OCM? What’s in it for me?

Hey CMMI Appraiser, I’ve seen a few posts here about OCM, and my team is interested in learning more. Can you tell us how would OCM benefit our organization and its process improvement planning effort? We are a CMMI Level 3 organization ~ Jonathan A.

Jonathan, thank you for stopping by.  The discipline you have been reading about here at Ask the CMMI Appraiser, known as Organizational Change Management (OCM), is the specialty of our resident expert, Julie Calfin, Broadsword’s Director of Consulting. Julie does amazing work with companies that are undergoing large scale business transformation like yours. Take it away, Julie! ~ The CMMI Appraiser 

Thank you, CMMI Appraiser!

Jonathan, great question! “What’s in it for me?” is generally the first thing anyone wants to know when they find out about OCM. Depending your role in the organization, I give my answer one of two ways:

1) From the organization’s perspective:

The benefit of OCM is it gives you a way of making your future state a reality. In other words, OCM is a discipline for helping you transform your company into whatever you want it to be.

As a practical matter, the organization benefits by embracing OCM because change is incredibly disruptive to any organization. OCM allows you to manage the change with minimum disruption. That’s the main benefit for the organization.

Is there an ROI? Absolutely! Organizations that embrace OCM make a significant investment in tactics and tools such as communications, training, stakeholder involvement, recognition & rewards, and what they get out of it is the ability to implement all of these changes, without burning out their workforce, without missing all of their project deadlines, and without losing their customers.

2) From the individual’s perspective:

The individual benefits from the adoption of OCM practices as well. After all, the organization is investing in you so that you can have a role in its future state. OCM tactics employed by your organization give you the ability to make the necessary changes without burning yourself out or harming your work product in the process.

Oh, I understand that sometimes they don’t make themselves clear. Tell me if this has ever happened to you. The order comes down from above that a specific change is coming. Unfortunately, the person sponsoring the initiative does not know how to make the change a reality. They know WHAT needs to change (they know, for example, they need processes that are CMMI-based), but don’t know HOW to go about affecting that change.

This is the purpose of OCM. Using OCM, the leaders of your team can create a blueprint for how to make these changes a reality, how to change their culture, and how to sustain that culture change over time.

There are three more ways OCM helps individuals do their jobs better.

Efficiency: Nowadays, more people are asked to do a lot with a little. OCM techniques allow people to implement large scale changes without overtaxing themselves in the process. For example, by involving the right people in the change initiative at the right time, you can avoid delays that are caused by false starts and negative emotions.

Learning: There is a learning component to OCM as well. Each individual has to acquire some new knowledge, skills and abilities – and potentially some new attitudes – in order to make the change a reality. One of the things we do in OCM, for each stakeholder group, is to quantify the learning that is needed and schedule it to be acquired at the right time. The advantage is that the organization is not going to just ask you to change. Instead, they will give you the learning opportunities you need to make these changes.

Influence: Finally, the adoption of OCM practices will equip individuals in the company to positively influence those around them. Change leaders are needed throughout the organization, not just at the top. Individuals become influential by disseminating valuable information, modeling desired behaviors, and eliminating barriers to change. Influential leaders emerge when we provide opportunities for them that are aligned with our future state vision.

I appreciate your question, Jonathan.  Please check back in the weeks ahead as Broadsword Solutions is planning to announce the availability of our first OCM eBook!

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

Julie Calfin is the Director of Consulting at 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 to Implement OCM Deliverables in Your Process Improvement Plan (Phase II)

Dear Readers,
Today’s post is a continuation of our response to a question from federal contractor in Central Ohio, who asked about integrating Organizational Change Management (OCM) deliverables into his process improvement plan. Julie Calfin, Broadsword’s Director of Consulting and our resident expert on OCM, has been supplying an answer over several posts. Take it away, Julie! ~ The CMMI Appraiser 

Thank you, CMMI Appraiser!

You know, for those who are new to Organizational Change Management (OCM), the discipline can seem a little overwhelming at first. In reality, the purpose of OCM is simple.  It's nothing more than a strategy to help your people change their behavior quickly with minimal disruption to your business.

