When is the next "Agile Scrum Learning Experience" in Virginia?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser,

When is your next Agile training class in the DC area? ~ F. Montcrief

Hey, F,

Good news, if you're looking to participate in agile training before the end of the year. We've got a DC-area Agile training class coming up right around the corner.  Join us for the Agile Scrum Learning Experience!

Agile Scrum Learning Experience

A 2-Day Workshop for IT Teams

Come on over to Fairfax, VA on December 13/14, for this two-day, hands-on, experiential workshop that is based on the Professional Scrum Master (PSM) and Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO) certifications from Scrum.org.

What's the class like?

In a word, useful. You'll actually get to make decisions as part of a Scrum team, where you'll experience Agile values, participate in Scrum ceremonies, try on new roles, and figure out how to deal with artifacts and documentation (eeeek!). You'll experience these lessons by working through a series of exciting, fast-paced projects that use legos, dart guns, cards, balloons, and videos.

Yes, you'll have fun. But these are real-life Agile skills you'll be learning here, that can completely transform your company and career. All within an Agile setting, you'll get to play the role of Scrum Master, Scrum Product Owner, Agile Team Member and Customer. You'll iterate. You'll collaborate. You'll fail fast. You'll learn to be more Agile.

Check it out. Class doors close in two weeks.  REGISTER HERE

Hope to see you there!

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.

What's the most important question we should be asking ourselves?

Dear Readers, for the past several weeks, this CMMI Appraiser has been sharing excerpts from a conversation with Bill Fox on Exploring Forward-thinking Workplaces™. Bill interviewed me about our innovative approach to creating forward-thinking workplaces. Here’s my response to Bill’s final question, “What's the most important question we should be asking ourselves?” Enjoy!

Hey, Jeff, What's the most important question we should be asking ourselves? ~ Bill Fox, Exploring Forward-thinking Workplaces

Hey, Bill,

Ha! Ask me an easy one! But I think the one of the most important questions that we can ask ourselves is, "Why not?"

As human beings we are so acclimated to conformance. Even in the US, which is probably the least conforming nation in the world, a place where engineers are known for extreme innovation through winging it, thinking outside the box, and for challenging authority, we don't often ask, “Why not?” Too many companies run their teams by saying “because I said so.” Screw that.

I've been encouraging my children to ask this question because they'll come home from college and say, "You know, the teacher said I can't do that." I say, "Well, why not?" They'll say, "There’s nothing I can do." And I'll say, "Why not?"

Sometimes I’ll be in a contract negotiation with a really large manufacturing client and they'll say, "Well, we can't go with you unless you have this manufacturing liability insurance” even though it has nothing to do with what we do. And I'll say, "Why not?" Lawyers are called, managers are consulted, and procurement is befuddled. But they eventually come around to see there is no good reason why not. Good times!

I think "Why not?" is the most important question because we need to get people to explain and verbalize why they take the positions they do. So many times they’re just repeating what they think is an unbreakable rule. Instead of saying, "I won't do that," or "We can't do that," let's say, "Why not? Why can't we do that?" Let's start the conversation, let's collaborate on the answer and let's figure out how everybody can win here and that starts with those two simple words, "Why not?"

Broadsword offers CMMI Training for those who say, “Why not?” – Why not get the value the CMMI was intended to provide? Why not learn to change behavior and improve performance? Our next “Intro to CMMI” class is on November 2-4, in San Diego, CA. Click here to register for the CMMI class.

[This concludes the excerpts from my interview with Bill Fox on Exploring Forward-thinking Workplaces. Thanks for reading!]

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.

What's the most important question employees should be asking management?

Dear Readers, for the past several weeks, this CMMI Appraiser has been sharing excerpts from a conversation with Bill Fox on Exploring Forward-thinking Workplaces™. Bill interviewed me about our innovative approach to creating forward-thinking workplaces. Here’s my response to Bill’s fifth question, “What's the most important question employees should be asking management?” Enjoy!

