What kinds of questions are we asked during a SCAMPI C? What can the interviewees expect?

Dear Appraiser,

What kinds of questions are we asked during a SCAMPI C?  What can the interviewees expect? ~Gary

Great question!  I get this one a lot, and the first answer is "don't worry!" 

A SCAMPI C is simply a gap analysis to determine the current state of the process at your company.  We want to understand how you do the things you do everyday.  

There are four main categories: Project Management, Process Management, Engineering, and Support (tools, measurement, quality, etc).  We don't ask them by category, per se, but we try to stick with project "threads."

We will ask you to describe:

- how did you estimate the scope of that project?

- what happens when a customer asks to change the requirements/features?

- how do you ensure the quality of the designs, code, or specification for your end product?

- how are your teams organized?

- what measures are you capturing?

- what process/approach/tools are you using to ensure document/code/designs are managed?

… and so forth.

There is no "right" answer to any question.  You will not need to know the CMMI, or any of our buzzwords, to have a successful outcome.  We will analyze all of the information, from all of the interviews, and compare it to the practices in the CMMI-DEV model.  That, along with other research we do on your company, will lead to a mapping of strengths and weaknesses weaknesses that can be used to implement improvements at your company.

Interviews are usually held in small groups, either project leadership (PM, Lead Engineer, Lead Tester, etc), or in "functional groups" (engineers, testers, etc).  We usually speak with each group for 1-2 hours.

For more information about the areas of the CMMI, head over to our "What is CMMI" page.

I hope this helps.  Feel free to share this information, or to ask any any other questions you may have.  And have fun!

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

Jeff Dalton is a Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, Certified CMMI Instructor, ScrumMaster, author, and consultant with years of real-world experience with the CMMI in all types of organizations. Jeff pioneered agileCMMI, the leading methodology for incremental and iterative process improvement. He has taught thousands of students in CMMI trainings and has received an aggregate satisfaction score of 4.97 out of 5 from his students.

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

To download eBooks about CMMI, visit Jeff’s Author Page on Amazon.

Theory is great – but what is piloting like in the real world?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser – a few months ago, we participated in your Introduction to CMMI class, and have been enjoying the theory behind piloting processes here at Ask the CMMI Appraiser. But we’re wondering if you would address what piloting is like in the real world? ~ Manley A.

Hey, Manley – great question! Let me pass it along to Laura Adkins, a Senior CMMI Consultant with Broadsword, who does amazing hands-on work with companies who are piloting processes based on the CMMI. Take it away, Laura! ~ The CMMI Appraiser 

Thank you, CMMI Appraiser!

Manley, you are correct that the theory of pilot testing only takes you so far. I’d be happy to discuss what pilot testing is like in the real world.

We here at Broadsword pilot all of the processes we develop using our AgileCMMI methodology, before deploying them. We use a four-step sequence that looks like this:

It’s important to note that most companies are focused on designing and deploying their processes. That’s only half the battle. What we are asking them to do is add two steps between Design and Deploy. Those two steps are: Pilot and Update.

Piloting and updating before you deploy your new processes is a real world scenario. As you probably know from the CMMI training you took, Broadsword uses the methodology we developed, AgileCMMI approach, which calls for us to work incrementally and iteratively. When designing, piloting, updating and deploying processes, we use a 12-week cycle.

For your CMMI-based processes, if you follow the same time cycle, you would test them for six weeks, then make updates for six weeks. This gives you one Quarter for designing and one Quarter for piloting and updating before you deploy. By adding extra time into the way that your new processes are rolled out, you increase their likelihood of success.

As a practical matter, to develop processes during the design phase, you should pull from a group of users. We think it’s important that the people who are actually going to be using the processes help develop them.

Now, once the piloting completes, and you’ve had projects using these processes for a period of time (6 weeks or so), you need to update process assets using your experience.

To do that, we recommend holding a retrospective on each area that was pilot tested.

Keep in mind, when you develop processes, you might have multiple process areas – for example, requirements and project planning. Therefore you would need to ensure that a retrospective covers each process area that was in the scope of the pilot.

Use the retrospective to talk about strengths, weaknesses, identify any lessons learned, and capture feedback for improvement.