So don't be put off by my somewhat lengthy answer to Jerry’s question about OCM. The way we recommend affecting large scale business transformation is by introducing new behaviors to your organization incrementally, and by rooting these behaviors in your organization’s culture. This can be accomplished by integrating your OCM strategy with your work plan – in this case, your Process Improvement Plan.

As I mentioned in my last post, there are OCM deliverables that can be added to each phase of your Process Improvement Plan that will help you affect the change you are striving for. The Phases that we have outlined for your Process Improvement Plan are: 1) Initiate; 2) Implement; and 3) Operate.

Today, let’s focus on the OCM deliverables in the second phase, Implement:

Phase II, Implement, is a critical part of your OCM strategy. The Implement Phase is where it all starts to come together with your team. Specific examples of OCM deliverables in the Implement Phase include the following:

Change Readiness Assessment and Action Plan – Some organizational performance improvement firms (such as my company, Broadsword Solutions) use a survey instrument to assess the client’s current performance in various dimensions that we know are essential to making change happen. Dimensions can include stakeholder commitment, communications, and training. The CRA takes the “temperature” of the organization with regard to the change readiness of its people. CRA results allow us to determine where people are on the Commitment Curve. We can then measure whether or not the majority of people are accepting these changes, or whether the majority have exited out. If they have exited, why have they? If the majority is onboard, are there any pockets of resistance? We create an action plan based on the findings of the survey, which becomes part of the OCM plan.

Organizational Design – With large-scale business transformation, your old organizational structure will no longer apply. Some of the jobs and reporting relationships in that structure will be replaced by a new structure that you create to align with the change you are trying to affect. Organizational design starts with analysis to determine which new jobs are needed, how existing jobs may change, and how the people of the company will need to relate to one another.

Competing Initiatives Assessment – It is extremely useful for organizations to keep track of any other change initiatives that are occurring in the company. After all, people can only absorb so much change at one time. The Competing Initiatives Assessment allows you to identify and assess other change projects that may have an impact on the teams that are participating in process improvement. For example, a new accounting software implementation, launched in the middle of your performance improvement program, may cause financial data on projects to be unavailable. With awareness of the other initiatives, you can plan for and adjust to them.

Status Dashboard – The most useful aspect of having an OCM strategy and plan is your ability to monitor and measure the change you are trying to affect. Having a status dashboard allows you to present status updates to leadership, in different dimensions, to help them understand where the organization is with regard to the change, and how effective your OCM efforts have been. For example, we use a simple dashboard with our clients that displays their current performance in 8 dimensions that are critical to the success of their process improvement program. Here’s a snapshot of an example dashboard:

Training & Mentoring – This deliverable pertains to your training plan for whatever the scope of the transformation effort is. When rolling out new processes and tools, for example, plan for the training you need to help your team learn how to use the new processes and tools. Mentoring, via a formal mentoring program, outlines how you are going to coach people in addition to training them. As an example of mentoring, a team member may be paired with someone who can provide them with coaching. Both individuals are measured on the effectiveness of that mentoring relationship.

There’s more! Check back soon for OCM Deliverables, Phase III: Operate

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

Julie Calfin is the Director of Consulting at 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 to Initiate OCM Deliverables in Your Process Improvement Plan (Phase I)

Dear Readers,

We recently received a question here at Ask the CMMI Appraiser that could not be easily addressed in a single blog post. The question came from Jerry T, a federal contractor in Central Ohio, who asked about integrating Organizational Change Management (OCM) deliverables into his process improvement plan. Let us turn once again to our resident expert on this topic, Julie Calfin, Broadsword’s Director of Consulting. Julie does amazing work with companies that are undergoing large scale business transformation. Take it away, Julie! ~ The CMMI Appraiser 

Thank you, CMMI Appraiser!

As I explained in my last post, the goal of integrating Organizational Change Management (OCM) strategy with your Process Improvement Plan is to help your people change their behavior quickly with minimal disruption to your business. There are OCM deliverables that can be added to each phase of your Process Improvement Plan that will help you introduce new behaviors to your organization incrementally and then root these behaviors in your organization’s culture.

