Ask The CMMI Appraiser!: Shawn Rapjack

Showing posts with label Shawn Rapjack. Show all posts

Thursday, February 21, 2013

The Art of CMMI: Variations in Tactics

[Our good friend Shawn Rapjack, CMMI expert and seasoned consultant, is back with a another installation on CMMI based on Sun Tzu's "The Art of War: Weak Points and Strong." We're excited that Shawn has agreed to share segments of his article with you here on "Ask the CMMI Appraiser"]

Continuing the ‘Art of CMMI’ discussion, let’s rattle our sabers with the Art of War’s eighth chapter, ‘Variations in Tactics’. The theme of the eighth chapter focuses on varying one’s tactics to meet complex and changing situations.

The student of war who is unversed in the art of war of varying his plans, even though he is acquainted with the Five Advantages, will fail to make the best use of his men.

The ‘Five Advantages’ are obvious military precepts – ‘short roads are to be followed’, etc.

How do we, as process advocates and managers, help our organization to vary its tactics? Being creative and using alternate approaches improves the flexibility and maturity of our process improvement environment. Following CMMI processes and providing typical work products is good – providing nuanced and creative approaches shows mastery.

How can an organization ‘vary its tactics’ though? There are countless fronts to this war, here are some examples:

Communication and stakeholder participation; stand-ups and meetings: As long as the exchange is productive and artifacts are produced, meetings may take any number of variations. Is it a nice day out? Not too many bugs? Have your staff meeting outside!

I’ll always remember one of my manager’s approaches to a ‘curmudgeon’ – a grumpy person who was always unduly negative in meetings. My manager brought a squirt bottle to our meeting and squirted Mr. Negative every time he said something non-productive. The practice was somewhat … short-lived, but it brought needed insight to our meeting process though creativity.

Process improvements can be creatively piloted and communicated. I know an organization that put sticky notes throughout the building to herald the upcoming formal release of their quality assurance program and plan. Notes on peoples’ desks, cars, lunches, walls, windows, and clothing announced the upcoming plan to all stakeholders (and everyone else).

Training: Jeff excels at this – making training fun. Why start off on the incredible CMMI journey with dull tedium? That’s not what CMMI is about. Jeff’s training includes fun participation, CMMI games and haikus!

Alternative approaches: Devising alternative approaches to processes and typical work products helps your organization tailor its CMMI process improvement journey. Such processes need to be reviewed and guided by a CMMI process improvement mentor.

In my project’s fast-paced rapid-application development environment, we leverage our web expertise to create our own management tools.

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

Jeff Dalton is a Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, Certified CMMI Instructor, author, and consultant with years of real-world experience with the CMMI in all types of organizations. Jeff has taught thousands of students in CMMI trainings and has received an aggregate satisfaction score of 4.97 out of 5 from his students.

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

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

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

The Art of CMMI: Maneuvering

[Our good friend Shawn Rapjack, CMMI expert and seasoned consultant, is back with a another installation on CMMI based on Sun Tzu's "The Art of War: Maneuvering." We're excited that Shawn has agreed to share segments of his article with you here on "Ask the CMMI Appraiser"]

Continuing the ‘Art of CMMI’ discussion, let’s go on the offensive with the Art of War’s seventh chapter, ‘Maneuvering’. The theme of the seventh chapter revolves around wisely marshaling one’s forces to out-maneuver various types of engagements. But who are our ‘forces’? When we ‘do war’ on process debt and poor engineering will we fight as a cohesive force or a chaotic mob? Sun Tzu observes:

Maneuvering with an army is advantageous; with an undisciplined multitude, most dangerous.

Fortunately, there are CMMI practices that assist us with composing our army of process warriors – as in OPD SP 1.7 – Establish Rules and Guidelines for Teams.

Process teams often align with engineering disciplines such as ‘the requirements team’ or ‘the testing organization’. But flexibility is required:

Whether to concentrate or to divide your troops, must be decided by circumstances.

Thus, teams may also be created to address specific hot issues dear to the program, such as ‘improving customer satisfaction’. Teams must be composed of individuals with the correct training who represent the entire organization.

So we don’t have an ‘undisciplined multitude’, rules must be established that govern responsibilities, clear lines of authority, and reporting – both within and between teams. Elements to consider when founding and chartering teams include:

· Specific mechanisms to approve, assign, accept, monitor, and review tasks

· Organizational charts

· Resource allocation

· Measurements

—and certainly communication. While this would be amusing:

Gongs and drums, banners and flags, are means whereby the ears and eyes of the host may be focused on one particular point.

A Communication Plan would probably work better for us. Among many other things, the Communication Plan defines team intercommunication, organizational reporting chains, and specific communication methods.

Friday, February 15, 2013

The Art of CMMI: Weak Points and Strong

Continuing the ‘Art of CMMI’ discussion, let’s jump into the fray with the Art of War’s sixth chapter, ‘Weak Points and Strong’. The theme of this chapter is attacking your enemy where it is weakest. *Sigh*, no, the ‘weak point’ is not between your manager’s ears – as process improvement managers, our ‘enemy’ and ‘weak spots’ are process debt, bottlenecks and poor engineering. Such engineering obstacles must be identified and addressed.

To begin the skirmish, identify and analyze organizational weaknesses. This corresponds to Sun Tzu’s guidance:

So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak.

What is the organization struggling with? What has management identified as areas for improvement or focus? These questions are addressed with the CMMI’s Organizational Process Focus process area. In SP 1.3 (Identify the Organization’s Process Improvements), the process engineering group meets the enemy’s weaknesses head-on: Candidate improvements are analyzed to determine specific areas of focus.

Be nimble and creative in your analysis as well as your subsequent proposed solution (later, in OPF: SG 2 and 3): Every engineering obstacle (weakness!) will be unique. Thus, Sun Tzu:

Do not repeat the tactics which have gained you one victory, but let your methods be regulated by the infinite variety of circumstances.

And,

He who can modify his tactics in relation to his opponent and thereby succeed in winning, may be called a heaven-born captain.

Your analysis should pose such questions as: Does the improvement address an underlying organizational weakness – or just a symptom? How will the improvement benefit my organization – is it worth pursuing? Can I leverage my organization’s strengths? Thoughtfully answering these questions will help battle weaknesses in your organization.

Your organization is only as strong as its weakest link.

Ask The CMMI Appraiser!