Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Happy Thanksgiving, CMMI-style!

Dear Readers,

Happy Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving, as Mrs. CMMI Appraiser and I sit down at the holiday table with our Little Appraisers, friends, and extended family, we are humbled and grateful for all that we have received.


We’re thankful for …

Engineering and software professionals who have taken on the challenge of using CMMI to improve performance in their organizations.

We’re thankful for …

SEPGs that are open to learning how to deploy processes.

We’re thankful for …

CMMI program managers who embrace the CMMI as set of guidelines for performance improvement.

We’re thankful for …

CMMI sponsors who accept help in guiding their program.

We’re thankful for …

CEOs who accept help in facilitating strategic decisions.

And most of all, we’re thankful for YOU, our Reader. Without your effort to learn as much as you can about being a great company, those of us who are passionate about performance improvement and engineering strategies wouldn’t have the chance to help organizations like yours use the CMMI to get even better at what you are ALREADY doing.

May you enjoy a plentiful feast and share gratitude with family and friends this holiday season. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

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

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

Visit www.broadswordsolutions.com for more information about running a successful CMMI program

Friday, November 13, 2015

Call 9-1-1! Our CMMI Appraiser is killing us on Friday the 13th!

Dear CMMI Appraiser,

Our CMMI Appraiser is killing us! He’s demanding work product evidence for every single sub-practice in the model … and there seems to be no end of them! We are spending incredible hours in soul-crushing meetings. Is the CMMI supposed to be so over-engineered, heavy-handed and burdensome? Honestly, I think I’d prefer a tax audit. ~ Charles D.


Charles,

How frightening that your question comes on Friday the 13th! Your CMMI Appraiser reminds me of the evil Freddy Krueger in the horror film by the same name.  Better call 9-1-1!


Of course it’s no laughing matter when you’re in the middle of it – except for the fact that, if you don't laugh, you'll cry. Clearly, some of my fellow Lead Appraisers are so far off the deep end that they are making the CMMI feel like an attack on your life – and that’s scary.

The intent of a CMMI Appraisal is not to lock you in a meeting room and torture you. It’s supposed to be an event that brings you together to have fun, learn new skills, establish new traditions and come away the better for it.

Where, oh where did your sick and twisted CMMI appraiser go wrong?

Let’s set the record straight.

First, as you are experiencing, too many meetings are a productivity KILLER. It’s a pretty good rule of thumb that the more meetings you have, the less you can accomplish. I’ve heard Lead Appraisers say things like, “We need to have a lot of meetings because they need everything clarified face-to-face, or else how can they understand the projects, resolve issues or risks or assumptions or any of those things?” AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!  Shoot me now!

Somebody call the process police! That explanation is just criminal.

Second, a SCAMPI appraisal is NOT an audit! A good Lead Appraiser is the OPPOSITE of an auditor. The CMMI is a model for continuous improvement, and a Lead Appraiser is tasked with not only ensuring that you’re using the model properly, but that you are getting value out of it, and that your company is using it to become a better or – as I call it – a great company. That’s the bottom line of CMMI.

If your Lead Appraiser is insisting on seeing “work product evidence,” or what they now call “artifacts” for every single sub practice in the model, he’s acting like an auditor. The CMMI does NOT call for an audit of subpractices! Talk about shattering the stillness of the night with blood-curdling screams!

A Lead Appraiser who behaves like an auditor is driving wrong behaviors, wasting money, and making people hate CMMI. He might as well come at you with a machete and a mask!

No wonder you feel that your Lead Appraiser is over-engineering what his task is. He probably thinks the way to win business is to force you down a path where you are terrified of him and think you need to memorize everything that’s in the book. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is no reason for anyone in your company to do that.

Charles, this may be difficult, but I want you to remain calm. Stay on the line, and know that the practices in the CMMI are valuable guidance for you. They are not things to comply with, as written. They are guidance for you. Their job is to help you make yourself incrementally and iteratively better.

A good Lead Appraiser won’t care if you know what the GPs are, by their numbers. All a good Lead Appraiser will care about is: Are you training people? Do you have a process for doing work? Do you have policies? Are you improving as an organization? Are you learning about yourselves?