Once you have that meeting with the participating projects, you will reconvene with the user group that developed your processes. Evaluate with them all of the feedback that came back from the pilot testing. As a group, you would then prioritize the process improvements, and select which ones you would like to go ahead and make changes to.

The final step before deploying is updating.

In the Update stage, you will make your changes to the process assets and update any training material. Communicate back to the pilot participants about changes that you made. This allows them to understand how much of their feedback was used, and how their feedback impacted the processes.

Finally you are ready to deploy. Just release your processes into your environment as you normally would.

Hope this helps, Manley! Let me know how it goes.

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

Laura Adkins is a Senior CMMI Consultant with Broadsword Solutions Corporation. She has years of real world experience using pilot testing strategies and tactics to help her clients achieve their goals. Laura also uses the CMMI, in partnership with her clients, to set-up, monitor, and sustain process improvement programs.

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

How do I identify stakeholders for adopting our CMMI-based process improvement program?

Dear CMMI Appraiser, I have a follow-up question. As I mentioned previously, I have been selected to lead the effort to adopt the CMMI for our company, which provides health care support services in Maryland. Now that I know that one of my roles and responsibilities as CMMI sponsor is to allocate resources to the program, including people, can you tell me how to identify the people who will be stakeholders? ~ Paula R.

Paula, it’s a pleasure to hear back from you. The CMMI Appraiser has been rooting for you in your new role leading the effort to adopt the CMMI, and I’m happy to forward your question to Julie Calfin. As you know, Julie is a Senior CMMI Consultant with Broadsword who does amazing work with companies that are undergoing large scale business transformation. Take it away, Julie! ~ The CMMI Appraiser 

Thank you, CMMI Appraiser!

Paula, I have a quick and easy template to help you identify the stakeholders of your process improvement program. The stakeholder analysis is a simple chart with seven columns, like this:

Stakeholder Group: We can either identify stakeholders by groups in the organization that they are in, or by teams or individuals. Use each row of the chart to describe a different Stakeholder Group.

Description of Group: Because the groups have different characteristics, it will be helpful to provide a brief description of each group of stakeholders.

Impact: The key to implementing change successfully is to understand how each stakeholder is going to be impacted by the change. Use the chart to quantify the impact with a simple scale assigning high, medium and low impact.

Level of Influence: We also identify their level of influence, which is their ability to have an effect on other stakeholder groups in the organization. We gauge each group’s level of influence by assigning a value of high, medium, or low. Keep in mind that some stakeholder groups have the influence in the organization to make the process changes succeed or fail.

Buy-in and Involvement Strategies: Here’s where the chart really adds value. Use the information you’ve collected to design strategies to involve them in the process improvement program and get their buy-in. We want to get each of the stakeholder groups involved in adopting the changes that your new CMMI-based process improvement program will bring.

Note that some of our buy-in and involvement strategies might be to include stakeholders in designing your organization’s processes. Or, you may decide to use various stakeholders to pilot your processes.

Action Owner: To make these buy-in and involvement strategies actionable, we always assign them to a person. The action-owner is responsible for implementing these strategies, but they often have help from others to do so.

Time Frame: Last, we have a time frame, which describes the phase of the program or the calendar timeline for when you will be implementing your buy-in and involvement strategies.

This is an example of a tool that you can print out and populate.

To get started, I recommend looking at your company’s organization chart. Dissect the chart into different groups, divisions or teams within the organization, and give each one its own row in the template. Sometimes, it makes sense to create a row for specific people. For example, I’ve worked on projects where the CMMI sponsor will say, “I know this person is going to be especially difficult to get their buy-in and change their behavior.” In such cases, it makes sense to designate one row to that person.

You can use this information in other ways, as well, Paula. For example, when we write our Communication Plan, we want to make sure we reach everybody in the stakeholder analysis. This template can also be used to figure out what other tools and techniques, like training, will be needed to gain stakeholder commitment for the process improvement program.

I hope this helps, Paula – and please keep checking back. We love to hear from folks like yourself who are on the front line of putting their company on the path to greatness.

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

Julie Calfin is a Senior CMMI Consultant with Broadsword Solutions Corporation. She has years of real world experience using OCM strategy and tactics to help her clients achieve their goals. Julie also uses the CMMI, in partnership with her clients, to set-up, monitor, and sustain process improvement programs.

