Five Quick Things You Need To Know about the new CMMI V2.0 - Right Now.

The ALL-NEW CMMI V2.0 is out, and can now be used to improve performance even more (and to receive a Maturity Level).  Here's five things that you need to know now.

1. It's smaller, sort of.

Version 1.3 of the CMMI has 356 Practices in Maturity Level Three.  These included all of the Generic and Specific practices across eighteen Process Areas.

Version 2.0 eliminates the Generic Practices altogether (whoo hooo?), combines Requirements Management (REQM) and Requirements Development (RD) into one Practice Area, and mashes up Validation and Verification.  Great!  But wait....there is a NEW Practice Area called "Implementation Infrastructure" (II) that takes the place of the Generic Practices.  II must be applied to all Processes in your process set, effectively ,multiplying the, across many Practice Areas.  They've also added Causal Analysis and Resolution (CAR) and Governance (GOV) to ML3.  So...smaller?  Yes, but not as much as you might think.

2. Practices are no longer very Specific....or Generic

After spending a lot of time learning about "Specific," "Generic," and "sub-practices," for v1.3, we all thought we had the language mastered.  But Noooo!  Now there are just "practices" inside of the newly-introduced "Practice Groups."   The "sub practices" are completely gone, with just some implementation advice at the bottom of the page.

3. It's not your father's architecture

The CMMI v1.3 architecture was, roughly: Process Category------>Process Are------>Specific/Generic Goal------->Specific/Generic Practice------->Informative Material.

The CMMI V2.0 architecture is Category------>Capability Area------>Practice Area------->Practice Group-------->Practice--------->Explanatory Materials

Think of categories as "SuperProcess Categories," and think of Capability areas as "Process Categories" but better,


4. You won't have SCAMPI to kick around anymore

SCAMPI A, B, and C are gone!

New we have an "Evaluation Appraisal" (like a B or C). and a Benchmark Appraisal (like a SCAMPI A).  We still have the After Action Re-Appraisal, and there is a new "Sustainment" appraisal, which can give you an extension for two extra years if your organization hasn't change significantly.

5. They're picking the sample

In v1.3, the project sample for an appraisal is negotiated between the sponsor and the Lead Appraiser.  In V2.0, the CMMI Institute will randomly generate your sample NO MORE than 60 days prior to your Benchmark appraisal.  This means that ALL projects need to be performing at MLx - not just a pre-selected few that get polished up for when the appraiser comes onsite!


BONUS: You'll be speaking a new language!

Specific Practice, Generic Practices, and Sub-Practices are now "Practices."
Process Areas are now "Practice Areas."
SCAMPI is now "Benchmark."
Categories is now "Capability Areas."
SCAMPI B/C is now "Evaluation."

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.

CMMI Level 3 Renewal – Where to Start?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser,

Our new CEO says she wants to maintain the company’s investment in version CMMI v1.3, then transition to the new Upgrade CMMI V2.0 and Agile over time. But here’s the problem: She describes CMMI as a framework for helping us take action to improve engineering, and says that, once we truly start the process of embracing the CMMI with a proper CMMI appraisal, we’ll be on the path to becoming a great company. That’s nothing like our experience. When I was the CMMI sponsor last time, we went with a low-cost Lead Appraiser, and all we did was chase paper. Where do companies like ours start the renewal process? ~ Justin W.

Hey, Justin, one place to start would be to thank your new CEO for pushing you to be a great company. It sounds like she is trying to get you to do the things you’ve known you should do anyway. That’s human nature. I notice the same dynamic with my personal fitness trainer – except your boss is paying you!

In many ways, the journey to adopting the CMMI is similar to the journey to becoming physically fit. Companies that work with Broadsword go through a predefined, fully detailed progression in their quest to achieve CMMI Maturity Level 3, for instance, and put themselves on the path to becoming a great company.

Another way to state your CEO’s goals would be this way:

1) Get on the path to becoming the great company you aspire to be

2) Preserve your investment in CMMI v1.3

3) Transition seamlessly over time to CMMI V2.0

Here are the recommended steps for a company like yours:

Step 1: SCAMPI C – The SCAMPI C (Gap Analysis) is first and foremost a way for your company to find out about itself and how you stack up against the CMMI model. It’s also an opportunity for your CMMI Appraiser to learn as much about your company as he can, and for your company to learn about the CMMI Appraiser. If you worked with a cut-rate Lead Appraiser last time, you may have missed out on this critical piece. Taking time to learn about one another is important because you will be spending a lot of time together (especially as you transition to CMMI 2.0) making decisions that will have an serious impact on the behaviors of your people. And so, helping both sides feel more comfortable with each other is one of the most beneficial aspects of the SCAMPI C.

