Can agile organizations get value from CMMI?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser, can agile organizations get any value from CMMI? ~ DC SPIN Attendee

Dear Readers,

Today’s episode of CMMI-TV was filmed ON LOCATION at a recent DC Software Process Improvement Network (DC SPIN) gathering in Fairfax, Virginia, where I presented on “Agile Resiliency.” An attendee asked about agile organizations getting value from the CMMI. Below is a video clip with my answer, followed by a synopsis of my response. Enjoy!

OVERVIEW

The CMMI is and important tool for helping agile scale and be resilient to change.

COMMON MISCONCEPTION ABOUT CMMI

• CMMI is a death march that zaps your powers and turns you into zombies

COMMON MISCONCEPTION ABOUT AGILE

• Agile methods are a free-for-all where self-organizing teams can do whatever they want, without writing anything down

A DIFFERENT WAY TO LOOK AT CMMI

Once I asked an audience what their experience was with the CMMI. A gentleman in back raised his hand and said: “Bad.”

The CMMI was never intended to be a burden for agile practitioners (or anyone else).  Rather, CMMI is essential to making agile successful.

 THE TRUTH ABOUT CMMI and AGILE

• Agile is here to stay
• The one thing that agile doesn’t do very well is scale and be resilient
• CMMI is THE tool that helps agile scale and be resilient

COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT WHY THE CMMI EXISTS

• CMMI exists so that you can get a nice certificate for the wall
• CMMI exists so that you can achieve CMMI Maturity Level 2 or Maturity Level 3 by Monday
• CMMI exists to create a bunch of documents that make your life miserable

CONCLUSION

• The reason the CMMI and agile work so well together is that they both exist for the same reason
• Both CMMI and agile are about solving your business problems 

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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.