Hey, Jeff, What's the most important question employees should be asking management? ~ Bill Fox, Exploring Forward-thinking Workplaces

Hey, Bill, I'm writing a book for young technology professionals about how they can take steps early on to be more successful in their career. As part of that book, I've been interviewing CEOs of technology companies to get their perspective.

One of the things I'm hearing from them is that, especially with the younger team members, they are not focused on making the company successful. They are not asking, “What can I personally to do to make you and your company more successful?” I think the most important question an employee should be asking management is, "How can I make this organization rock?" "How can I help us win?"

When I was coming up in the technology business I used to ask my immediate manager “how can I make you successful in your mission?”

I think sometimes people, especially in large companies, don't really see the traceability between their actions and the success of the company. They have a bit of a disconnect between sales and engineering. If you go to a big engineering company like Lockheed Martin, L3 or SAIC, the engineers have very little visibility into what the sales team is doing. There tends to be some friction between the two groups. I tell them, "Look, this is a team. Nothing happens unless your sales people sell something.” And the sales people don’t continue to be rewarded if you don’t deliver. We all need each other! If the accounts receivable manager can’t get her invoices out, none of us can pay our rent – help make everyone successful!

I think people need to do a better job of saying, "What can I do to help this company be more successful?" Then get really specific on it and focus on those things. If they start asking those questions then everyone is going to be communicating and be on the same page, which should be “let's make this organization rock, so we have great careers, build great products, and have a great time doing it!” Anything else is a waste of talent.

For those interested in CMMI Training as a way to receive the right amount of process guidance so you can change behavior and improve performance, we invite you to attend our Intro to CMMI class on November 2-4, in San Diego, CA. Register here.

[Please check back soon for the final question from Bill Fox on Exploring Forward-thinking Workplaces: What's the most important question we should be asking ourselves?]

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.

Exploring Forward-thinking Workplaces: What is the most important question leaders should be asking employees?

Dear Readers, for the next several weeks, this CMMI Appraiser will be sharing excerpts from a conversation with Bill Fox on Exploring Forward-thinking Workplaces™. Bill interviewed me about our innovative approach to creating forward-thinking workplaces. Here’s my response to Bill’s fourth question, “What is the most important question leaders should be asking employees?” Enjoy!

Hey, Jeff,

What is the most important question leaders should be asking employees? ~ Bill Fox, Exploring Forward-thinking Workplaces

Hey, Bill,

“How can I help?” This is a really important question that we don't hear often enough. I try to remember to ask this question every day to at least one person. How can I help you succeed in what you're doing? How can I help your each your goal? If you look at the model we've developed where people have autonomy to grow their in own area of interest, the most important thing is to help them do that.

But I also sometimes get more specific with it, “Specifically, what I can do right now to help make you more successful?” I think this notion of servant leadership is over-hyped in our market, but I really believe in the principle. Teams want you to make decisions and be a strong leader, but they also want you to serve them and help make them successful.

In the book “We Were Soldiers Once . . .and Young” the protagonist (legendary Calvary Lt. Colonel Hal Moore famously promised his young troopers that, “When we go into battle, I will be the first to set foot on the field, and I will be the last to step off.” That’s been my model since I first read those words.

[Please check back soon for Question #5 from Bill Fox on Exploring Forward-thinking Workplaces: “What's the most important question employees should be asking management?”]

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.

Exploring Forward-thinking Workplaces: What do people really lack and long for at work?

Dear Readers, for the next several weeks, this CMMI Appraiser will be sharing excerpts from a conversation with Bill Fox on Exploring Forward-thinking Workplaces™. Bill interviewed me about our innovative approach to creating forward-thinking workplaces. Here’s my response to Bill’s third question, “What do people really lack and long for at work?” Enjoy!

Hey, Jeff,

What do people really lack and long for at work? ~ Bill Fox, Exploring Forward-thinking Workplaces

Hey, Bill,

It's interesting because this has really evolved over the last decade. When I was a young programmer and then consultant, what was most important was a solid career track, making more money, and moving up to be a partner, senior manager, or vice president. People were really focused on that. 