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

How do I get a critical mass of people to adopt the CMMI?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser, I’m the CEO of a 90-person mobile products company in Fairfax, Virginia serving the health care sector.  We chose to achieve CMMI Level 2 recently, not because our clients required it, but because we value continuous improvement and innovation.  From reading past Ask the CMMI Appraiser, posts, I get that I need a critical mass of people to adopt the model and institutionalize it – but how do I make that happen? ~ Steve P.

Steve, it’s great that you value operational innovation so much that you’ve adopted the CMMI even though no customers are requiring that you do so.  The CMMIAppraiser hears from a lot of companies like yours who are passionate about making this change.  One of the leading experts on this topic is Julie Calfin, a Senior CMMI Consultant with Broadsword.  Julie does amazing work with companies that are undergoing large scale business transformation. Take it away, Julie! ~ The CMMI Appraiser

Thank you, CMMI Appraiser!

Steve, providing the leadership to get a critical mass of people to adopt the CMMI – or any evidence-based improvement model – is a key piece of your Organizational Change Management Strategy.  But you don’t have to do it all yourself.  In fact, you can’t do it all yourself.  You need change leaders at all levels of the organization to make change happen. 

In an earlier post about business transformation, we talked about the steps involved in moving up the Commitment Curve to institutionalization.  It takes a special group of people to make that happen.  We call them change leaders.

Some change leaders are executives.  Some are middle managers or team leaders, and some are the current “heroes” who have respect in the organization.  Title doesn’t matter.  These are the go-to people on your team.  The ones that everybody relies upon to deliver under pressure.

How do you identify Change Leaders?  I recommend performing a stakeholder analysis.

First, sit down and identify all the people who will be impacted by the changes that your new CMMI-based processes will bring.  Describe them with characteristics (such as “well-liked,” “highly accountable,” and “natural leader”) and decide the degree to which they will be impacted by the changes.  Next, decide how much influence that they have on other stakeholders.   This gives you insight into who the Change Leaders will be.

Look for Change Leaders who are:

• Executives who are accountable for achieving program goals
• Middle and line managers who can lead and motivate their people
• Informal change agents who have informal influence and respect

Once you’ve identified the people that you want to be Change Leaders, get them involved in specific activities, such as:

• Being active SEPG Members 
• Becoming process owners 
• Joining a SIG (Special Interest Group) that designs or improves the CMMI-based processes

The wonderful thing about valuing performance innovation, as you do, Steve, is that your work is never done.  It’s not like you finish the initial stakeholder analysis and then you’re done identifying all the change leaders you will need for the duration of your program.  Not the case.  You will need change leaders with different skills and traits throughout your performance improvement program.

So keep updating your stakeholder analysis, and keep developing new change leaders.  That will keep you on the path to greatness!

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

Julie Calfin is a Senior CMMI Consultant with Broadsword Solutions Corporation.  She has years of real world experience using OCM strategy and tactics to help her clients achieve their goals. Julie also uses the CMMI, in partnership with her clients, to set-up, monitor, and sustain process improvement programs.

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

What are the roles and responsibilities of a CMMI sponsor?

Dear CMMI Appraiser, I work in health care support services in Maryland. Our two biggest clients are requiring us to adopt the CMMI, and guess who got picked to lead the effort? Can you tell me, what are the roles and responsibilities of a CMMI sponsor? ~ Paula R.

Paula, as more companies are responding to client demands that they adopt the CMMI, the CMMI Appraiser has received a steady stream of questions about managing this change. One of the leading experts on this topic is Julie Calfin, a Senior CMMI Consultant with Broadsword. Julie does amazing work with companies who are undergoing large scale business transformation. Take it away, Julie! ~ The CMMI Appraiser

Thank you, CMMI Appraiser!

Paula, congratulations on being selected to lead the transformation of your company! That’s a big vote of confidence. Adopting the CMMI is a change that will affect everything – process, technology and people – and you are wise to seek out information about the roles and responsibilities that will help you architect that change.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Organizational Change Management (OCM) techniques are there to help. Like an architect’s blueprints, OCM principles guide the process of changing behavior throughout the company, and allow you to make the changes quickly, with minimal disruption on the business.