You need a good Lead Appraiser, Charles. Otherwise the torture will continue. You may indeed end up with a CMMI Maturity Level 2 or Maturity Level 3, but you will not have realized any of the benefits of the CMMI. We’ve seen that movie. What a horror show!

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.

Friday, November 6, 2015

I need to know EVERYTHING about CMMI - where to begin?

Dear CMMI Appraiser – Help!  I need to know everything about CMMI!  Where to begin?

Dear Readers,

When you need to know everything about CMMI, you have options.  But in my humble opinion, the best place to start is with the “Everything You NEED to Know” webinar series from Broadsword.

Check it out and you’ll see what I mean.  The "Everything You NEED to Know” series take a different approach to CMMI.  Rather than focusing on documents, forms and CMMI ratings, each webinar helps you focus on the fact that Process Improvement, Agile, and CMMI are about improving and changing the way your company behaves, so that you can improve performance, build stronger products and have happier customers.


Click here to view all webinars, and sign up: bitly.com/allwebinars

November 10th and 20th: “Everything You Need to Know: PPQA!” -- On “PPQA!” you’ll learn about an engineering strategy that leverages the Process and Product Quality Assurance (PPQA) process area in the CMMI to help you emphasize quality over compliance, and be the great company you want to be.

November 12th: “Everything You Need to Know: CMMI for Extra Small Companies!” -- Are you a small IT or engineering firm (< 25 people) that is blocked from bidding on lucrative, multi-year government contracts because you haven’t figured out how to take advantage of the value of CMMI? Check out “Everything You Need to Know: CMMI for Extra Small Companies!”

November 13th: “Everything You Need to Know: Implementing Multiple Process Models!” -- Implementing Multiple Process Models (IMPM) is an engineering strategy that integrates CMMI, Auto SPICE and ISO/TS into a single program for performance innovation.

November 16th: “Everything You Need to Know: CMMI!” -- So your boss wants you to know EVERYTHING about CMMI? Sign up for the introductory Webinar that started it all!

November 17th: “Everything You Need to Know: Agile Transformation!” -- Do you dream of escaping the heavy-handed, command-and-control Waterfall practices, and embracing all the benefits of being Agile? Check out “Everything You NEED to Know about Agile Transformation!”

November 18th: “Everything You Need to Know: Agile Resiliency!" -- By participating in this webinar, you'll come away with an understanding of the work that needs to be done to strengthen agile in a way that makes sense for your organization, while staying true to agile methods.

November 19th: “Everything You Need to Know: Project Management!” -- Management is an engineering strategy that helps companies become the company they want to be by learning to stop doing Performance Management to people, and start doing it for them, giving them the resources they need to be great employees.

These are just a few opportunities for you to get better at what you are ALREADY doing this month, using tools like CMMI to guide your journey.  Even more cool happenings are unfolding next month.

Hope to see you on a webinar soon!

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.

Thursday, November 5, 2015

SPaMCAST Interview: Where did '12 attributes of great agile organizations' come from?

[NOTE: I recently had the honor of being one of the few thought leaders to be interviewed multiple times on the popular SPaMCAST podcast by host Tom Cagley. Below is an excerpt from our conversation about “12 Attributes of Great Agile Organizations” on SPaMCAST 366. A link to the ful interview appears below. ~ the CMMI Appraiser]

Hey, Jeff, you’ve been talking recently about the attributes of successful organizations. Where did this come from? I would have guessed that it came from your process background. But I saw a presentation that you did recently, which suggests that this concept predates your process background by a lot! ~ Tom Cagley


Hey, Tom. When I was fortunate enough to be asked to give that keynote talk that you attended, I really struggled with what to talk about that would be really meaningful to such a large crowd of highly esteemed professionals and executives in software engineering. My team suggested, “Why don’t you tell our own personal story, and find a way that it makes sense for it to be everyone’s story?”

So that’s where the idea of sharing the attributes of great companies came from. I thought a lot about my childhood, and my upbringing, and the fact that my father was a music teacher and a musician who had a vision for creating an incubator for musicians. When his children were born, he began grooming them to be musicians, assigning three instruments to each child. His idea was, as we grew up, he could have a folk band, a jazz band and a rock band.