As a result, you will understand that your boss was right: The CMMI is not about pointlessly chasing paper. It’s about making your company great!

Step 2: Training – There are a number of training courses that need to take place in your journey to becoming a great company. First is the introduction to CMMI training course, followed by training on how to become expert process engineers. We teach you how to execute our AgileCMMI methodology, and how to design and develop processes. Your entire appraisal team goes through the training, plus anyone who plays a key leadership role in the company in terms of how they want the work performed, such as project managers, program leaders and line managers.

Step 3: Tune-up – After the SCAMPI C, and often concurrently with the training, we will provide you with a plan that identifies all the tuning up or development of processes that must occur in your company. The plan includes everything you need to do in the context of AgileCMMI, the Special Interest Groups (SIGs) to be created, as well as all of the releases and iterations that must take place between now and your SCAMPI B Appraisal.

Step 4: SCAMPI B – After you’ve done the training and the tune up, you are ready for the SCAMPI B Appraisal. The SCAMPI B is an formal appraisal that serves as a tool to give you the information you need to completely understand your current state in relation to the CMMI. It gives you the information you need to determine whether you will succeed in the formal SCAMPI A, as planned.

Step 5: SCAMPI A –After you’ve satisfactorily completed your SCAMPI B, you are ready for a formal SCAMPI A appraisal, and you’ll want do all you can to assure a positive result. If your SCAMPI A is successful, congratulations!

But don’t celebrate so much you forget everything you’ve learned. Once I’ve achieved my health and fitness goals, I don’t want to celebrate by eating a gooey chunk of chocolate cake. Getting in shape and renewing your standing as a CMMI Maturity Level 3 company doesn’t make you a great company. It just means you are sufficiently equipped with the infrastructure and tools you need to become a great company. Whether or not you make the changes in your company – and make the commitment to long-term health as an organization – is up to you.

If that’s the path you take, your ultimate transition to CMMI v2.0 will be seamless. And your CMMI Appraiser will be right there, cheering you on, every step of the way.

If you would like gain a deeper understanding of CMMI, our next "Intro to CMMI-DEV" class is February 19-21, 2019. Join us in the DC area for a practical, fun, fast-paced and interactive classroom experience!

And if you’re interested in learning about a new solution Broadsword provides for companies that are focused on protecting their investment with CMMI v1.3 while seamlessly transitioning to CMMI V2.0, please visit NeXTSTEP CMMI.

Good luck on your journey!

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.

CMMI User Story #7: Does your maturity level rating help you win new business?

Welcome back to Ask the CMMI Appraiser for today’s installment of CMMI User Stories! We’ve been sharing excerpts from our recent study of what CMMI users really think about the CMMI.

Question #1: “Are projects more predictable with the CMMI?”

Question #2: “Did you experience an increase in quality or performance?”

Question #3: “Did you experience a decrease in defects?”

Question #4: “With the CMMI, are customers happier with your performance?”

Question #5: “Did you experience an ROI?”

Question #6: “Does your maturity level rating differentiate you from competitors?”

Today we're highlighting Question #7:

Does your maturity level rating help you win new business?

There is much debate in our industry about the motivations behind adopting the CMMI. Some adopt the Model strictly for marketing reasons. Some are responding to mandates from their customers. And some focus on achieving process improvement and increasing performance. We wanted to understand the experience versus expectation of those who adopted the CMMI.

This question was asked for the first time in the current survey. More than eighty percent of respondents indicated that having a maturity level rating helped win new business.

Be sure to check back regularly as we share results of the CMMI User Story Report right here on Ask the CMMI Appraiser.

We’ve also made the information available in an eBook. If you would like to receive the complete set of user stories in the final Report, click here to access your free* copy.

*$9.99 on Amazon

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 running a successful CMMI program.

CMMI User Story #5: Did you experience an ROI?

Welcome back to Ask the CMMI Appraiser for today’s installment of CMMI User Stories, where we've been sharing excerpts from our recent study of what CMMI users really think about the CMMI.

If you've missed the previous posts, here's a roundup:

Question #1: “Are projects more predictable with the CMMI?” 

Question #2: “Did you experience an increase in quality or performance?”

Question #3: “Did you experience a decrease in defects?”

Question #4: “With the CMMI, are customers happier with your performance?”

Today we're highlighting Question #5:

Did you experience an ROI?

Adoption of a process infrastructure can be quite costly, yet it is difficult to ascertain an aggregate return on the investment due to the wide degree of variability in products and services produced by the adopters of the CMMI. We wanted to understand the market’s perception of the CMMI and its ROI, and whether users thought it was worth the investment.