The Phases that we recommend for your Process Improvement Plan are: 1) Initiate; 2) Implement; and 3) Operate.

Today, let’s consider the OCM deliverables in the first phase, Initiate:

Phase I, Initiate, is the beginning of your Process Improvement Program. The Initiate Phase is where you kick-off your program and prepare to move your employees systematically through the stages of change that are required to achieve your process improvement goals.

Some of the OCM deliverables in the Initiate Phase have already been addressed here on this blog:

• Stakeholder Involvement Plan: How do I get a critical mass of people to adopt the CMMI? 
• Stakeholder Identification and Analysis: How do I identify stakeholders for adopting our CMMI-based process improvement program? 
• Communications: As we adopt the CMMI, how do we improve internal communications? 
• Vision: How do I communicate my vision for what we’ll look like after adopting the CMMI? 
• Training for Program Sponsor: How can we accelerate our CMMI adoption? 
• Communication Plan: Is there an easy way for managers communicate about adopting the CMMI?

One deliverable we have not yet addressed is the Case for Change. The Case for Change is the “powerful business case” or the “burning platform” for the Process Improvement Program. It’s essentially the compelling reasons, the data and the supporting arguments for why we need this business transformation. The Case for Change should be documented, but it should also be demonstrated. Employees need to see something that causes an emotional reaction inside them that says, “The status quo is not good enough -- we must change!” Data alone is not a sufficient Case for Change. The Case for Change must also include real life experiences that demonstrate why the organization must change.

Note that all of the OCM deliverables in the Initiate Phase of your Process Improvement Plan are set up when the program first begins. Clearly, this is quite a bit of work, but it is worth it in the end. You will find process adoption is easier when you take the time to plan for the people impacts of the change. These OCM deliverables are necessary for your SEPG to have a successful CMMI process improvement program.

Check back soon for OCM Deliverables, Phase II: Implement

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

Julie Calfin is the Director of Consulting at 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 Organizational Change Management (OCM) deliverables in a Process Improvement Plan?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser, as a federal contractor in Central Ohio, we have appreciated your posts about developing a Process Improvement Plan and all the aspects of it. Do you intend to provide a high level overview of how to implement the plan? For example, what are the deliverables? ~ Jerry T.

Jerry, the discipline you have been reading about here at Ask the CMMI Appraiser is known as Organizational Change Management (OCM), and our resident expert on this topic is Julie Calfin, Broadsword’s Director of Consulting. Julie does amazing work with companies that are undergoing large scale business transformation like yours. Take it away, Julie! ~ The CMMI Appraiser 

Thank you, CMMI Appraiser!

Jerry, it has been wonderful to hear from readers like you who are actively using the information we are sharing.

As the CMMI Appraiser indicated, the discipline known as Organizational Change Management (OCM) includes many tactics that can help your people change their behavior quickly with minimal disruption. Organizational Change Management is a structured approach that an organization uses to transition from wherever they are today to wherever they want to be tomorrow. You can use it to navigate successfully through the enormous transformation in front of you.

Let’s pull back and take the high level view of activities that we would put into your Process Improvement Plan, from the manager’s point of view:

The value of this graph is it shows how to integrate OCM strategy with all of the Process Improvement activities in your Process Improvement Plan.

Phase I, INITIATE – This is the beginning. Your OCM Strategy includes tactics like setting goals, identifying processes, and assigning resources. It also includes foundational activities like establishing a future state vision for where you want the organization to be at the end of the Process Improvement Program. The Initiate Phase is where you prepare to move your engineers systematically through the stages of change and keep your team firmly on the path to greatness.

Phase II, IMPLEMENT – Here, you are designing and deploying your processes and monitoring their initial performance. In earlier posts about business transformation, we talked about the steps involved in moving your team up the Commitment Curve to institutionalization. The Implement Phase is where you accelerate process adoption using levers like effective communication and training.