What are the roles and responsibilities of a CMMI Program Sponsor?

The company should establish the governance of the CMMI-based process improvement program at the beginning of the program, and provide you with training to perform your role as the CMMI Program Sponsor. You may find it helpful to think in terms of the behaviors you need to exhibit as a program sponsor:

• Serving as the “champion” of the program and its results

• Aligning the goals and objectives of the program to the organization’s vision and strategic business objectives

• Allocating resources to the program, including people, equipment, and tools

• Reviewing the actual performance of the process improvement program against its plans and estimates

• Removing obstacles that may hinder the program from achieving its goals and performing according to its plans

• Providing authority for the policies that require the organization’s process assets to be followed by their intended users

• Overseeing the performance and maturation of the organization’s processes, and ultimately, the optimization of these processes

The good news is, your behavior is under your control. By exhibiting effective behaviors, you can lead a successful process improvement program, and help transform the company.

I’m excited for you, Paula! Please check back and let us know how you are doing.

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

Julie Calfin is a Senior CMMI Consultant with BroadswordSolutions Corporation. She has years of real world experience using OCM strategy and tactics to help her clients achieve their goals. Julie also uses the CMMI, in partnership with her clients, to set-up, monitor, and sustain process improvement programs.

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

Are retrospectives really necessary for piloting processes?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser – we are a parts manufacturing company in Virginia that is working toward a CMMI Appraisal. As CEO, I need to make sure that we are using our resources wisely. Are retrospectives really necessary when piloting processes, or can we skip it? ~ John L. 

Hey, John – great question! Let me pass it along to Laura Adkins, a Senior CMMI Consultant with Broadsword, who does amazing work with companies who are trying to evaluate the validation process as it pertains to the CMMI.  Laura will take good care of you. ~ The CMMI Appraiser

Thanks, CMMI Appraiser!

John, we work with companies using the CMMI as framework for improving processes as complex as designing rockets and as simple as creating reports. In all cases, we encourage them to test their processes and analyze their validation results with, among other things, a retrospective for improvement.  The retrospective is not something you should skip.

In the retrospective, all results should be identified. Examine the data, and decide if the results went as well as you thought. If they did, why did they? If not, why not?

The risk of not doing the retrospective is that you will miss what people are thinking.  Like any relationship, this may alienate them. And you will certainly miss seeing what they see. As a result, you will find that things you thought were safe assumptions weren’t so. The process may fail, and you have to do more rework in the long run, which can destroy profitability.

Retrospectives have an important place in pilot testing. Without the retrospective, companies would keep running the process the same way forever, and never see improvement. Or, more commonly, your people would find that the process did not work, and just avoid or ignore the process, and do it any old way they wanted to.

Don’t skip the retrospective!

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

Laura Adkins is a Senior CMMI Consultant with Broadsword Solutions Corporation. She has years of real world experience using pilot testing strategies and tactics to help her clients achieve their goals. Laura also uses the CMMI, in partnership with her clients, to set-up, monitor, and sustain process improvement programs.

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

What’s the fastest way to get buy-in of new processes?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser – just wanted to update you since my last question to “Ask the CMMI Appraiser.” You may recall that our SEPG took your Introduction to CMMI training last fall.  Now we are designing new processes. What’s the fastest way to get buy-in for these new processes, company-wide? ~ Ross O.

Hey, Ross – great to hear from you again! Helping people transform company culture with CMMI is an area of expertise of Laura Adkins, a Senior CMMI Consultant with Broadsword. Laura does amazing work with companies who are trying to institutionalize new processes within the Agile and CMMI frameworks. Take it away, Laura! ~ The CMMI Appraiser

Thanks, CMMI Appraiser!

Ross, since you’ve been to our CMMI trainings, you are familiar with Broadsword’s vision for using the CMMI to change the way your company behaves. The goal is to make this transition a positive experience, so that everyone buys in. One way to accelerate buy-in – or “institutionalize” – is with pilot testing.

Why does pilot testing accelerate buy-in? There are many reasons. The first reason is: everyone who participates in a pilot test becomes a champion.

Like the athletes in this picture, champions see the value of processes that work. They have been trained and mentored and can spread the word on why they love the new processes. This is important because, the more people you have supporting your new processes, the better. It’s how you create early buy-in.