I've been excited this past couple of years because it seems like the workforce is evolving. People are more interested in the work environment with time and challenge being the most important things. People want to have time to do the things that are important in their life. A career, making money and moving up are the things that people do, but it's not the reason we work. We don't work to move up and get a new title. We don't work to make an additional $50,000 per year. Those things are nice and good things (and wholly necessary), but what we really work for is to spend time with our family, relax, read, and do other pursuits outside of our careers. And be challenged every day.

As part of our own Holacracy journey, we have implemented a couple of new policies. One of them is we have an unlimited Personal Time Off (PTO) policy. We have no designated vacation days by role. We used to say if you were a senior consultant you got three weeks. If you were a manager, you got four weeks. Now we say, “OK, you take the PTO that you need to take to make yourself successful.” That way people get ample vacation time, but more importantly they get ample time to take off to do things that are important to them. All they need to do is collaborate with their peers to ensure nothing falls on the floor.

What we were finding with the traditional model of time management was that someone would use up their vacation, and then they would have miss important family events, or have to come to us asking special permission to get that time off. Who likes doing that? With the model we have now, it's much more about supporting the team and being collaborative. The person brings it to the team and says, “I need to take four days off to go to a wedding.” And the team will say, “Ok that’s fine with us, we can pick up some slack and succeed without you being there.” If someone on the team were to abuse the policy – which has not happened in the two years we’ve been doing it – the team would most certainly let them know that they’re not being a team player!

We do, however, have guidelines. For example, our clients have to be taken care of, and important internal tasks must be accounted for. Team members know that if they have your back, you’ll have theirs. Allowing people to use their time in a way that satisfies their life, as well as their career, has been a game changer in the business. It frees up the organization to be a lot nimbler and a lot more focused on what is important. It's created a very strong and dedicated group of professionals.

[Please check back soon for Question #4 from Bill Fox on Exploring Forward-thinking Workplaces: “What is the most important question leaders should be asking employees?”]

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.

Exploring Forward-thinking Workplaces: What does it take to get an employee's full attention and best performance?

Dear Readers, for the next several weeks, this CMMI Appraiser will be sharing excerpts from a conversation with Bill Fox on Exploring Forward-thinking Workplaces™. Bill interviewed me about our innovative approach to creating forward-thinking workplaces. Here’s my response to Bill’s second question, “What does it take to get an employee's full attention and best performance?” Enjoy!

Hey, Jeff,

What does it take to get an employee's full attention and best performance? ~ Bill Fox, Exploring Forward-thinking Workplaces

Hey, Bill,

This is a complicated question, with many inputs and qualifiers. I've struggled with this idea my whole career. But if I’m proud of anything in my career, it’s that I’ve done a decent job bringing great performance out of people. I think the way to do that is to encourage and motivate them to want to do it and to be excited about what they're doing.

I'm always reminded of the mantras of the Armed Services. The Navy says, “People, People, People” is their focus. The Army says, “Process, Process, Process.” And the Air Force says, “Mission, Mission, Mission.” These are the things that you hear military professionals talk about as being what really drives them in their particular branch.

What I've learned in my company is that people want to be excited about all three of those things, the mission being the most important one. It isn't enough just to give them a mission and a goal. You also need to focus on the people, making it easier for them to focus on the mission.

Finally, process is important too. Process is nothing more than a definition of expected behavior, and I find that the right amount of process guidance can be very liberating and a powerful force in growing your culture. So, it’s a three-legged stool – and architecture of sorts. Laying out a very clear mission that's exciting to them, laying out a clear vision for culture that helps people be successful, and laying out the process in a way that makes their job easier and more successful. All three things together have to be intertwined and work together.

Anyone interested in CMMI Training, as a way to receive the right amount of process guidance so you can change behavior and improve performance, is invited to attend our Intro to CMMI training class on September 20-23, outside of Detroit, MI. Register here!

