel and perform rework.

Let’s recap. Training saves money, time and speeds your overall performance improvement efforts. These outcomes ought to reduce frustration, wouldn’t you say?

There are many CMMI training courses available in the marketplace. Look for a class that offers real life examples, lessons and proven techniques, so that your team can take away – and retain – valuable information to be used on the job, immediately.  If you are interested in learning about registering for one of our upcoming CMMI training courses, click the links below:

• January 28-30 2014 : “Introduction to CMMI-DEV” Training – Chantilly, VA  
• April 8-10 2014 : “Introduction to CMMI” Training - Troy, Michigan 

Also, you may want to check out the training courses offered by the CMMI Institute.

Good luck!

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

Jeff Dalton is a Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, Certified CMMI Instructor, ScrumMaster, author, and consultant with years of real-world experience with the CMMI in all types of organizations. Jeff pioneered agileCMMI, the leading methodology for incremental and iterative process improvement. He 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.