Phase III, OPERATE – The final phase is where you measure process performance and use the collective experiences of process users to continually improve your processes. The Operate Phase is where your organization will spend the most time. As processes are updated, you will continue communicating, training and rewarding so the processes become part of your organization’s culture.

Adopting a Process Improvement Plan is a change that will affect everything – process, technology and people. You are wise to seek out information about the elements of the plan that will help you architect the change you want to see in your company.

Organizational Change Management 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.

Check back for more on this topic, Jerry, as we will dig deeper into the components of each of the three phases.

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

Julie Calfin is the Director of Consulting at 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 rewards and recognition are appropriate for our SEPG?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser – I’m an executive CMMI sponsor for a Virginia-based aerospace engineering company that doesn’t reward performance with bonuses or incentives. Even so, I want to make sure my SEPG feels appreciated for the changes we’re asking them to make in adopting the CMMI. What reward program would be appropriate for our circumstances? ~ Pam M.

Pam, It sounds like both your heart and brain are in the right place. You understand that CMMI is as much about changing the culture as it is about improving the way you do your work. Because rewards and recognition are part of a discipline known as Organizational Change Management (OCM), I will pass your question along to Julie Calfin, Broadsword’s Director of Consulting. Julie does amazing work with companies that are undergoing large scale business transformation like yours. Take it away, Julie! ~ The CMMI Appraiser 

Thank you, CMMI Appraiser!

Pam, I agree with the CMMI Appraiser. It’s great to hear from someone who understands that using the CMMI to transform your culture is not easy on the team. I have several ideas to share that will help you give your SEPG the thumbs-up.

The great thing about recognition and rewards, in addition to helping you say, “Thank you,” is that they are two great levers to help people change their behavior. They can help people to stop doing what you don’t want them to do, and do more of what you do want them to do.

Recognition can be a cost-free way to let people know that they are appreciated. Sometimes it’s just a pat on the back, a public “atta-boy” to the people who have contributed. For example, you may send a group email recognizing a certain teammate for her contribution to process design. Or you may give verbal recognition to another teammate for his participation in pilot testing new processes. Managers also appreciate receiving letters recognizing their employees for going above and beyond the call of duty. These letters come in handy when completing performance reviews!

When it comes to rewards, the key take-away is that rewards should always be tied back to the organization’s process improvement goals or future state vision. You want to make sure that the right behaviors are incentivized because measurements drive behaviors. Before rewarding, ask yourself, “Is this reward aligned with the way we want our people to behave in the future?”

Rewards can also be spot rewards. For example, one of Broadsword’s clients pauses briefly to celebrate when they arrive at different phases in their process improvement program. They throw a big ice cream party with all their staff. Everyone has a good time, and then they get back to work.

When Broadswords’ clients use our agileCMMI method, we encourage them to reward the members of the Special Interest Groups (SIGs) at the end of each three month release cycle. When one of our clients completed their first incremental process release, the Program Sponsor gave each SIG member a gift card and a hand-written note, thanking them for their time.

These are examples of recognition and rewards that don’t cost the organization a lot of money, and do a lot to help motivate and engage people. Here are some rules of thumb (or rules of thumbs-up!) with recognition and rewards:

• If measurements drive behaviors, rewards serve to reinforce desired behaviors or proliferate undesired behaviors
• Recognition of key contributors is part of the program’s planned tasks
• Individual performance goals and associated incentive compensation are aligned with attaining the organization’s process improvement goals

You’ll have to find what works for you, Pam. Keep in mind, your rewards and recognition approach has a lot in common with the company’s vision. Both are a bridge between the past and future.

Hope this helps! Let us know how it goes.

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

Julie Calfin is the Director of Consulting at 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 can we accelerate our CMMI adoption?

Dear CMMI Appraiser, our company provides BIM (Building Information Modeling) products and services. We hired a CMMI consultant to help us adopt the CMMI and be more productive and profitable, but there has been a lot of push-back from our project managers, QA folks and engineers. What can we do to speed up the changes we want to see? ~ Alan M.