[Please check back soon for Question #3 from Bill Fox on Exploring Forward-thinking Workplaces: What do people really lack and long for at work?]

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.

Exploring Forward-thinking Workplaces: How can we create workplaces where more voices matter?

Dear Readers, over the next several weeks, this CMMI Appraiser will be sharing snippets from a conversation with Bill Fox on Exploring Forward-thinking Workplaces™. Bill interviewed me about our innovative approach to creating forward-thinking workplaces. Here’s “Making Every Voice Matter at Broadsword.” Enjoy!]

Hey, Jeff,

I’d like to start by asking, how can we create workplaces where more voices matter, people thrive and find meaning, and change and innovation happen naturally? ~ Bill Fox, Exploring Forward-thinking Workplaces

Hey, Bill,

We've been struggling with this question for 10 years at Broadsword, the company I founded eleven years ago. We started out as a traditional consulting firm with a leveraged model and different levels of performers - senior consultants, directors, and managers. We were a little bit like a traditional Big 4 consulting model, which is where we some of us came from. 

Last year we had a joint epiphany. We were out there in the world talking with our clients about agile, self-organization and collaboration when we realized we weren't doing a good job at it ourselves! We really wanted to ensure that all of the smart people who worked at our company had a voice, but more importantly, felt like they were contributing and thriving in their own lives. We wanted them to feel like they were empowered to do the things they needed to do to be delighted. So I started what I call the "no victims" policy. There are no victims in our company - everyone is empowered to do what they need to do to be successful. They're empowered to resolve issues and be equals. No managers.

Of course, you can’t be successful without some level of organization, so in order to facilitate this policy, we've started to adopt a model called “Holacracy.” I was literally Googling “self-organizing companies” when I ran across the Holacracy website. I'm not sure how much you've been following Brian Robinson and his journey, but Brian created this model a number of years ago and has helped many companies find great success with self-organization. It's a constitution-based model where your organization is self-governing. In some ways it’s a super-charged version of what we’ve been doing with our clients – crisply defined processes where people have very clear defined roles in the constitution. They have a lot of input into each role, and theirs is is designed to give them the meaning they are searching for. Obviously, we have some roles that have to be performed, but there are also elective roles so that people are focusing on the things that make them most empowered and most successful in their careers.

One of the key concepts in Holacracy is "learning to separate role from soul." An individual at our company might have 20 roles. For example, I have a role such as “writer of proposals,” and another like “reviewer of financials.” I also have “teacher of classes” (a role others also have) and “planner of retreats. We're codifying all of the roles in our constitution, and are starting to become proficient in this self-organization model where every employee is responsible for their own meaning and their own innovation. It's really starting to change the face of our company.

For a while we had a couple of dedicated managers - people whose job it was to direct the other people. We realized early on we were uncomfortable with this because everyone in our company is a high performer. People needed coaching more than management, and I became concerned that too much oversight was stifling innovation (another thing we always tell our clients!). We haven't fully implemented Holacracy yet, but we are on the path. The results have been overwhelmingly positive.

[Please check back soon for Question #2 from Bill Fox on Exploring Forward-thinking Workplaces: What does it take to get an employee's full attention and best performance?]

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.

What is the Best Performance of Process Improvement Strategy

What is the best performance or process improvement strategy?

On February 6, 2013, Bill Fox will be presenting What is the best performance or process improvement strategy at the monthly DC SPIN meeting in Northern Virginia.  You can learn more about the event at: http://www.upstartsystems.com/Default.aspx?alias=www.upstartsystems.com/dcspin

Two years ago Bill Fox started a conversation on process improvement called 5 Minutes to Process Improvement Success when he began asking industry leading practitioners one simple question, “What is your best process improvement strategy or tactic that has worked really well for your clients?”  After more than 30 interviews, many interesting strategies and themes have emerged.

I was lucky enough to be an early participant and supporter of the interview series and my interview, An Iterative and Incremental Approach to Process Improvement, was one of many frequently viewed interviews in this successful series.

