What are the Gamers' Alley sessions at Capability Counts 2017?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser, What are the Gamers'Alley sessions at Capability Counts 2017? ~ Software and Engineering People Everywhere

Hey, all you good people of the software industry! One of the reasons I'm so passionate about Capability Counts 2017 is all the great opportunities we'll have to learn from (and with) one another. Like "Gamers' Alley," for instance. Ross Timmerman, from Broadsword’s Performance Innovation Team, is presenting two sessions of Gamers’ Alley at the conference. Gamers' Alley is an innovative, hands-on learning environment for experiencing breakthroughs in performance ...

But let's let Ross tell it.

Take it away, Ross Timmerman!

CMMI Appraiser: Welcome, Ross! Please enlighten our readers. What is Gamers' Alley?

Ross: Gamer's Alley is a fun and fast-paced way to learn about key concepts at the core of CMMI and Agile without really knowing that you're doing that while you play. It's noisy, chaotic, messy and intense all at the same time, much like working on a project.

CMMI Appraiser: What are some of the big a-ha moments people get at Gamer's Alley?

Ross: One big a-ha moment is when the gamers grasp the massive power of reflection and working together to get better early and often. It's so different than doing lessons learned at the end of a multi-year project. Another big a-ha moment comes when the concept of understanding value from the perspective of the user (customer), and then intentionally delivering value to the user (customer) as rapidly as possible creates questions about the value of thousand line project plans for multi year projects. Change happens so fast that we can't predict what will happen in a month much less a year.

CMMI Appraiser: What is the most astonishing thing you've seen happen at Gamer's Alley?

Ross: The most astonishing thing I see are the quiet, deliberative, engineering types throwing all that off, and diving in with wild abandon. Let's face it, work should be fun. If it's not, maybe we should buy some Legos!

CMMI Appraiser: Thanks, Ross! I hope everyone will come check out Gamers' Alley for this fun way to learn about improving performance.

See you at Capability Counts!

Register here.


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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.

Who Else Needs CMMI Training?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser, we're looking at adopting the CMMI and getting CMMI training as a way to give us more control over the way we do our work. Can CMMI really help in this direction? If so, as QA, I'll sign up. Also, can you tell me who else from our organization needs CMMI training? ~ Cathy B, QA

Hey, Cathy - yes, the CMMI can and will give you more control over the way you do your work. Without CMMI, you can feel like you're just being dragged along ...

You can take control of the way you do your work by signing up for “Introduction to CMMI-DEV v1.3,” a three-day CMMI Institute-authorized training class on June 6-8 in Arlington, Virginia.

When: June 6, 2017 @8:30am – June 8, 2017 @1:00pm
Where: Arlington, Virginia (outside of Washington, DC)
Cost: $1300 (that’s more than 30% off!)
How to register: Click here!

As to your question "who else from our organization should take CMMI training?" the class is open to all IT leaders, software engineers, software developers, project managers, business analysts and line managers.

Your teammates NEED to take CMMI Training when …

• Your company is interested in improving software and engineering performance
• Your management wants an approach to remedy consistently late or over-budget projects
• Your team needs a way to make its work sustainable and scaleable

Your teammates are REQUIRED to take CMMI Training when …

• You intend to participate in a SCAMPI Appraisal team
• You wish to become a CMMI Lead Appraiser

The CMMI is designed to give you more control over how things are going and what you need to do to get better.  So take the first step to taking control of your work.

Hope this helps, Cathy. Register now, and we'll see you in class!

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

Jeff Dalton is a Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, Certified CMMI Instructor, 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.

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.

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.