Having the support and endorsement of champions means a lot. We’ve found that users are far more likely to try out a new process if they know it was pilot tested first. For example, a project manager who has used the new processes in pilot testing will spread the word to other project managers. And he will talk to his peers in a different manner from how the SEPG will be rolling the new processes out. He’ll say things like, “Hey, it really wasn’t that bad. It was easier than you think.” So having champions really helps disseminate the new processes and knowledge among others, in a way that they will trust.

The second reason pilot testing accelerates institutionalization is the simple fact that you’ve already trained people for the pilot. Not only are they ready for the new processes ahead of time, but you now have fewer people left to train. That helps accelerate adoption.

The third reason pilot testing gets everyone to buy in faster is that it decreases the risk of unintended consequences. Sometimes we make assumptions when we develop processes, assumptions about what types of projects are using the processes, or what will work. If you do this in a vacuum, where you haven’t solicited everyone’s feedback, you may be in for some unpleasant surprises. You don’t know what you don’t know, as they say.

Pilot testing helps you know. Use pilot testing to validate that you have made correct assumptions, and that the new processes will be a good fit for your organization.

That’s the best way to get buy-in quickly.

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

Laura Adkins is a Senior CMMI Consultant with Broadsword Solutions Corporation. She has years of real world experience using pilot testing strategies and tactics to help her clients achieve their goals. Laura also uses the CMMI, in partnership with her clients, to set-up, monitor, and sustain process improvement programs.

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

Posted by Jeff Dalton at 1:39 PM 0 comments 

How can we switch to an agile software development lifecycle without causing project delays?

Hey CMMI Appraiser, we are a large software engineering firm in Ohio that uses the CMMI-DEV. For over a decade, we have used our own software development lifecycle, and recently decided to switch to Scrum.  I’m concerned about how we can help our engineers make this big change without causing project delays.  What should we do? ~ Chris H.

Chris, as more companies are adopting agile software development methods, the CMMI Appraiser has received a steady stream of questions about managing this change.  One of the leading experts on this topic is Julie Calfin, a Senior CMMI Consultant with Broadsword.  Julie does amazing work with companies who are undergoing large scale business transformation. Take it away, Julie! ~ The CMMI Appraiser

Thank you, CMMI Appraiser!

Chris, as I explained in my last blog post, Organizational Change Management techniques can help people change their behavior quickly with minimal disruption – and reach the mountain peak together.  We like to think of it as a Journey to Commitment.

To help us visualize the journey and how we will guide people through major changes, we use a tool called the Commitment Curve (above).  In the case of your software engineering firm, Chris, the Commitment Curve maps the upward journey your staff will experience on their way to accepting and committing to Scrum.

So let’s begin our trek up the mountain, one step at a time:

CONTACT – at the first step, it’s your job as management to reach out to every segment of the organization to announce a change is coming.  Be sure to use powerful examples to explain why your firm needs to make this change.  For example, announce the adoption of Scrum at an all-hands meeting.  Explain that an agile software development life cycle will enable your firm to develop working software that is consistently delivered on time and within budget.

AWARNESS – here is where your people start to climb.  They develop some awareness and knowledge of the program and the fact that it will affect the way they do their work.  People may gain awareness by participating in a program kick-off meeting on designing your new processes.  Note: we don’t want to weigh people down with too much detail at this point, or they may choose to exit the process (i.e. fall off the mountain).

UNDERSTANDING – as they gradually ascend the slope, folks come to identify with the change.  They see themselves in the change, and understand how it impacts them and the role they have.  You can help them with this by explaining the specific changes that will be required for each role.  For example, your Project Manager will need to go to Scrum Master training to learn how to use agile processes.

POSTIVE PERSPECTION – notice, each step up the curve brings us to a new choice point.  For example, your Project Manager can choose to perceive the change as good (“Our new estimating processes are going to help me be more accurate with my estimates”).  Or, she could just as easily decide that this new estimating process is too much work, or too time-consuming.  At this point in the commitment journey, you may want to use recognition and rewards to reinforce desired behaviors and to discourage unwanted behaviors.