Alan, accelerating change falls under the discipline known as Organizational Change Management (OCM), which is a specialty of Julie Calfin, Broadsword’s Director of Consulting. Julie does amazing work with companies that are undergoing large scale business transformation like yours. Take it away, Julie! ~ The CMMI Appraiser


Thank you, CMMI Appraiser!

Alan, to accelerate change, your CMMI consultant must provide training at strategic points in the program. As the diagram below depicts, training is the gear in your company’s Organizational Change Management strategy, and that makes the behavior change engine run.

Your CMMI consultant should know this. To overcome push-back, they should be staunchly defending the Generic Practices (GPs) in the CMMI, which are foundational to the success of any or all of the process you deploy. Specifically, they should insist upon Generic Practice (GP) 2.5 – Train People.

The fifth GP guides us to train the people performing or supporting the process.

So, if you expect (GP2.1) your Project Managers to be efficient at estimating and planning, you need to train them on estimating and planning.

If you are going to plan for (GP2.2) your QA folks to run process and product quality assurance, you need to train them on running process and product quality assurance.

If you are going to provide resources (GP2.3) for your BA teammates to trace requirements and run JAD workshops, you need to train them on performing requirement traceability and running JAD workshops.

And if you are going to assign responsibility (GP2.4) to your engineers to perform peer reviews, you need to train them to perform peer reviews.

Unfortunately, in many companies, training is considered to be a costly overhead expense that does not fit into today’s tight budgets . Engineers are trained by being thrown into the fire and learning on the job. They get put on a project and they learn as they go. Unfortunately, this training approach results in frustrated Engineers who are slow to accept change.

But GP2.5 requires different behaviors from executives. And most executives see the value of training people, once they see the numbers. Training increases productivity early in the tenure of someone’s employment. Where it takes an average engineer about a year to get up to speed in terms of productivity with peers, training helps them get up to speed in a matter of weeks. It also reduces the cost of Engineers’ time to reinvent the wheel and perform re-work.

Training helps all stakeholders understand the magnitude of change they are being asked to undertake. Training helps them learn the KSAs (Knowledge, Skills and Abilities) that they need to be able to perform their roles in the new organization. And training helps them become their own advocates.

There are many training courses available in the marketplace, that are related to CMMI, Scrum, or general process improvement. Look for a CMMI training program that offers real life examples, lessons and proven techniques, so that your team can take away – and retain – valuable information to be used on the job, immediately.

Sounds like maybe your CMMI consultant could use some training too.

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

Julie Calfin is the Director of Consulting at 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.

As we adopt the CMMI, how do we improve internal communications?

Dear CMMI Appraiser, since we launched our scientific, engineering, and technology applications company in 2005, we have grown rapidly, despite having a constant challenge with rework. Now that we are adopting the CMMI, we realize that our true challenge is not eliminating rework, but improving the way we do all of our work, including the way we communicate. On that topic, how do you recommend we go about improving our internal communications? ~ Jenn B. 

Jenn, It sounds like you have had a major breakthrough in understanding the true power of CMMI which is improving the way you do your work. A discipline known as Organizational Change Management (OCM) is a specialty of Julie Calfin, Broadsword’s Director of Consulting. Julie does amazing work with companies that are undergoing large scale business transformation like yours. Take it away, Julie! ~ The CMMI Appraiser 

Thank you, CMMI Appraiser!

Jenn, how cool that adopting the CMMI has helped you see that the way you do your work is what’s most important. To improve internal communications, I recommend that you create a Communication Plan to disseminate key messages to your stakeholders in a timely and effective manner. Here is a free template:

I always encourage companies to use this tool after they do their stakeholder analysis (see How do I identify stakeholders for adopting our CMMI-based process improvement program?). The reason is, you need to know who is impacted by the changes that your organization is implementing before you can effectively communicate with them.

Populating the columns of the Communication Plan is fairly straight-forward. Start with audience:

• Who do you need to reach?
• What messages do they need to receive?
• Who needs to send the messages?
• What reactions do we want? In other words, what is the desired outcome? What behaviors do we desire from them? Do we want them to take action? If so, what action?