Similar to the previous survey, about two-thirds said yes, they had seen an ROI; twenty-six percent had no idea; under ten percent said no. Some who said “neither agree nor disagree” may have been articulating a fear in revealing what they really believed.

Be sure to check back regularly as we share results of the CMMI User Story Report right here on Ask the CMMI Appraiser.

We’ve also made the information available in an eBook. If you would like to receive the complete set of user stories in the final Report, click here to access your free* copy.

*$9.99 on Amazon

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 running a successful CMMI program.

CMMI User Story #6: Does your maturity level rating differentiate you from competitors?

Welcome back to Ask the CMMI Appraiser for today’s installment of CMMI User Stories! We’ve been sharing excerpts from our recent study of what CMMI users really think about the CMMI. If you're just joining us, or would appreciate a recap, below are the first five questions we explored, followed by today's question.

Question #1: “Are projects more predictable with the CMMI?”

Question #2: “Did you experience an increase in quality or performance?”

Question #3: “Did you experience a decrease in defects?”

Question #4: “With the CMMI, are customers happier with your performance?”

Question #5: “Did you experience an ROI?”

Today we're highlighting Question #6:

Does your CMMI maturity level rating differentiate you from competitors?

74% of respondents felt that the CMMI differentiated them from the competition.

Likewise, there are many who adopt the CMMI for the marketing value of standing apart from the competition. We sought to understand the experience versus expectation of those who adopted the CMMI, relative to its ability to help them differentiate.

This question was asked for the first time in the current survey. Close to three-quarters of the respondents said yes, they felt having a maturity level differentiated them from their competitors.

Be sure to check back regularly as we share results of the CMMI User Story Report right here on Ask the CMMI Appraiser.

We’ve also made the information available in an eBook. If you would like to receive the complete set of user stories in the final Report, click here to access your free* copy.

*$9.99 on Amazon

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 running a successful CMMI program.

CMMI User Story #4: With the CMMI, are customers happier with your performance?

Dear Readers,

Welcome back to Ask the CMMI Appraiser for today’s installment of CMMI User Stories! We’ve been sharing excerpts from our recent study of what CMMI users really think about the CMMI.

Question #1: “Are projects more predictable with the CMMI?”

Question #2: “Did you experience an increase in quality or performance?”

Question #3: “Did you experience a decrease in defects?”

Today we're highlighting Question #4:

With the CMMI, are customers happier with your performance?

In a strong indicator that the CMMI is delivering on a core promise, sixty-one percent said yes, customers are happier with performance with CMMI, while only ten percent answered in the negative. We wonder whether those who “neither agree nor disagree” have taken any steps to gauge customer satisfaction.

Be sure to check back regularly as we share results of the CMMI User Story Report right here on Ask the CMMI Appraiser.

We’ve also made the information available in an eBook. If you would like to receive the complete set of user stories in the final Report, click here to access your free* copy.

*$9.99 on Amazon

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 running a successful CMMI program.

CMMI User Story #8: Was your SCAMPI Lead Appraiser easy to work with?

Welcome back to Ask the CMMI Appraiser for today’s installment of CMMI User Stories! We’ve been sharing excerpts from our recent study of what CMMI users really think about the CMMI.

Question #1: “Are projects more predictable with the CMMI?”

Question #2: “Did you experience an increase in quality or performance?”

Question #3: “Did you experience a decrease in defects?”

Question #4: “With the CMMI, are customers happier with your performance?”

Question #5: “Did you experience an ROI?”

Question #6: “Does your maturity level rating differentiate you from competitors?”

Question #7: “Does your maturity level rating help you win new business?”

Today we're highlighting Question #8:

Was your SCAMPI Lead Appraiser easy to work with?

Organizations often report different experiences with different lead appraisers. We wanted to understand the level of satisfaction with the lead appraiser experience.

As in the previous survey, very few responded that their Lead Appraiser was not easy to work with, or did not know.

Be sure to check back regularly as we share results of the CMMI User Story Report right here on Ask the CMMI Appraiser.

We’ve also made the information available in an eBook. If you would like to receive the complete set of user stories in the final Report, click here to access your free* copy.

*$9.99 on Amazon

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 running a successful CMMI program.

CMMI User Story #9: Was your experience with the CMMI harder than you expected?

Welcome back to Ask the CMMI Appraiser for today’s installment of CMMI User Stories! We’ve been sharing excerpts from our recent study of what CMMI users really think about the CMMI.

Question #1: “Are projects more predictable with the CMMI?”

Question #2: “Did you experience an increase in quality or performance?”

Question #3: “Did you experience a decrease in defects?”

Question #4: “With the CMMI, are customers happier with your performance?”