ADOPTION – adoption is what we’re going for.  This is where our process users begin to adopt the agile techniques as their own.  Tactics like training, mentoring, and PPQA evaluations will accelerate the adoption of your new processes.  You will know your new processes are being adopted when you hear people say things like:   “Using our new agile development processes makes my job so much easier,” and “Be sure you train the new guy to use our agile processes.”

INSTITUTIONALIZATION – it takes some time and some critical mass of people who have adopted the new processes for the business transformation to become accepted as “our way of doing business.”  Institutionalization requires leadership to establish a clear process usage policy and reinforce this policy with their hiring and promotion decisions.

INTERNALIZATION – the mountain peak of process adoption – or any change – is when the change becomes part of the culture of your company.  With your agile process adoption, a symptom of internalization is when people begin improving upon it.  Use the CMMI practices in OPF, IPM, OPD, and others to continuously improve your new agile software development processes.

That’s the journey to commitment, Chris.  By having an OCM Strategy that includes tactics like communication, training, and performance management, you can move your engineers systematically through the stages of change and keep your team firmly on the path to greatness.

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

Julie Calfin is a Senior CMMI Consultant with BroadswordSolutions Corporation. She has years of real world experience using OCM strategy and tactics to help her clients achieve their goals. Julie also uses the CMMI, in partnership with her clients, to set-up, monitor, and sustain process improvement programs.

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

To be "CMMI compliant", do we need to validate our processes?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser – I appreciate your recent post about pilot testing. We are a CMMI-certified Ohio engineering firm doing our first renewal of our CMMI appraisal. For the past three years, we have not done pilot testing, but now we are wondering if we need to validate processes to be CMMI compliant? ~ Carla C.

Hey, Carla – great question! Let me pass it along to Laura Adkins, a Senior CMMI Consultant with Broadsword, who does amazing work with companies who are trying to evaluate the usefulness of pilot testing. ~ The CMMI Appraiser 

Thanks, CMMI Appraiser!

Carla, Broadsword works with a lot of companies that are renewing their CMMI Maturity Level. Some of them are renewing without having fully adopted the true spirit of the CMMI the first time around. Like you, they want to know if the CMMI mandates that they validate their processes.

The short answer is: no. The CMMI doesn’t mandate anything. The CMMI is a set of guidelines designed to help companies follow the best practices of companies that have come before them. Strictly speaking, there are no such things as “CMMI certification” or “CMMI compliance” or "CMMI mandates." There is no CMMI watchdog that will bite you if you fail to validate your processes. 

This is not to say validation is unimportant. On the contrary, validation is extremely important. Processes need to be validated because processes are products, and should be treated as products. Like products, processes have intended users, are developed to meet user needs, released based on criteria and there are measurements. Like products, processes must be validated. In this scenario, the validation is pilot testing.

We refer to a definition within the CMMI on validation. CMMI-DEV, V1.3 defines validation as follows: “Confirmation that the product or service, as provided (or as it will be provided), will fulfill its intended use. In other words, validation ensures that you built the right thing.”

This definition talks about confirming that a product or service will fulfill its intended use. We’re doing that with processes. We are trying to ensure that we have developed a process that is applicable to the organization in the way that we have intended it. That’s why processes should be validated.

There are Specific Practices (SPs) within the CMMI that govern the validation process area.

SP1.1 talks about selecting products for validation. In our case, we are going to look at our processes and what was developed. So you would have process diagrams or swim lanes and process descriptions. You’d have work instructions and templates. All of these things are products that could be selected for validation. And the validation method that we are going to select is pilot testing.

SP 1.2. Next the CMMI guides us to establish a validation environment. In our case, what we’re talking about for pilot testing is an environment in which we select real projects that are underway in the company to validate our processes. That means, we need to select real products, real process users, and the tools you might need to accomplish this.

There are additional Specific Practices in the CMMI that provide guidance on validation, and I will share those in an upcoming post. The important thing to remember, Carla, is that your primary goal should be to understand the true spirit of the CMMI, and why you are adopting it in the first place.

Adopting the CMMI provides a framework that guides you to change your culture to one of continuous improvement. Your reason for adopting the CMMI and renewing your CMMI appraisal should therefore be because you want to be a great company. And the reason great companies test their processes is because they understand that processes are products.