Recently, The Cutter IT Journal published the surprising findings from the interviews in Bill's article in the November 2012 issue of the Cutter IT Journal alongside my own article on Agile Resiliency. 

According to the editor of the November issue, Hillel Glazer:

“In our first article, Bill Fox looks at whether we’re asking the right questions and reflecting on what we’re trying to accomplish. By the time you read this, Fox will have interviewed three dozen experts in the field.  Within two dozen, he came across a fascinating discovery that can change your own thinking on how to speed delivery and improve quality — and every other notion often attributed to agile, CMMI, or both.  What if success with agile or CMMI really has nothing to do with agile or CMMI?  Fox takes us down that thought path.”

In this presentation, Bill will share many of the surprising strategies and what we might take away and learn from them to improve results and success of our performance and process improvement efforts.  If his findings don’t surprise you, why aren’t you using them?  If you’d like to attend the presentation, go to the DC SPIN home page for more details. 

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.

5 Minutes with the CMMI Appraiser, Fifth Question: What is the CMMI Appraiser’s mission?

[Over the past several days, the CMMI Appraiser has been sharing snippets from a conversation with Bill Fox on 5 Minutes to Process Improvement Success™. Bill interviewed the CMMI Appraiser about how the CMMI can be used to create resiliency in the agile method. Here’s “An Iterative and Incremental Approach to Process Improvement with Jeff Dalton.”]

Hey, Jeff, you are addressing typically unseen issues that are below the waterline of the iceberg that, so often, many organizations seem to learn the hard way. How would you describe the mission of your company? ~ Bill Fox, 5 Minutes to PI Success

Hey, Bill, Broadsword’s mission is simple. We want to help people understand – really understand – that this discussion is about culture. It’s not about CMMI certification.

That’s the big message that I most often deliver to clients. As a matter of fact, I’m on my way to give a CMMI training in Dayton, Ohio on this subject. I will tell them that process isn’t overhead. Process is the definition of how we do work every day. That’s our mission.

At conferences, I use a little trick to shake people out of their old way of thinking. I talk about how I have a new way to spell “process.” Then I bring up on the screen a phonetic spelling of the word “engineering.” I let people look at it for a minute and decode it. Ultimately, you hear some folks say, “Ah-ha!” along with some laughter.

Why do I do this? I think it really makes the point that process isn’t this thing we do that adds overhead, time and energy. No, if you do it that way, then you did it wrong. Process is about how we perform engineering tasks every day.

Is that hard to accept? Not at all. Every engineer in the world, if he thinks about it and it’s presented to him the right way—and we think our agileCMMI method is that right way—any good engineer who hears this argument will be in agreement and will embrace it.

That’s the mission we’re on at Broadsword. That’s what we’re all about. We invite folks to learn more at our web site, www.broadswordsolutions.com.

Five minutes with the CMMI Appraiser is up.

And this concludes our “Five Minutes the the CMMI Appraiser” series. Please check back soon for information on downloading the free eBook, “Five Minutes the the CMMI Appraiser”. 

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.

5 Minutes with the CMMI Appraiser, Fourth Question: What makes the light come on?

[Over the next several days, the CMMI Appraiser has been sharing snippets from a conversation with Bill Fox on 5 Minutes to Process Improvement Success™. Bill interviewed CMMI Appraiser about how the CMMI can be used to create resiliency in the agile method. Here’s “An Iterative and Incremental Approach to Process Improvement with Jeff Dalton.”]

Hey, Jeff, when I have been involved with a successful implementation, I can see that idea take hold in people as they observe things happening and results happening and things changing. What makes it so that, all of a sudden, a light switches on with regards to agileCMMI? ~ Bill Fox, 5 Minutes to PI Success

Hey, Bill, I think the term "consultant" is used rather loosely with a lot of people. I believe that to be a total consultant means helping them understand culture, helping them communicate vision, helping them learn. These things are all above and beyond the CMMI certification discussion, right?