Question #5: “Did you experience an ROI?”

Question #6: “Does your maturity level rating differentiate you from competitors?”

Question #7: “Does your maturity level rating help you win new business?”

Question #8: “Was your SCAMPI Lead Appraiser easy to work with?”

Today we're highlighting Question #9:

Was your experience with the CMMI harder than you expected?

Many organizations report that adoption of the CMMI can be quite complex and difficult. We wanted to understand if that difficulty exceeded the expectations of the organizations that adopt the CMMI.

This year there was a dramatic increase in respondents reporting that the experience of adopting CMMI was harder than expected – 74% (up from thirty-nine percent in 2012).

Be sure to check back regularly as we share results of the CMMI User Story Report right here on Ask the CMMI Appraiser.

We’ve also made the information available in an eBook. If you would like to receive the complete set of user stories in the final Report, click here to access your free* copy.

*$9.99 on Amazon

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 running a successful CMMI program.

CMMI User Story #3: Did you experience a decrease in defects?

Welcome back to Ask the CMMI Appraiser for today’s installment of CMMI User Stories!

If you missed the previous posts about the new CMMI User Stories Report, we took a different approach to measuring the success of CMMI adoption. We asked: What do potential adopters and end-users really want to know? What perceptions do adopters, stakeholders, sponsors, shareholders, and customers have? What was their experience with the CMMI?

In the end, over 70 CMMI Users told us what they really think about the CMMI. Their stories are below.

Question #1: “Are projects more predictable with the CMMI?”

Question #2: “Did you experience an increase in quality or performance?”

Today we're highlighting Question #3:

Did you experience a decrease in defects?

The CMMI provides guidelines for deploying processes and improvements that lead to improving product quality and reducing defects. We wanted to understand whether organizations actually experienced these benefits through their adoption of the CMMI.

Over two-thirds of the respondents said yes, defects had decreased. Fewer than ten percent said, no, defects had not decreased. Twenty-two percent neither agreed nor disagreed. Surprisingly, the ambivalent response was selected three times more this year than in 2012.

Be sure to check back regularly as we share results of the CMMI User Story Report right here on Ask the CMMI Appraiser.

We’ve also made the information available in an eBook. If you would like to receive the complete set of user stories in the final Report, click here to access your free* copy.

*$9.99 on Amazon

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 running a successful CMMI program.

Did you experience an increase in quality and performance?

Welcome back to Ask the CMMI Appraiser for today’s installment of CMMI User Stories!

If you missed the previous posts, we’ve responded to the demand for information in the industry ("What does the market think about the CMMI today?") by sharing our study of what CMMI users really think about the CMMI. The first question was: “Are projects more predictable with the CMMI?”

Today we're highlighting Question #2:

Did you experience an increase in quality or performance?

The great strength of the CMMI is that it provides organizations with guidelines for increasing performance and improving the quality of product and services. With a market that often focuses on achieving a “level,” we sought to understand whether organizations actually achieved improvements in performance and quality.

A healthy eighty-four percent of respondents said they improved in these areas (up from eighty percent in 2012).

Be sure to check back regularly as we share results of the CMMI User Story Report right here on Ask the CMMI Appraiser.

We’ve also made the information available in an eBook. If you would like to receive the complete set of user stories in the final Report, click here to access your free* copy.

*$9.99 on Amazon

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 running a successful CMMI program.

How do we get teams to embrace CMMI and Agile?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser, we are looking at ways to use the CMMI and Agile to make software and engineering performance even better. This will be a big change for us. What’s the best way to get our folks to buy in? ~ Don V.

Hey, Don,

Great question! Most companies don’t realize that the biggest hurdle to success is how you deploy improvements to the community. It's critical to think about what you're going to do to get people to embrace it and actually use it.

In my experience, the place to start is with training. Upgrade yourself to the latest version of CMMI and Agile, while learning about the intersections between Agile and CMMI, so you can understand how to combine the two and get the best results.

Then let them run with it. Buy-in comes from overcoming obstacles together, having success, and developing a team identity. When people apply what they've learned, and help free the organization from burdensome process debt, unhappy customers, overhead, and compliance ... we call that "being a CMMI Badass."

There are many training options in the marketplace offering to help you. But software and engineering executives and professionals regularly tell us there's something different and unique about our CMMI and Agile training classes. Instead of some of the standard exercises, they participate in things like playing Planning Poker, using Fibonacci sequencing for their estimates, doing Agile program planning, conducting performance retrospectives, and practicing many of the hands-on Agile ceremonies and activities.

For some, the experience can be transformative.