Next, let’s take a look at the medium, materials, frequency and timing.

• Medium – what type of communication channel will you use to disseminate the key message? This might be an email, post on a web site portal, a newsletter, a virtual meeting, a Daily Scrum or an all-hands meeting.
• Materials – these are the physical pieces of collateral, the email attachments handouts, cards or buttons that accompany the message.
• Frequency of communication – some of these messages are delivered regularly (e.g., monthly). Others are one-time only messages.
• Timing – Once we’ve drafted all of the key messages we want to send, we think about when they need to be disseminated to enable the desired outcomes to occur at the times in the Process Improvement Program (or other business transformation initiative) when we want them to occur. We may indicate the week or the month in which the communication takes place, or identify a specific date.

The next piece, the Key Message column, is the heart of the Communication Plan. This column allows you to assign one key message per communication. This is important to your team. Remember, it’s no small task you’re asking for. They are learning new behaviors that can improve their performance and help you be a great company. So plan well.

When you are done populating the Communication Plan template, return to your Stakeholder Analysis and Program Plan. Compare these, and confirm the following:

• Have you touched all the people listed in the Stakeholder Analysis?
• Are your communications timed to happen at the right time throughout the CMMI Process Improvement Program?

A Communication Plan can be a useful road map for disseminating the information that stakeholders need to understand and adopt the changes that their organization is implementing. Planning internal communications in a way that aligns with your organization’s CMMI Process Improvement Program will accelerate the adoption of the new processes. Timely, informative messages will also eliminate some of the confusion and change resistance that stakeholders feel along the way.

Good luck!

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

Julie Calfin is the Director of Consulting at 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.

So your boss asked you to look into CMMI and Agile - but you’re not sure he gets it. How do you brief him?

Hey, software and engineering professionals –

Regular followers of Ask the CMMI Appraiser know that this CMMI Appraiser gets a wide range of questions about engineering strategy, performance innovation and process improvement. But we also get questions about executive leadership – sometimes from people who don’t want to go “on record” asking the question, for fear of making their boss look bad.

For example, after one of my CMMI training classes recently, a software developer from a large Michigan-based automotive company (you’ve heard of them) approached me somewhat timidly. She confided in me that she had orders from her boss to get "certified at CMMI ML3" while also transitioning them to be "an agile shop."

She was concerned that her boss didn’t know what he was asking her to do. She said, “Now that I’ve taken the Introduction to CMMI training, I understand that adopting the CMMI is about taking on a large-scale business transformation initiative. What can I do to help my boss understand how big it is?”

I responded the same way I’d respond to anyone who said their boss told them to “go get certified” at CMMI ML3, become agile, or any other major culture change. I said he was showing signs that he needed some help - a little remedial training, if you will.  We call it a CMMI Executive Briefing.

What are the signs that your boss may need an Executive Briefing? Here are a few:

• You walk out of a meeting with your boss, and you suspect he doesn’t know what he’s just asked for;
• The leaders asking the question don’t understand that CMMI and Agile are game-changers, which means changing the way people behave, not the forms they fill out; 
• The boss asks for a CMMI certification or CMMI appraisal or some other "achievement,"– without saying why or how he thinks it will help; 
• You’ve been assigned a task that is impossible to complete, given the time and the money they’ve allocated toward accomplishing it; 
• They ask you to change all of your projects over to agile this week; 
• They tell you to “get a level.”

The source of confusion for executives is understandable. The CMMI does indeed have “levels” associated with it, which in retrospect may have been a mistake because it’s too easy for companies to say, “Three is more than two so Level 3 is better than Level 2,” which does a great disservice to the organization.

What your boss really should be saying is, “I want to completely change the way people behave in our company,” which is the same as asking for a massive re-engineering of the organization. Getting “CMMI certified” has zero to do with that outcome.

The important thing to remember is that adopting the CMMI is all about solving business problems. It’s not about documents, forms, certificates or ratings. It’s about adopting a model that's about how great organizations perform. Transitioning to "agile" is not much different. It's also about solving business problems, changing behaviors, and not about documents or ratings.