Anyone can claim to be a CMMI consultant. But only a small amount of people in the world have the requisite skills, training, experience, and certifications that qualify them for the task - and an even smaller group of them have a proven track record.

To make the light bulb come on, here are some things this CMMI Appraiser tries to make engineering and software professionals be aware of:

CMMI is about CHANGE. And change is hard. If your CMMI consultant doesn't demonstrate an understanding of the complexity of culture change, and have the consulting skills to help your organization set goals, communicate, solve problems, and help you transform in a positive way, then they don't have the skills to do the job.

CMMI is about leadership. If your CMMI consultant isn't experienced at bringing leadership into the process, isn't skilled with executive interaction, and doesn't know how to speak with and motivate your management in a professional and substantive way, then they don't have the skills to help you.

CMMI is about improvement. And improvement succeeds by applying incremental and iterative techniques to steadily improve performance over time. If your CMMI consultant doesn't come with a structured methodology that leads you through this process, they probably don't have what it takes to do the job.

CMMI is about behavior. It's not about forms, documents, and templates. If your CMMI consultant focuses on making you fill out forms and templates for everything, and wants you to produce hundreds of the deliverables, you should be asking yourself why this is useful - and decide if your consultant's approach makes sense for you.

CMMI is about choice. It's not about making everyone do the same thing. Every consultant comes with biases and past experience, but the good ones are open minded and focus on leading you to the right conclusions - not telling you what you should do. Trust me, they don't KNOW what you should do, because it depends on what you ARE doing. They don't work at your company and can't know what works until they spend some time with you. A lot of time.

These things are above and beyond the actual CMMI knowledge, which is routinely and astoundingly inadequate among many people who claim to be “CMMI consultants.”

So our methodology has all that built into it. It sort of came about over the years as just a reaction to all these problems that so-called CMMI consultants were causing our clients, before our clients came to us.  It's been great to see that light bulb come on.

Today's five minutes with the CMMI Appraiser is up.

Please check back soon for Question #5: What is the CMMI Appraiser’s mission?

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.

Five Minutes with the CMMI Appraiser, Third Question: Do companies need to be “sold” on agileCMMI?

[Over the next several days, the CMMI Appraiser will be sharing snippets from a conversation with Bill Fox on 5 Minutes to Process Improvement Success™. Bill interviewed the CMMI Appraiser about how the CMMI can be used to create resiliency in agile methods. Here’s “An Iterative and Incremental Approach to Process Improvement with Jeff Dalton.”]

Hey, Jeff, in terms of working with new clients, do you need to find organizations that embrace the agileCMMI methodology, or do you have to sell it? ~ Bill Fox, 5 Minutes to PI Success

Hey, Bill.  It’s an interesting question in our industry. If you talk to some of my peers, they would tell you about their reluctance to engage with clients who seek "CMMI certification" versus clients who really want to achieve greatness. Staying away from the former and only working with the latter is kind of a thing for some of them.  That's cool.

That approach doesn't fit for me, however.  I believe that everybody deserves a chance to be great, whether they realize it or not. At our company, we refer to this as the “Path to Greatness," and it’s our slogan.

Would we want more companies to come to us already looking for more ways to be great? Sure! But the truth is 50% of clients in our space come to us saying, “I need a CMMI certification,” or “The federal government says I need this piece of paper,” or “I need to be CMMI Level Two or CMMI Level Three.”

We say, that’s OK, business is business! And that’s the difference between this CMMI Appraiser and some other folks. If they don’t already have the “Path to Greatness” mentality, or appreciate the power of agileCMMI, I consider it part of my job to turn them, to change their minds.

But it goes even deeper than that. This is bigger than my company or my clients. I believe it’s our responsibility – all of us – to help companies understand the tremendous advantages of cultivating a strong desire to achieve greatness with the CMMI as one of their tools. As process improvement experts or CMMI consultants, it’s our job to help our clients understand why having a broader, more holistic attitude toward the CMMI is good for them.