So I'd suggest starting where you'll see the biggest immediate impact on performance, Don. Get your team registered for the latest training in CMMI V2.0 and Agile. They’ll come away knowing how to use CMMI and Agile together, freeing your organization to be great as you know you can be.

Join the CMMI Gang!

April 1-3, 2019: CMMI V2.0 Training

April 4-5, 2019: Agile/CMMI Integration Workshop

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 running a successful CMMI program.

Are projects more predictable with the CMMI?

Welcome back to Ask the CMMI Appraiser for today’s installment of CMMI User Stories!

In response to the demand for information in the industry (What does the market think about the CMMI today?) we are sharing our study of what CMMI users really think about the CMMI.

The study consists of surveying over 70 CMMI users and asking them about their experiences with the CMMI, good and bad. Here’s our first question:

Are projects more predictable with the CMMI?

As more organizations around the world pursue the value that frameworks like the CMMI and Scrum are intended to provide – higher quality products, faster delivery, and predictable, repeatable results – it is not always clear that the benefits are being realized. Measuring a quality such as predictability can be an inexact science.

In our survey, eighty-two percent of respondents indicate that projects are more predictable with the CMMI (up from eighty percent in 2012).

Be sure to check back regularly as we share results of the CMMI User Story Report right here on Ask the CMMI Appraiser.

We’ve also made the information available in an eBook. If you would like to receive the complete set of user stories in the final Report, click here to access your free* copy.

*$9.99 on Amazon

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 running a successful CMMI program.

What does the market think about the CMMI today?

What does the market think about CMMI?

Yes, that’s still the million dollar question, isn’t it?  Since the last time we did this survey seven years ago, we’ve seen a spin-off to the CMMI Institute, new leadership, new staff members, a fresh marketing approach, and the introduction of the Model upgrade, CMMI V2.0.

Much has changed. But have perceptions changed? To find out, we commissioned the second User Story study. Seventy-seven companies were randomly selected to participate rom the CMMI Institute’s Published Appraisal Results (PARs) All had achieved at least CMMI Maturity Level 2 between 2015 and 2017.

The reason we chose this timeframe was to give the CMMI users some period of time since adoption, allowing for more objectivity.

The survey went out to CEOs, VPs and Quality Assurance Managers of North American companies, large and small. Companies were in the aerospace, defense, finance, transportation, energy and manufacturing industries, and they were all using CMMI-DEV.

We listened to the stories they told about using the CMMI. We captured the data, and analyzed the results.

Like its predecessor, the second edition of the CMMI User Stories Report builds its case on anecdotal data from actual end users. We gathered stories about what’s working and what’s not working with the CMMI, directly from the users themselves.

We will begin posting the results later this week. You are invited to check back regularly as we share results of the CMMI User Story study right here on Ask the CMMI Appraiser.

We’ve also made the information available in an eBook. If you would like to receive the complete set of user stories all at once, simply click to download the free* version of the eBook.

*$9.99 on Amazon.

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.

How can I become a CMMI Badass?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser, how can I become a CMMI Badass? ~ Joey T.

Hey, Joey - the latest class of CMMI Badasses is officially trained, certified, and riding to a town near you!

What is a CMMI® Badass?

• A CMMI Badass knows the CMMI is a way to super-charge performance, not a test to be compliant with.
• A CMMI Badass understands that CMMI give you more control over the way you do your work.
• A CMMI Badass knows that changing your company can't be done with a tool that promises “CMMI compliance in six months or less."
• A CMMI Badass doesn't care about certificates or "plaque buildup."  It's about the rush of high performance.
• A CMMI Badass knows that "creating evidence to pass" is a huge waste of time
• A CMMI Badass knows why the company is adopting CMMI
• A CMMI Badass captures data about whether or the team is benefiting from the CMMI.

Want to become a CMMI Badass? For the latest training in CMMI v1.3 or CMMI V2.0, you can join the CMMI Gang by signing up for one of our high-speed training classes. Check out the CMMI Badass site here:

www.cmmibadass.com

See you in class!

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

Jeff Dalton is a Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, Certified CMMI Instructor, Certified Agile Assessor, author, keynote speaker, 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. His new book, Great Big Agile: an OS for Agile Leaders (© 2018), is now available on Amazon.

Visit www.broadswordsolutions.com for more information about engineering strategy, performance innovation, software process improvement and running a successful CMMI program.

Happy New CMMI Year!

Dear Readers,

The New Year will bring many new CMMI opportunities for engineering and software leaders and professionals, and this CMMI Appraiser is excited to help you take advantage of it all! Whether you need training in the new CMMI 2.0, CMMI v1.3, or Agile/CMMI integration, feel free to check out our slate of popular CMMI and Agile classes in 2019.