So that’s why we recommend the Executive Briefing. We want to help executives understand the size and complexity of what they’ve asked for. The Executive Briefing gives them the tools they need to help their teams be successful in adopting the CMMI and Agile together.

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 CMMI?

Hey CMMI Appraiser, I found your blog via a Google search for “Maryland CMMI.” We are a Maryland manufacturing company that uses both Waterfall and agile methods. Quick question: Why CMMI? ~ Todd L.

Hey, Todd - Why CMMI? Well, let me ask YOU quick question … Why dance?

The point is that, like dancing, adopting the CMMI can be a liberating experience. I find it fascinating that the misperception continues, even among CMMI appraisers today, that the CMMI is this heavy, command and control, document-centric cauldron of hard, dreary work and pure nonsense.

CMMI has none of that. It doesn’t tell you how to do anything. It doesn’t “require” anything. The CMMI says, “Here’s what great companies do.” That’s all it essentially says.

Let’s break it down a little more. Here’s what the CMMI is and does:

• The CMMI is a tool to help solve business problems.
• The CMMI helps you change and improve requirements churn and volatility, so that you can spend less time and money on requirements.
• The CMMI helps you be on-time and on-budget.
• The CMMI helps you motivate your staff, and make them better at what they do.
• The CMMI helps you understand and deal with risk, before it hurts you
• The CMMI helps you avoid having too many meetings, unhappy customers and unpredictable projects.

And the CMMI can do this whether you choose agile, waterfall, and any other set of methods.

Why CMMI?  Back to you, Todd: Why not?

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.

Is there an easy way for managers communicate about adopting the CMMI?

Dear CMMI Appraiser, our Virginia-based health care products company is designing new processes within the CMMI in response to customer requirements. To help facilitate this change, I’ve asked my managers to get up to speed on your blog posts about Organizational Change Management. One problem: they keep forgetting all the steps of the Commitment Curve. Is there an easier way to help us remember the key components of communicating change?~ Lou A.

Lou, it’s great that you are focusing your managers on communicating as a way to facilitate the adoption of CMMI. As you know from reading our posts about Organizational Change Management (OCM), Julie Calfin, Broadsword’s Director of Consulting, does amazing work with companies that are undergoing large scale business transformation. I’ve forwarded your question to Julie. Take it away, Julie! ~ The CMMI Appraiser

Thank you, CMMI Appraiser!

Lou, I’m glad you’ve had your managers read our blog posts as a way to get up to speed on facilitating the adoption of the CMMI in your organization. It’s true that it can be difficult to remember all seven steps of the Commitment Curve if you are not used to them. Perhaps it will help to summarize these steps into three basic themes: Inform, Educate, Commit.  (See the right side of the chart)

Before I go into these themes, it will be helpful to take a step back and remind your managers why it is so important to communicate.

We use communication for many reasons. We use communication as an accelerator for change. We use communication to help people understand their role and what they have to do differently. We use communication proactively to reduce anxiety and confront issues, such as change resistance, and anticipate those issues before they actually happen. We use communication to build trust in leadership.

Now, Lou, you are doing the right thing by teaching your managers to be better communicators, as long as you understand that the ultimate responsibility for effectively communicating the change resides with you. For communication to be a part of your OCM strategy, one person or group must be planning all the communications, and pulling the trigger to make sure they are sent at the scheduled times.

The above Commitment Curve, which you’ve seen before, shows how we use communications to bring people to commitment. The three themes on the right are new. They should be easier to remember. As you can see, the first theme is to inform people. The next theme has to do with educating them. And the third theme gets them to the point that they commit to whatever it is that we are asking them to do differently.

Let’s break these down:

Informed – when I am informed, I just have the high level information. Per the chart, I have experienced Contact, Awareness and Understanding as precursors to being informed.

Educated – when I am educated, I know more of the details. I know how the change will affect me personally. I know what skills I will need. I know how my role will be different. Best of all, from a company culture perspective, once I am educated, I can educate others, and can tell others what this new change or new process is.