See, the more we use the CMMI, and the more we work with companies that are using the CMMI, the more we realize that this is a model that's about how great companies perform.

Rarely does someone come to us with that understanding in advance. They just want a "CMMI certification," and they want to know the cost. My job is to say, “We can help you with this. We can help you get the certification.” I then start working with them and really start to change their attitude about how agileCMMI works and how it can benefit them.

Change doesn’t happen overnight. I would say that I need about three-to-six months with a client to change their cultural understanding of what it is they’re trying to do with CMMI anyway. The great thing is, once you help them believe it, they’re evangelists. They go off and spread the word very quickly among their people.

In my opinion, this is what is missing from our industry. There are a lot of so-called CMMI consultants out there because, frankly, it’s not that hard to put the acronym on your business card. Some of them  are pitching CMMI work, or process improvement work, and doing a disservice to the industry.  They tell clients that the CMMI is all about ratings and certificates.  They never mention paths or greatness.  Without that the CMMI is just an empty shell.

Sadly, there are very few guys and gals in our industry that get this.  But this is the real consulting help we can give to our clients. We can help them understand why this is approach is valuable to them, and how they can use it as a strategic weapon to grow their business.

That’s why I’m so passionate about this, Bill. I consider it part of my duty to educate everyone on that fact. I hope people who read this interview really get that CMMI is not about certifications or achieving levels, although that certainly is an outcome. Instead, the CMMI is about an organizational improvement strategy that can help companies be more powerful and productive.

Today's five minutes with the CMMI Appraiser is up.

Please check back soon for the Fourth Question: What makes the light come on for a successful agileCMMI adoption?

And don’t miss our next "CMMI: On Location" professional development experience. The CMMI Appraiser is on location in Washington DC on the topic of agileResiliency and using CMMI to make agile stronger at AgileDC conference on October 23rd.

Click to 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 running a successful CMMI program.

Five Minutes with the CMMI Appraiser, Second Question: What was the genesis of agileCMMI?

[NOTE: Over the next several days, the CMMI Appraiser will be sharing snippets from a conversation with Bill Fox on 5 Minutes to Process Improvement Success™. Bill interviewed the CMMI Appraiser about how the CMMI can be used to create resiliency in the agile method. Here’s “An Iterative and Incremental Approach to Process Improvement with Jeff Dalton.”] 

Hey, Jeff, what was the genesis of getting to that strategy of using an iterative and incremental approach that you call agileCMMI? Did you evolve it over time? ~ Bill Fox, 5 Minutes to PI Success 

Hey, Bill.  My background is in consulting. I was with Ernst & Young for ten years, and in software development. In my days at Ernst & Young, when I was doing a lot of business consulting or process consulting, I noted that almost every process implementation was a failure. It’s a little bit like large-scale software development implementations often fail.

I really struggled with this.  I asked, “What’s the reason behind all this?” and I discovered two things. One is that human beings don’t learn in a Waterfall way; they learn in an incremental way. And adopting and using new processes is, above all else, a learning experience. People learning how to do things; people learning that this is good for them; people learning how to change the way that they think, because that’s really what process improvement is all about — changing the culture and changing the way we think.

So going back almost ten years, I really started thinking about, “How do we turn this on its head so that we can make process implementation a learning experience?” and I came to the conclusion that taking an iterative and incremental approach was the way to do that.

The second part of that is, as a software person, I realized that there are so many process experts out there in the industry, talking about Six Sigma, CMMI and process improvement, and ISO, and using all these sort of process-centric languages, and I realized that until we started talking to software developers and project managers in language they can understand—things like object orientation, encapsulation, polymorphism and all the words, phrases, and concepts associated with software development—that they really wouldn’t get what we were talking about.

This agileCMMI method not only takes the first concept of incremental and iterative design and deployment, but it also embraces the second concept, by presenting everything to developers in a language they understand and using UML diagrams and data flow diagram, things they’re used to using, as opposed to trying to shove them into the process world, which is a world they don’t want to be in.

