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Pat O'Toole and Jeff Dalton's "Just the FAQs #2: What's the Deal with REQM SP1.1?"

[Dear Readers, our good friend Pat O’Toole, CMMI expert and seasoned consultant, is collaborating with us on a new monthly series of CMMI-related posts, "Just the FAQs." Our goal with these posts is to provide answers to the most frequently asked questions about the CMMI, SCAMPI, engineering strategy and software process improvement. To kick off the series in November, Pat addressed the  frequently asked CMMI-related question  - "Why is REQM at ML2 while RD is at ML3?" This month Jeff Dalton returns the serve with another one: "What's the Deal with REQM SP1.1: Understand Requirements?" ~ the CMMI Appraiser]

Take it away Jeff!

Last year, while conducting a final findings briefing for a CMMI-DEV Appraisal, an attendee blurted out “what’s the deal with REQM SP1.1? We sit around and discuss requirements all the time – why doesn’t this ‘qualify’ for ‘Understand Requirements?’”

Had she been present at the preliminary findings briefing we could have had a conversation about how they evaluate requirements, or maybe even discussed the “definition of done.”  But because we were in the presence of 150 people and executive management, it was, as the kids like to say, “awkward.”

As it turns out, REQM SP1.1 is more complicated than it sounds.

The attendee didn’t give me much breathing room before moving in for the kill.  “Last month you told us,” she insisted, “that the subpractices are meant to help understand intent and are not ‘required,’ yet the weakness YOU noted is from the subpractices. Aren’t you just ‘dinging’ us for something that isn’t required?”

Yikes!

She was right.  The weakness identified by the team was indeed derived from the subpractices, in particular the ones about defining and using criteria to evaluate requirements.

The attendee folded her arms, sat back and waited for me to mount my defense. 

Shifting into “teacher-mode” seemed like the best approach, so I began asking “the questions.”

Does the requirement meet the “definition of done?”  Is it ambiguous? (cue groans from the audience).  Can it be designed and delivered? Without knowing those things, can we understand what we REALLY need to build? 

I like to turn the subpractices into these types of questions because it helps re-direct team members from “compliance-mode” to “improvement-mode,” and leads them to discover something that they probably already knew.

“But you SAID!” protested the attendee, in a last ditch effort to persuade me to acquiesce and soften the weakness.

Yes I did.  But we don’t approach this with an attorney’s magnifying glass.  We’re coaches, mentors, and advisors – not lawyers. I ALSO said that doing what’s smart for your company should dictate how the practices are interpreted.  In this case, they were receiving complex requirements from many different sources and had a geographically dispersed team that had not worked together in the past. In this context, the intent of REQM SP1.1 is precisely defined by the subpractices and examples, and appraisal teams should embrace this guidance, even if they believe, as I do, that it is only intended to be informative.  REQM SP1.1 is about more than just “understand requirements.”

I like to think of REQM SP1.1 as “Evaluate and Understand the Complete Requirements.”  During the “Introduction to CMMI” class I introduce the Agile concept of “Definition of Done” to illustrate that this presents us with an opportunity to achieve consensus, avoid re-work, lower risk, and understand the “complete” requirement.

You could also try turning it into a question by asking: "they want us to build WHAAAAAT?"

Please contact the authors at pact.otoole@att.net and jeff@broadsword.com to suggest enhancements to their answers, or to provide an alternative response to the question posed. New questions are also welcomed!

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

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

CMMI Institute to Help Companies Elevate Organizational Performance

PITTSBURGH — The CMMI Institute announced today its strategy to extend the reach of the CMMI model to enable businesses of every size in every industry to elevate performance and to provide tools that equip CMMI practitioners to begin and to grow their journey with CMMI.

The CMMI Institute, established by Carnegie Mellon University, is home to the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), a gold standard of excellence in software and systems development. The Institute will continue to help this market to solve business problems while advancing the use of the model to new industry sectors around the world.

CMMI is used by some of the world’s most admired and innovative organizations, including Samsung, Accenture, Proctor & Gamble, and Siemens. CMMI adoption has been a powerful differentiator for businesses and a catalyst for economic growth in regions that invest in its broad adoption.

“To compete in the global market, leaders must build organizations that can consistently deliver quality and value in products and services,” said Kirk Botula, CEO of CMMI Institute. “The CMMI Institute enables organizations committed to excellence to achieve measurable results in the facets of their business that matter most to their goals. CMMI provides a framework of practices that can help organizations to identify and address key challenges to improve performance and the bottom line. We all know work is not the way it is supposed to be—CMMI helps make it better.”

The CMMI model was developed at Carnegie Mellon’s Software Engineering Institute (SEI) through collaboration of government, industry, and academia to help the Department of Defense and its contractors like Raytheon, Northrup Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing improve their software engineering capabilities. Widely trusted as a mark of reliability, many organizations require CMMI adoption as a pre-requisite for bidding on contracts.

Thousands of companies across multiple industry sectors in 94 countries have adopted its practices to elevate performance and have been appraised for capability and maturity using CMMI methods. The CMMI product suite includes product development, service delivery, procurement, and staff management—making it a worthwhile investment for any business. Carnegie Mellon University founded the CMMI Institute in order extend the benefits of CMMI beyond software and systems engineering to any product or service company regardless of size or industry.

KK Raman, Partner Business Excellence, KPMG India says, "Carnegie Mellon is a pioneer in developing best practices and transitioning them to industry, and this is reflected in the global adoption of the CMMI. KPMG is one of the premier organizations around the world with over a decade long partnership with CMU. We help use the CMMI Institute product suite—frameworks, training, certifications, and appraisal methods—to achieve organizational goals by enhancing processes.”

Extending the Benefits of CMMI

The global adoption of CMMI is supported through a vast network of partners who guide organizations in the successful adoption of the CMMI models. As part of today’s news, CMMI Institute is advancing the practice of CMMI with an online self-assessment tool as well as new professional credentials for practitioners.

• CMMI Self-Assessment Tool: A new online tool that allows organizations to begin their journey of elevating performance as well as to diagnose their existing implementation by assessing the current state of their organization. By answering a brief set of questions, users will gain critical insights that provide an analysis of an organization’s strengths and weaknesses as well as solutions to improve the capability of their organization.
• CMMI Associate and CMMI Professional Certification: The CMMI Institute will be offering certifications to help individuals translate their experience with CMMI into professional development opportunities. CMMI Associate and CMMI Professional Certifications will provide confirmation of an individual’s knowledge of basic and advanced concepts in CMMI and demonstrate to current and prospective employers they are dedicated to excellence and have valuable skills to help elevate organizational performance.

“As a professional who uses CMMI daily in my work, I am committed to advancing my understanding of the models and to helping my clients and my organization position themselves to successfully meet their goals. The practitioner credentials will not only provide a clear path for my growth, it will also help me to communicate and validate my skills to my clients as well as my organization,” said Capri Dye of Hubbert Systems Consulting, Inc. 

The CMMI Self-Assessment Tool and Practitioner Certifications will be available in early 2014.

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About CMMI Institute

The CMMI Institute, a subsidiary of Carnegie Mellon University, is dedicated to elevating organizational performance through best-in-class solutions to real-world challenges. The Institute is the home of the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) for Development, Services, and Acquisition; and the People Capability Maturity Model which are process improvement models that create high-performance, high-maturity cultures. The models are used in thousands of organizations worldwide to deliver business results that serve as differentiators in the global market.

To learn more about how CMMI can help your organization elevate performance, visit cmmiinstitute.com.

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, including the complete “CMMU Users Stories,” visit Jeff’s Author Page on Amazon.

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