FINALLY!!! CMMI v2.0 addresses leadership and governance!

Editor's Note: This is third in our series about the upcoming release of CMMI v2.0 [Jeff]

FINALLY!!! CMMI v2.0 addresses leadership and governance!

"It's like pushing a rope uphill."

"My management only wants the CMMI certification."

"I care about the improvement, sure, but I really need the cert (wink wink)."

We've all heard it.  The CMMI, a performance model designed to help organizations improve, is often left in the hands of low-ranking, non-influential employees without authority to make change happen - and get little attention from senior management.

CMMI v2.0 is going to try to change that.

The new version, scheduled to be released on March 31, 2018, includes new Practice Areas (name change) for leadership.

Governance (GOV)

Governance will provide guidance and "appraise-able" practices for leadership, focusing on their efforts to improve performance.  That includes setting objectives (wow - seems obvious, yet...), prioritizing improvements, ensuring competencies, identifying Goals/Questions/Metrics needed to measure success, and providing the resources needed for improving performance.

Process Management (PCM)

Process management will provide guidance on developing a process performance architecture (again...seems obvious, but few do it because it's not specifically in the current model), keeping needs and objectives current, aligning improvements with objectives, implements, deploying, and sustaining, improvements, and more.

Not everything needed to improve performance is contained in GOV and PCM, but there will be a appraisal deliverable, a performance report, that will track improvements over time and be part of any re-appraisal. In other words....you need to at least TRY to improve.  Not just perform.

The Bottom Line

The inclusion of specific practices (see what I did there...) related to leadership, architecture, and actual improvement will go a long way to wake up absent leaders who think the CMMI is another plaque on the wall (we call that "Plaque Buildup") that is something they need to worry about every three years.  Oh yea...renewal period....we'll talk about that in another post!

There are quite a few other changes – including simplifying the model, reducing the cost, and more.  I'll be back in a couple of days to write about those.

Meantime, if you're interested in learning more about the set of in-depth classes we are offering on the subject in May, click "CMMI v2.0 Training."

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 training classes 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.