All of these things together sort of brought me to the conclusion that process isn’t overhead.  Process isn’t this foreign thing that we make people do.  Process is another word for engineering.  And we, as a process-proven industry, have done an awful job over the decades really explaining that well enough.

Our agileCMMI methodology solves both of those problems, and we’ve had really good success with it. Clients embrace it wholeheartedly.  Some have even gone and started using it in other parts of their business, like sales, marketing, HR and finance.  It has really been a very successful adventure for us.

Today's five minutes with the CMMI Appraiser is up. 

Please check back soon for the Third Question: Do companies need to be “sold” on embracing agileCMMI?

And don’t miss our next "CMMI: On Location" professional development experience. The CMMI Appraiser is on location in Washington DC on the topic of agileResiliency and using CMMI to make agile stronger at AgileDC conference on October 23rd.

Click it for a ticket, and 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 running a successful CMMI program.

Five Minutes with the CMMI Appraiser: What’s the best process improvement strategy you've used?

[Over the next several days, the CMMI Appraiser will be sharing snippets from a conversation with Bill Fox on 5 Minutes to Process Improvement Success™. Bill interviewed the CMMI Appraiser about how the CMMI can be used to create resiliency in agile methods. Here’s “An Iterative and Incremental Approach to Process Improvement with Jeff Dalton.”]

Hey, Jeff, I’d like to start by asking: What’s the best process improvement, strategy or tactic that has worked really well for you or your clients? ~ Bill Fox, 5 Minutes to PI Success

Hey, Bill.  The hardest part of process improvement is not telling clients what they should do—that’s not even part of what we do.  It's not writing a process for them.  It’s not even getting them to write a process and propose one and deploy it, although that is useful. The hardest part, and the thing that’s most impactful and what works most for us, is how you deploy process improvement to the community. In other words, how you get people to embrace it and use it.

The approach my company Broadsword Solutions uses has been very successful.  It is an iterative and incremental approach we call agileCMMI, our branded approach.

agileCMMI uses agile methods such as incremental delivery, continuous build, collaboration, etc. It applies the same techniques we use when writing software to deploy process and get people to embrace process.

Embracing the process is key to overall success.  After all, the best process in the world is useless if you can’t get people to actually embrace it and adopt it.  And until they embrace it and adopt it, you don’t even know if the process you developed is even useful. 

agileCMMI helps organizations embrace processes successfully.  agileCMMI is an incremental method where we deploy small components of the process in releases over time. For example, we might release two or three sub-processes and test it out, and then once the company has embraced those small, easy to digest, useful things, we’ll give them another set of small, digestible, useful things.

We plan it all out in advance.  You are getting appropriate pieces at the appropriate times. And the reason it works is that’s how we learn. We learn as human beings by digesting things in very small pieces. So when you look at so many process implementations that have failed, you see some commonalities.  Typically the company tried to throw a big binder or a big website at all their employees and said, “This is going to be your new process.”  They were trying to get them to eat an elephant in one bite.

agileCMMI goes about this differently.  We're not going to force you to do anything.  We’re giving people very small components to start working with.  We'll keep feeding them those small bites over time until they have their complete process suite and their process improvement architecture and their methodology and everything they need will be implemented.  Sometimes this will take months.

During that time, you get these things in small, right-sized pieces, so that you can understand them, can put them in context.  Then you can start to embrace them and use them successfully.  That's what agileCMMI is all about, and that's why I would say it is the best process strategy we've used.  It's how we learn. 

Today's five minutes with the CMMI Appraiser is up.  Please check back soon for the Second Question: What was the genesis of the agileCMMI methodology? 

And don’t miss our next "CMMI: On Location" professional development experience. The CMMI Appraiser is on location in Washington DC on the topic of agileResiliency and using CMMI to make agile stronger at AgileDC conference on October 23rd.

Click it for a ticket, and 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 running a successful CMMI program.