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

Laura Adkins is a Senior CMMI Consultant with Broadsword Solutions Corporation. She has years of real world experience using pilot testing strategies and tactics to help her clients achieve their goals. Laura also uses the CMMI, in partnership with her clients, to set-up, monitor, and sustain process improvement programs.

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

It's time for another Webinar! CMMI v1.3: All you NEED to know!

Need to learn about CMMI?  Now's your chance . . . and it's FREEEEEEE!

Join us for "CMMI v1.3: All you NEED to know" on April 27th at 2PM for a free webinar hosted by Broadsword Solutions Corporation.

Your speaker will be Jeff Dalton of "Ask the CMMI Appraiser."  Jeff is a Certified Lead Appraiser and CMMI Instructor.  He has conducted hundreds of CMMI Appraisals and taught thousands of students in his CMMI Training classes.  He is a process innovation thought leader and CMMI Consultant who has been a guest speaker at conferences and workshops around the world.

Don't miss this informative event!

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Jeff Dalton, CMMI Instructor and SCAMPI Lead Appraiser

Register now! All you need to know to get started with CMMI

                                                                  

This two hour webinar provides you with everything you need to know to get started with with the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI).  It will provide systems engineers, software developers, project managers, and process professionals with a basic understanding of how to use the CMMI, a model that is the defacto standard and leading framework for software process improvement.

Our guest speaker is is Jeff Dalton, a Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, Certified CMMI Instructor, Candidate SCAMPI Appraiser Observer, author, and consultant with years of real-world experience with the CMMI in all types of organizations.  Jeff has taught the formal "Introduction to CMMI" three-day class to well over 1000 students and has conducted dozens of appraisals.

When:       Friday April 27th, 2012 /  2:00PM - 4:00 PM 

Where:      Online

YOU WILL RECEIVE WEBEX LOGIN INFORMATION ONE DAY PRIOR TO THE EVENT.

                 

Size:        Maximum of 100 (register early!)

For more information about us please visit: http://www.broadswordsolutions.com

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 do you spell CMMI Relief?

Dear CMMI Appraiser – I am the owner of a small software engineering firm with large multi-national clients. We want to renew our CMMI appraisal to keep our CMMI certificate, but we find the process is just too complicated and too much overhead. How can we get relief? ~ Sunny A.

Sunny,

As you evaluate your CMMI appraisal and renewal, I suggest that you consider that this discussion is not about CMMI certification.  It’s about culture. Once you help your team get clarity on this matter, they’ll come to understand that process isn’t overhead. Process is the definition of how we do work every day.

I discussed this challenge in my interview with Bill Fox on 5 Minutes to Process Improvement Success! (now on Amazon), which is a blog that highlights the best in project management and process improvement strategies and tactics.

As I said to Bill, it sometimes helps to use a clever little trick to help teams think about process differently. Feel free to try this with your team, Sunny. Stand up and say, “Hey, everyone, I want to show you a new way to spell ‘process.’”

Then write out the phonetic spelling of the word ‘engineering,’ like this:

enjəˈni(ə)riNG

It's a funky looking word and it'll take them a moment to decode it.  Once they do, tell them what you mean. Say that process isn’t this thing we do that adds overhead, time and energy. If they do it that way, then they did it wrong. Instead, process is about how we perform engineering tasks every dy.

So how do they put this concept to work?

The method we utilize is one that we pioneered, called the AgileCMMI methodology. AgileCMMI starts with the concept that people learn best by digesting information in very small pieces – not by waterfall. Developers are no different. We present everything incrementally and iteratively, in a language they understand, using UML diagrams and data flow diagrams. It’s a much better approach than trying to convert them to process experts, which they will resent and resist.

Once they’ve started getting the benefits of adopting the CMMI in small pieces, through the use of their current tools and knowledge, your team will begin to see your point that process isn’t overhead. Process is not some foreign thing that you are making them do, but just another word for engineering.

The AgileCMMI methodology works in environments large and small. We’ve had really good success with small organizations like yours solving problems for big organizations like NASA.

There are other methods, and other CMMI consultants will surely have their own approaches. But whatever path you take, be sure to keep your team focused on culture, not certification. It really is the best way to get relief. 

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.