See more info below! 

Class Title: Introduction to CMMI-DEV v1.3

Location: Washington, DC area

Date: February 19-21, 2019

For more information: visit the CMMI v1.3 registration page

Class Title: CMMI V2.0 Instructor Led One-day Upgrade Class

Location: Washington, DC area

Date: February 22, 2019

For more information: visit the CMMI V2.0 One-Day Upgrade registration page

Class Title: CMMI-DEV V2.0

Location: Washington, DC area

Date: April 1-3, 2019

For more information: visit the CMMI-DEV V2.0 registration page

Class Title: Agile/CMMI Integration Workshop

Location: Washington, DC area

Date: April 4-5, 2019

For more information: visit the Agile/CMMI Integration Workshop registration page

See you in class!

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

Jeff Dalton is a Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, Certified CMMI Instructor, Certified Agile Assessor, author, keynote speaker, 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. His new book, Great Big Agile: an OS for Agile Leaders (© 2018), is now available on Amazon.

Visit www.broadswordsolutions.com for more information about engineering strategy, performance innovation, software process improvement and running a successful CMMI program.

Happy Thanksgiving from the CMMI Appraiser's Family to yours!

Dear Readers,

This Thanksgiving, as Mrs. CMMI Appraiser and I sit down at the holiday table with our Little Appraisers, friends, and extended family, we are thankful for all of the opportunities we've had to meet so many companies that are adopting the CMMI for the right reasons.

Yes, by taking the right approach to adopting the CMMI in 2018, organizations are experiencing higher quality, faster delivery, and more predictable, repeatable results. These outcomes are helping the entire industry improve. That's why, looking forward, we feel an even greater sense of gratitude for all those in 2019 who will choose to adopt the CMMI for the right reasons:

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

Last but not least, we’re grateful for YOU, the Reader. You’re the one who puts these truths in action every day by following the guidance of the CMMI to keep your company on the path to greatness. Ultimately, YOU are what the CMMI is all about, and we couldn’t feel more fortunate than to be sharing this journey with you!

To show our gratitude, we’re offering you a hassle-free download of our popular book, "A Guide to Scrum and CMMI: Improving Agile Performance with CMMI." Originally published by the CMMI Institute, the book is designed to help you learn to maximize your investment in agile and the CMMI. Read, learn and enjoy!

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

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 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.

For other books about CMMI and Agile, including the soon-to-be-published “Great Big Agile: An OS for Agile Leaders,” visit Jeff’s Author Page on Amazon.

Can CMMI V2.0 help companies reinvigorate Performance Improvement?

CMMI 2.0 is here. Do you think the new instantiation of the model will reinvigorate the use of CMMI as a tool to help people get better, versus just getting business via contracts? ~ Tom Cagley, SPaMCast

[Editor's Note: On the most recent episode of the Software Process and Measurement Cast (SPaMCast), Tom Cagley and this CMMI Appraiser are talking CMMI V2.0, and how to begin transitioning to and using the new Model upgrade. Listen to the full interview at SPaMCast 512.]

Tom, yes, it appears that CMMI 2.0 is capable of helping companies reinvigorate performance improvement. But I think there's going to be a fairly long transition period. In the last seven or eight years, the industry has spent an awful lot of time and money in gearing up for CMMI v1.3, and understanding finally how to pull it all together, and the new release changes that. CMMI 2.0 changes everything.

I think the transition period is going to be a little rough for companies that are doing reappraisals, which account for about 70% of all appraisals each year. In our case, about 20 or 30 companies that I'm working with are all asking me can they reappraise at CMMI v1.3, because they're just completely oriented around CMMI v1.3, and they don't want to have to make a change.

I also believe that the market for CMMI will continue to be strong in the contractor community and the corporate supplier community, due to mandates, as well as the many things the CMMI Institute is doing to increase awareness that CMMI V2.0 is a performance improvement model. I think we are going to see more and more companies adopting CMMI as an improvement model. And we’ll even see some other use usage modes.

For instance, I'm working with a company that recently bought eight of their largest competitors. They ate up the market. In the process of doing that, they wanted to use CMMI as a way to evaluate capabilities. Since then, we've been hearing from M&A houses in New York, asking us to help them evaluate mergers and acquisitions, using CMMI to evaluate capability. And they're not at all interested in a rating. They don't care about SCAMPI. They never even heard of it. They're looking for someone to go in and give them advice on how to use an improvement model like CMMI to establish a capability roadmap.

Another example: We're seeing a new program that's gone up with the FDA, the brainchild of Kirk Botula at the CMMI Institute, where the FDA has permitted the use of CMMI as an alternative to some of the audits that they were doing, mostly in the pharmaceutical industry. There are some Lead Appraisers specializing in that.

