Wednesday, January 22, 2014

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 

 CMMI-TV is the free video series with the answers you’re looking for about Agile, CMMI and Performance Innovation. As a subscriber, you’ll be notified when we add new episodes to CMMI-TV and you’ll get links to other premium content, as well. Sign up 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.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Can the CMMI help position us for sale to an acquisition partner?

Dear CMMI Appraiser, in consideration of our long-term exit plans, we chose to adopt the CMMI last year, and are already seeing dramatic improvement, particularly with happier customers. Any advice on how we can demonstrate the value of our new CMMI-based process to potential acquisition partners? ~ Lou G.

Lou, this is something a lot of business owners struggle with. You’ve got a plan. You’ve got people identified. You’ve figured out the kind of company you want to be and the way you want to do your work. You put the plan in action, and now you want to be able to prove that it is working.


To demonstrate that your CMMI adoption is improving performance, first you need to ask yourself how YOU know it’s improving performance.

It’s amazing to me how many companies fail to do this. They deploy a process and then forget about it. They say, “OK, team, let’s start using this thing!” And then they just let it ride. Sometimes it works, and sometimes people are really suffering. And if the company has a particular focus on QA and auditing, then the auditors create all kinds of conflict with the project team because they don’t really have a good understanding whether the process works or not.

What a nightmare. That’s why being able to provide data about how well things are working is so important. Especially since you are contemplating exit strategies.

I once asked a friend of mine, who is a partner in a large M and A  firm, what constitutes the real value of a company. He said the real value of the company isn’t in its people, because people can come and go, and you can’t control that. And he said it isn’t in the products, because the products can be reproduced at any time, by anyone.

So what DOES make a company valuable?

According to my friend, who is a leader in his field, the real value of the company is the business model of that company: how you do your work, how you design software, how you write it, how you test it, and all of the intellectual property that goes into creating that product, which, by the way, is done by those very people who come and go.

Your business model is the one tool you have to compete with companies that are faster than you or more efficient than you. It’s the one part of your organization that potential acquisition partners will find more valuable than everything else.

This is actionable information.  You can (and should!) tweak your business model to demonstrate that the process working. There’s a practice in the CMMI that helps you do that, the eighth Generic Practice (also known as GP 2.8), which guides us to “Monitor and Control the Process.” With this practice, the CMMI is giving us the tools to understand how well our business process is working, and to modify it if it isn’t.

“Monitor and control” might be one of the hardest things to do, but you have to conquer this if you want to demonstrate that you are a great company.

Fortunately, this is something you can start doing right now. Just ask yourself the following questions:

How well is our team performing? How can we communicate that to leaders, especially non-agile leaders, in accounting, marketing, management and other parts of our company? How do we portray how well we are working to the people who don’t understand what we do?

I use that last question as a test, because if you have the appropriate data to tell non-technical people what you are doing, and how well you are performing, then you must have some pretty good data.

The CMMI helps you learn to tell the story of how well you are doing. It does this by first helping YOU understand how well you are doing, which keeps your company on the path of greatness. You’ll find this process of self-discovery to be a fascinating and worthwhile journey, Lou, whether you ultimately choose to take on an acquisition partner or not.

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.

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Is there any software for CMMI implementation?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser, is there any software for rapid CMMI implementation? Our clients are requiring that we win a CMMI certificate within 6 months, and we are concerned about the risk of a failed implementation. Thank you in advance. ~ Rupal M.

Rupal, sorry, you can’t buy a tool for CMMI implementation because the CMMI is not something you implement, regardless of your time frame. There are some CMMI consultants who continue to advise companies that the CMMI Appraisal is a race that can be won in six months or less. But the truth is, a plaque or certificates isn't that important.  That’s not how you win the game.



So what is CMMI? The CMMI is a framework, a set of guidelines for helping you transform the culture of your company. It’s about improving and changing the way your company behaves, so that you create an environment in which the organization can manage its uniqueness in a structured way.

Make sense? That’s why you can’t bolt on a tool or devise to help you. There is no software, template, or checklist that will implement culture change, behavioral change, and embracing of continuous improvement across a large group of people. Yes, there are tools for tracking projects, or tracking improvements, but these are simply project management and measurement tools applied to process improvement.

By the same token, there is no tool that you can buy that guarantees that you can achieve any level of CMMI within any particular time frame. Tools on the market can help you manage your work, manage software, or manage requirements, and you might choose to employ them while also using the CMMI. But the CMMI is the equivalent to those tools. It does not take the place of those tools.

Try to focus on the bigger picture here, Rupal. The CMMI was intended to make your company a great company. If you focus on that perspective, on being great, doing the best you can do and being the best company you can be, external recognition like certificates and ratings and plaques and high fives will follow inevitably. Whatever Maturity Level you are achieving is simply a byproduct of being a great company.

It doesn’t work the other way around. You can’t say, “I’m going to get a certificate, and that certificate will make me a great company, whether I am or not.”

Which brings me to my final point. There is no such thing as “CMMI certificate” or “CMMI certification.” Though clients may refer to these phantom awards, the CMMI Institute does not recognize them, and – as I said above – that’s not what you want to focus on, anyway.

So I encourage you to forget about software, certificates and awards, and remember three things about the CMMI:

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

Employ the CMMI as a way to put your company on the path to greatness, Rupal. Success will surely follow.  And THAT's how you win the game!

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.

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Is there a good book on CMMI?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser, in my former company I had a satisfying experience with the CMMI. I’ve recently joined a new organization that does not yet have the same level of clarity about the value of the CMMI for software process improvement. Is there a good book (or books) that I can share with them? ~ Fayad P.

