What reading material do you recommend for our new Appraisal Team member?

Dear CMMI Appraiser, wishing you and yours a happy 2015! I am writing on behalf of a colleague who is new to the Appraisal Team. He completed the necessary CMMI Training, but still has some gaps in his understanding of the basics, as I see it. I’m wondering if you could recommend some introductory-level reading to get him more comfortable in his role? ~ Carmen R.

Dear Carmen,

How thoughtful of you to look for information that can help your Appraisal Team member! I’m sure he will be successful in his new role with great people like you looking out for him. To help him, and as a last-minute gift idea for any other engineering or software professional on your list, I’d recommend the following high quality reading material for beginners to the CMMI:

CMMI eBooks Make the Perfect Holiday Gift!

Our CMMI and agile eBooks are the fastest way to get up to speed on the basics of CMMI, agile, and software process improvement. To download one of our free eBooks, check out our CMMI Resources Page, or purchase one of our latest books on Amazon.

It is our hope during the holidays, and all year round, to help passionate, proactive people like you increase performance and improve quality at your company.

Happy 2015!

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.

Can we use an agile approach to adopting CMMI?

Hey CMMI Appraiser, we are a CMMI L2 scientific, engineering, and technology applications company. We’re looking for an organizational performance improvement program that aligns with the way we do things. Can we use an agile approach to implementing the CMMI? ~ Bill B.

Bill, yes, you can. Agile and CMMI can and do work very well together.  To clarify something quickly though: CMMI is a framework for improving whatever it is you need to do. It isn't really something you “implement.” But you absolutely can (and SHOULD) use agile methods to design and deploy the processes and behaviors that you need to be a great company. Using agile and CMMI together gives you a “best of both worlds” approach to that noble goal.

Several years ago, we pioneered “agileCMMI,” an iterative and incremental method for designing and deploying process solutions. With agileCMMI, we helped organizations take a “Scrum-like” approach to understanding the CMMI framework, and apply it to whatever they were working on.

CMMI improves the teams that are using Scrum (or any other technique, for that matter) because, in the case of Scrum, you have a minimalist approach to developing products in an iterative and incremental way. But Scrum does not cover everything required to drive performance, organization-wide. Many such best-practices exist within the CMMI.

So whether your goals are to successfully deliver software, achieve a CMMI Maturity Level, or get on the path to becoming a great company, the agileCMMI approach helps your organization improve incrementally and in a lightweight, useful way -- and reach your goals in a brave new world.

If you would like more information about using CMMI to strengthen agile, Bill, you are invited to participate in our upcoming Webinar: “Agile Resiliency – Scaling Agile so that It Thrives and Survives,” February 12, 2015 @ noon EST.

Register here.

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

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

Visit www.broadswordsolutions.com for more information about 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 to Get Even Better in 2015?

Dear Readers,

Happy New Year!

I hope you enjoyed the holidays and are prepared for an outstanding year of continuous improvement!  To start 2015 off right, you are invited to participate in a strategy for driving performance innovation throughout your organization. Our CMMI training courses are a great place to learn how to transform from where you are now to where you want to be.  Sign up below!

As you know if you’ve been reading this blog for a while, our fervent wish is to help software and engineering professionals use the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) as one of the tools that can help make you a great company.  Our hands-on, interactive learning experiences are designed to do exactly that.  So check out the first two CMMI training courses we are offering for the New Year, and sign up today!

INTRODUCTION TO CMMI TRAINING

February 11-13, 2015

Livonia, Michigan

Register for "Introduction to CMMI"

INTRODUCTION TO CMMI TRAINING

March 4-6, 2015
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Register for "Introduction to CMMI"

In the Introduction to CMMI training class, you’ll learn about CMMI, process models, and how to use them to be a great company. Professionals can earn 21 PDUs towards your PMP Certification (or 2.5 CEUs) while learning to improve software and engineering performance with the CMMI. And along the way, you’ll learn about the way you work, so that you can get better at what you do.

Every journey begins with a single step. As you begin the journey along your path to greatness in 2015, make CMMI training part of your plans for success!

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

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

Visit www.broadswordsolutions.com for more information about 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.