The trend is towards performance improvement. You are starting to see more and more organizations that don't care about ratings when adopting CMMI. I'm not sure that's a result of CMMI V2.0 as much as a result of the Institute reaching out and making that case actively. And for those organizations that respond to that message, I think you're going to see a lot of them adopting CMMI V2.0 as their standard, as opposed to CMMI v1.3.

For folks who are interested getting training on all of the changes in the new model, seats are already filling up for our CMMI 2.0 Training Class this Spring. Learn more about CMMI V2.0 Training, plus our optional Agile/CMMI Integration Workshop on April 1-5, 2019.

# # #

I hope my readers have enjoyed this segment of my interview with Tom Cagley on SPaMCast #512. We'll be talking more about the changes in the new upgrade, CMMI V2.0, in the next segment. Please check back soon.

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.

Is achieving CMMI ML3 supposed to be scary?

Dear CMMI Appraiser,

Our CMMI Appraiser is scaring us! This whole CMMI certification thing is worse than a tax audit. He’s keeping us in meetings for hours. He is demanding work product evidence for every single sub-practice in the model ... It is so over-engineered and burdensome. Is getting a CMMI ML3 supposed to be like this? ~ Don B.

Don,

Maybe you should have called 911. It sounds like you are under siege!  It’s more than a little eerie that your question comes on Halloween … Done wrong, a CMMI appraisal can be a real nightmare!

I’m not trying to make light of your situation (well, maybe a little - if you don't laugh, you'll cry). But it’s really scary to think that some of my brethren Lead Appraisers are so far off the deep end that they are making the CMMI feel like murder.

The intention of the CMMI is that you gather together, 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 call “artifacts” in CMMI v1.3 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.

Clearly what’s happening is 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.

Don, 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, Don. Wake up from the nightmare.  Fast. We’ve seen that movie. What a horror show!

[Join us for "Everything You Need to Know about CMMI v1.3" on Friday, November 9th at 2PM. Register for the FREE webinar 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.

Why Is CMMI V2.0 a Game-Changer?

Jeff, Why do you consider CMMIV2.0 a game-changer? ~ Tom Cagley, SPaMCast

[Editor's Note: This CMMI Appraiser has had the pleasure of being interviewed many times by Tom Cagley on the Software Process and Measurement Cast (SPaMCast) about CMMI, Agile, and Performance Improvement. On the most recent episode, we're talking CMMI V2.0, and how to begin transitioning to and using the new Model upgrade. Listen to the full interview at SPaMCast 512.]

Tom,

The CMMI Institute is very serious about turning CMMI from a process model into a performance model -- though they haven't quite mastered it yet.

Even so, there has been a lot of progress in CMMI V2.0. In the old Model, CMMI v1.3, we had a bunch of vertical practices like Project Planning, Project Monitoring, and Technical Solutions -- and we still have some of those. But the way the practices are framed now, in V2.0, is much more organized around "threads." 

Previously, instead of threads, we had what you could almost consider “requirements.” These were aspects of the Model that seemed to be saying, “You must do this, you must do this, and you must do this.” It was up to you figure out how to instantiate these requirements at your company level in order to create threads from it so that each one actually manifested as a behavioral outcome, and you could say, "This is how our teams behave."

In CMMI V2.0, they really did a much better job than CMMI v1.3 in representing the "Practice Areas," as they call them now, and the practices within them, in more of a thread-based fashion. Now it's easier to look at it and at least make sense of what they were trying to do. To get to this point, the CMMI Institute re-architected the CMMI around four major areas for CMMI2.0: “Doing, Managing, Enabling, and Improving.”

I always tell my students that another word for process is “work.” Process isn't overhead. Process is actually how work is supposed to happen. Well, in the new Model upgrade, I think the CMMI Institute really took that to heart. Not only did they create the four large categories or areas, but they mapped threads to each area, resulting in 12 different threads. They're calling those “capabilities.” Capabilities are things like ensuring quality, for instance, or engineering and developing products. In CMMI V2.0, the practice areas are grouped together in a manner that the Institute best believed met the intent of that thread. 

This is a complete departure from v1.3. I think the architectural changes alone are a game-changer for those people who either need to implement CMMI for contractual purposes, or for just improvement purposes as they grow and get larger as companies.

If folks are interested getting training on all of the changes in the new model, we are hosting another CMMI 2.0 class this Spring. Feel free to learn more about “CMMI V2.0 Training! – Plus Optional Agile/CMMI Integration Workshop” on April 1-5, 2019.