Hey, Fayad! How cool that you’re interested in sharing what you’ve learned about the power of software process improvement and the CMMI. Here are a few of the books about CMMI that this CMMI Appraiser has put together for folks who need more clarity. Feel free to download and share!

http://www.broadswordsolutions.com/books/

Like you, Fayad, I find the CMMI to be highly engaging and rewarding, both personally and professionally. I’ve also found that there is no greater pleasure than to help new engineering and software professionals learn about using the CMMI as one of the tools that can help drive performance innovation, and put them on the path to greatness.

That's why I wrote these books.  Our library contains useful information about CMMI for beginners as well as seasoned practitioners of the Model. Click through to our eBooks page (http://www.broadswordsolutions.com/books/) to read the titles and descriptions.

Hope your team enjoys these quick, informative reads, Fayad, and best of luck for a successful CMMI adoption!

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.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

"A process area is not a process" - what does THAT mean?



[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. Today, Pat addresses a commonly asked question about CMMI process areas - "A process area is not a process? What does THAT mean?" Take it away, Pat! ~ the CMMI Appraiser]

Thanks, Jeff! Perhaps a bit of historical background might give you a better understanding of what this statement is intended to convey. When the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) first decided to construct the “CMM for Software,” one of the CMMI-DEV’s three predecessor models, they elicited proposed content from high quality software development organizations by convening a meeting in Pittsburgh and inviting representatives from a select group of 15-20 companies. Each representative was instructed to come prepared to discuss those practices executed on the projects and within the organization that made them “world class.”


At this meeting, each of these good practices was written on an index card and pinned on the wall for all to see (the Post-It Note equivalent of the day). The group then went through an affinity diagramming exercise, clustering like practices together in related groups. After several rounds of segmentation, these groupings eventually became the 18 key process areas of the CMM for Software, and later evolved into the 22 process areas of the CMMI-DEV.

Had it been a different group of companies, or even different representatives from the same companies, these good practices may have been grouped differently. The key process areas were simply a way to organize the identified set of 316 practices, rather than a way to perform the work. So the CMMI is simply a taxonomy of good engineering, project management, and support practices. The process areas catalogue the model’s contents; the way the practices are actually performed may be quite different.

Take Measurement and Analysis, for example. The first practice, SP 1.1 – Establish Measurement Objectives, may be performed by senior and middle management through the annual strategic and tactical planning sessions. The other practices that support goal 1, SP 1.2 – SP 1.4 – which essentially establish an infrastructure for measuring things in a repeatable way – may be performed by some organizational Metrics Group that is responsible for generating Metric Specifications for standard measures. The actual capture and consumption of measures as suggested by the four practices that support specific goal 2, however, may be performed by various:

  • Project teams (e.g., project size, effort, cost and scheduled measures)
  • Product teams (e.g. customer satisfaction, defect density, and mean time to failure measures)
  • Process teams (e.g., trying to understand the average time it takes for a submitted requirement change request to be analyzed and dispositioned by the Change Control Board), and
  • Organizational groups (e.g. Human Resources focusing on annual turnover measures and interview-to-hire ratios)

These are perfectly legitimate ways to perform the practices suggested by the Measurement and Analysis process area, but the process steps that actually support the performance of the various CMMI MA practices within a given organization may be scattered throughout various organizational and project processes – and that’s OK!

For organizations that conduct small, low complexity projects, most of the practices associated with the project management process areas (PP, PMC, SAM, IPM and RSKM) may reside in a single Project Management Process. Alternatively for extremely large and complex projects, the project may execute several processes that, collectively, cover the first specific goal of the Project Planning process area.

So cataloguing practices for a process model like the CMMI, and organizing them to perform actual work may be significantly different. Remember that you only do appraisals every three years or so, but you work on projects every single day, so organize your processes to optimize the work performed on projects, and not that performed by appraisal teams!

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 O'Toole 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.




Monday, January 6, 2014

Do I Need CMMI Training?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser, do I need CMMI training? ~ software and engineering professionals everywhere I go

Dear Readers,

Join me in the studio for today’s episode of CMMI-TV as I respond to a question I get from software and engineering professionals just about everywhere I go: "Do I need CMMI training?" Below is a video clip with my answer, followed by a synopsis of my response. Enjoy!




WHAT IS CMMI-DEV TRAINING?

The CMMI for Development training course is a 3-day class that we teach in cities like San Diego, Chicago, Detroit, Washington, DC, Philadelphia and New York City. The class is recommended for software engineers, software developers, project managers, business analysts and line managers. It is an opportunity to learn how software process improvement works, and how to improve the performance of your software or engineering organization.

WHY CONSIDER CMMI TRAINING?

WHO IS REQUIRED TO TAKE CMMI TRAINING?

WHY OUR CLASSES ARE DIFFERENT

Our classes are a little bit different from some of the other CMMI training classes, because we infuse agile concepts into our classes. For example, instead of some of the standard training exercises, we include:
  • How to play Planning Poker
  • How to use Fibonacci sequencing for your estimates
  • How to do agile program planning
  • How to perform retrospective
  • And many other hands-on things that you’ll want to learn to participate in today’s programs using Scrum, Kanban or other methods

WHERE TO TAKE A CLASS

Our classes are presented quarterly, with our next course being presented in Washington DC in January.

INTRODUCTION TO CMMI TRAINING: CHANTILLY, VA
January 28-30, 2014
Register for "Introduction to CMMI" in Chantilly

INTRODUCTION TO CMMI TRAINING: TROY, MI
April 8-10, 2014
Register for "Introduction to CMMI" in Troy

CMMI-TV is the free video series with the answers you’re looking for about Agile, CMMI and Performance Innovation. As a subscriber, you’ll be notified when we add new episodes to CMMI-TV and you’ll get links to other premium content, as well. Sign up 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.