Committed – when I am committed, I’m not only telling people about the new processes, I’m using them. I’m living them. My actions are showing that I’ve accepted the change. You’ll see me training other people in the change, and making sure they are using the new processes.

Hopefully by reducing the seven steps to three themes, Lou, your managers will be able to remember the key components of communicating change.

Good luck!  

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

Julie Calfin is the Director of Consulting at 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 communicate my vision for what we’ll look like after adopting the CMMI?

Dear CMMI Appraiser, I am CEO of a Maryland electronics parts engineering firm. Our business is experiencing rapid growth and we’re using the CMMI to design new processes for our Engineers to do their work. Your recent posts about Organizational Change Management have been perfect timing for us. What are some of the things I should be thinking about in terms of communicating the new vision for our company with our 100+ employees?~ Snil V. 

Snil, you are wise to begin planning to communicate your vision for what the company will look like once you’ve adopted the CMMI. As you know from reading our posts about Organizational Change Management, Julie Calfin, Broadsword’s Director of Consulting, does amazing work with companies that are undergoing large scale business transformation. I’ve forwarded your question to Julie. Take it away, Julie! ~ The CMMI Appraiser 

Thank you, CMMI Appraiser!

Snil, it’s a pleasure to hear from readers like you who have gotten value from our blog posts about Organizational Change Management. Planning the vision is a key component of your growth strategy. Many CEOs assume that this just takes care of itself.

Unfortunately for those CEOs who fail to plan how they will communicate, the chance of success is greatly diminished. Far better to have something written down that paints a compelling picture of where your company will be in the future, after you’ve achieved your desired CMMI Maturity Level.

  

A well communicated vision does a lot of the hard work of change management for you. Consider the characteristics of a well communicated vision:

• Motivates and inspires people 
• Enables you to coordinate large groups of people without using endless directives 
• Results in the high energy level that is needed to accomplish difficult tasks
• Establishes a standard of excellence
• Allows you to move quickly
• Bridges the present and the future 

Here at Broadsword, we have a workshop that helps organizations formulate their future state vision. In this workshop, we help company leaders relate their vision to what their organization will be like after they’ve adopted and are using new processes. The Vision Workshop teaches executives to develop an effective vision by utilizing the above characteristics.

Keep in mind, it’s not always the CEO who shapes and delivers the vision. Sometimes software or engineering departments are adopting the CMMI, but not the rest of the company. In such cases, it makes sense for a departmental leader to share a vision for his/her department that is aligned with the overarching vision of the CEO.

In your case, Snil, adopting the CMMI is nothing short of transforming the culture of the entire organization. To create a vision for what the organization will look like when all of this change is done, start with the corporate values and mission. Zero in on the aspects of your values and mission that resonate with people emotionally.

This change management philosophy comes from John P. Kotter, the author of “The Heart of Change” (John P Kotter and Dan S. Cohen, Harvard Business School Press, 2002). Kotter’s premise is that people need to physically see the need for change and feel the consequences of not making the change in order for them to think differently, take action and change their behavior. They need to see and feel what the change is going to be all about. Connecting these changes with their emotions is a lot more compelling than giving them a bunch of data to think about and analyze. It’s no surprise that a vision that is essentially a business case is not as compelling as one rooted in the emotions.

So, how to create a vision that will elicit an emotional reaction? If possible, you’ll want to draw upon the five senses, and paint a picture of what it’s going to feel like in this organization in three to five years.

Here are some tips from John P. Kotter about what the vision should be:

• Simple: No techno babble or jargon.
• Vivid: A verbal picture is worth a thousand words – use metaphor, analogy, and example.
• Repeatable: Ideas should be able to be spread by anyone to anyone.
• Invitational: Two-way communication is always more powerful than one-way communication.

I hope this helps, Snil. Communicating the vision can be challenging but it may be one of the most rewarding aspects of your work as a leader.

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

Julie Calfin is the Director of Consulting at 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.