So, we were given these instruments as a result of our father’s pre-planning – which I would now call Project Planning SP1.1. From before we were even born, my dad was asking, “What’s the scope of work that we’re going to do here?”

My father created a formula for how to be great as a musician. He nurtured this vision in a very disciplined way. We were up at 6AM every morning. We did tons of performances. We toured the world. We made records, and we lived that way our entire lives. We did a lot of cool stuff that, when I was eight, I thought every family did. I even said to my friends, “Hey, we’re going to China this summer! Where are you guys touring?”

They looked at me like I was a nutcase!

[To hear the full interview, click SPaMCAST 366.]

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.

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Will there be a CMMI Training class in Florida this winter?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser – will you be teaching your CMMI Training Class in Florida this winter? ~ Paul A.

Hey, Paul,

Ohh, yes … now you’re talking!  This February, when most of us from colder climes are struggling through another deep, dark winter, your fun-loving CMMI Appraiser will be off conducting an awesome, warm-weather CMMI training class for YOU to escape to!

So pack your sunglasses and catch up with me in Tampa.  Our popular “Intro to CMMI-DEV” class happens February 1-4, 2016.  Sign up here!



Designed for software and engineering professionals, “Intro to CMMI-DEV” helps you learn about the CMMI, process models, and how to use them to be a great company.  This training class also includes an optional 1-day Scrum Learning Experience supplement, which gives you hands-on and practical experience using Scrum, and making Scrum better with the CMMI.

Why is this CMMI Training better than the other guy’s?

We help you learn to use the CMMI to learn about yourself, so you can get on the path to greatness. With learning as your goal, achieving a Maturity Level of the CMMI will be just one byproduct of your journey.

In addition, professionals can earn 21 PDUs towards your PMP Certification (or 2.5 CEUs) while learning to improve software and engineering performance with the CMMI.

What is the CMMI Training Class all about?

Helping you learn about the way you work, so that you can get better -- that's what the CMMI is all about.  By participating in "Introduction to CMMI" will help you understand how to set the right goals and objectives, and keep asking the right question, such as:

  • How do you know you are good at what you do?
  • How do you know if you are improving?
  • How do you know if the process you use is working well?
  • How do you know if your requirements change process is useful?
  • How do you know if your products are as good as they can be?

So sign up for "Introduction to CMMI", and tell a friend. Our CMMI training class is hands-on, interactive, practical, and a lot of fun.

Hope to see you in Tampa this winter!

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

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

Visit www.broadswordsolutions.com for more information about running a successful CMMI and performance improvement program.

Monday, November 2, 2015

How do you stack up against other great companies? The 2016 Capability Challenge is ON!

Dear Readers,

If you’ve been reading this blog lately, you know how excited we are about the 2016 Capability Counts conference (formerly SEPG North America), coming to Annapolis, MD this spring. One of the ways our host, the CMMI Institute, is building up to the event is with a tournament for engineering and software companies to compete to see who can tell the best capability improvement story.

It’s called the 2016 Capability Challenge, and it's YOURS to ...


Yes, the 2016 Capability Challenge is still accepting applications from great companies that have the stories to prove why they are better than the competition.  Here's what's in it for YOU:
  • Visibility
  • Community engagement
  • Industry recognition 
  • Hardware for the trophy case
  • Opportunity to collect data relevant to your ROI

It works like this: All of the applicants will be divided into groups of four companies. Each applicant will tell their story and be interviewed in a 15-minute segment on a webinar hosted by the CMMI Institute and facilitated by SPaMCast celebrity Tom Cagely. At the end of each webinar, the audience will vote for the best story. The winners will move on to face a slate of other semi-finalists at the conference.

The contest begins online with webinars, and concludes in person, with the final two rounds taking place on the stage at Capability Counts 2016 in Annapolis, MD on May 10-11, where you'll present your story in front of the entire community – giving everyone a chance to hear about your successes.

So tell us your story! What business challenges or problems were you trying to solve when you launched your improvement program? Why should your deployment be considered successful or unique? What lessons can others learn from your approach?

Convince your entire industry that you’re good at what you do – better than all the rest – and you’ll walk away the winner!

Get started sharing your capability improvement story today. Click here to accept the 2016 Capability Challenge!

See you in Annapolis!

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.