# # #

I hope my readers have enjoyed this segment of my interview with Tom Cagley on SPaMCast #512. We'll be talking more about the changes in the new upgrade, CMMI V2.0, in the next segment. Please check back soon.

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.

Why CMMI 2.0?

Jeff, There is a new CMMI in town. What's that all about? Why CMMI 2.0? ~ Tom Cagley, SPaMCast

[Editor's Note: Over the coming weeks, this CMMI Appraiser will be sharing excerpts from a recent conversation with Tom Cagley on the Software Process and Measurement Cast (SPaMCast) about CMMI V2.0, and how to begin transitioning to and using the new Model upgrade. Listen to the full interview at SPaMCast 512.]

Tom, as you know, the CMMI was developed by Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute (SEI) as is a process improvement framework for software and engineering systems, and is currently administered and positioned more as a performance improvement framework by the CMMI Institute. The model is utilized by organizations large and small across the globe to improve capabilities and performance, but there hadn't been an upgrade to CMMI since 2010. Change was overdue.

When the CMMI Institute was spun off by the SCI and Carnegie Mellon into a standalone entity, now owned by ISACA, they were handed an existing product. The challenge was that few people from the Software Engineering Institute made the switch over to the new organization, and so, for a long time, they were really just keeping up in operations mode. They moved over some of the QA folks who looked at appraisals, along with a couple of the technical staff folks, only one of whom remains.

The product they were handed was CMMI v1.3. Everybody in the industry knew that version 1.3 had issues, despite being the defacto standard among the federal government contractors. For starters, it was very academic-focused. I always joke with my classes that v1.3 reads like it was written by 20 PhDs and 25 attorneys.

I believe there was an honest effort to try to make it more clear. But I think what they ended up doing was making it harder to read in the end. It's a particular flaw that has always gotten in the way of more general acceptance.

Another challenge has been that the appraisal method of version 1.3 was pretty heavy duty. As a result, lot of company owners and directors weren't excited about doing CMMI. They wanted to get that accreditation or “CMMI certification” as they called it (the accurate terms is to achieve a "rating"), but found it very difficult.

So not only was the wording ambiguous in many of the 356 practices in Maturity Level 3, but it also was an appraisal method that demanded a very high documentary evidence standard. Every one of those 356 practices required an artifact of some sort. You could have an artifact that spread across many practices, but on the whole appraisals were an exercise in collecting, categorizing and scoring mostly artifacts, and then adding some affirmations or verbal statements towards the end.

This was considered a very heavy, expensive time consuming effort. Companies were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars – sometimes less, sometimes more – in order to achieve that rating, and much of that cost was the appraisal.

So, between somewhat ambiguously worded practices and the way they were architected in the model, and the way the appraisal method was conducted, there was cause for the industry to scream out and say: “Hey, the federal government is going to keep demanding this. This is too much for us and too expensive. We need a better solution.” And that was the driver for change.

Fortunately, the CMMI Institute is blessed by a truly visionary leader, Kirk Botula, for whom I have a great deal of respect. Not only is Kirk a musician, and a fine musician at that, but he has also got a really good eye for the industry, having run a software company prior to joining the Institute. He brought a real industry-focused, consumer-focused view to the CMMI Institute that never existed in the SCI, in my opinion.

The changes started slowly. The industry was slow to react to Kirk’s new kind of approach. They were a little shell-shocked, I think, when they were asked to find out what their customers really wanted. Kirk was masterful at pulling together focus groups. He's traveled the world talking to people, and did a lot of industry research to find out what is it that people want. Then the Institute enlisted the help of partners, lead appraisers, and instructors -- and everyone they could talk to who did this for a living – and got them all to come together and help create this new product. The result was version 2.0.

There was a lot of talk about, “Should this be version 1.4?” Kirk was very clear in saying: No, it shouldn't be. It should be something totally new, totally different. The team worked hard on it, and released a version 2.0 just a couple of months ago.

As of yet, no appraisals have been conducted, but the very first public training class was done a couple of weeks ago and I was fortunate enough to teach that first class. I got to be the first one to stand up and talk about the new model and what was great about it, and honestly, some things that weren't as good as I had hoped. The class went swimmingly, and it really looks like CMMI V2.0 is going to be a game-changer in the industry.

If folks are interested getting training on all of the changes in the new model, we are hosting another CMMI 2.0 class in February. Feel free to learn more about “CMMI V2.0 Training! – Plus Optional Agile/CMMI Integration Workshop” on April 1-5, 2019.

# # #

I hope my readers have enjoyed this segment of my interview with Tom Cagley on SPaMCast #512. We'll be talking more about the changes in the new upgrade, CMMI V2.0, in the next segment. Please check back soon.

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.