Can we use CMMI-DEV on short projects?

Dear Appraiser,  we're an IT Services firm in Ohio.  We need to know if it possible to use the CMMI-Dev model on projects that start and finish within 2 to 3 months?  It seems like a lot of work and documentation efforts to use the model for a 60 or 90 day effort?

If these are the only type of projects we have for an appraisal- will that suffice? ~Larry M.

Larry,

I understand your concerns.  You've heard that the CMMI requires TONS of documents, and a "full-lifecycle" data-dump in order to succeed with an appraisal.  Lot's of people have heard this too.  I'm sorry, you're beyond help.....NOT!

I could just tell you that you're wrong, but since I'm a teacher at heart let me try to help you understand WHY this nasty impression about CMMI exists in our industry.

Years ago there were some early adopters of CMMI.  These companies were working with, mostly, the Department of Defense, and they were building large, complex systems.  Back then, "agile" was just a rainbow and unicorn in Ken and Jeff's eyes, and was not nearly as popular.  And companies with 90-day projects didn't have much interest in process.  But the big-boys who adopted this model, the CMMI, did have a lot of interest.  They needed ways to manage their Engineering processes, and the CMMI was just the ticket.

Funny thing about these companies though . . . they ALREADY were doing work that required lots of documents, long phases, gates, audits, and measurement.  They ALREADY were top-down, command and control, and "low-trust."  So it stands to reason that this is the context that they adopted the CMMI with.  They set the standard - and boy did they!

Fast-foward a few years to short iterations, agile methods, fail fast-fail early, planning poker, and daily stand-ups.  What a difference!  The way information is managed is much different now.  

The unicorns have landed!

On a Scrum project, for instance, the entire Scrum team room is one massive "information radiator" where a simple visit provides evidence of dozens of CMMI practices.  Sure, some things end up in documents and in databases, but some things are just visual.

In some ways, the frequent iterations of agile projects produce way MORE evidence than those in a traditional "waterfall" project - it's broader, deeper, and constantly being improved.  What appraiser wouldn't like that?  Well....don't get me started on that one....

The practices in the CMMI do not indicate sequence, volume, or physical weight of deliverable.  The key is to do WHAT IS RIGHT for your company, and then find a Lead Appraiser that understands it.  I've appraised companies that backed a truck up full of documents, and I've appraised those who rode up on a scooter with an iPad.

It just depends....

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.

Do we need a tune-up before our CMMI appraisal?

Dear CMMI Appraiser – I own an IT company in Michigan that uses Agile business intelligence solutions to provide insights and predictive analytics to State and local government agencies. We want to get our CMMI Maturity Level 2 rating this year, but our CFO doesn’t want to waste time and money on a SCAMPI B assessment, since the result won’t count. My concern is about the repercussions if we are unprepared and fail the SCAMPI A. How important is the tune-up? ~ Somali A. 

Dear Somali,

Whoa!  Doesn't count?  An Appraisal is all about learning about your company - and when it comes to that a SCAMPI "B" counts for a lot.  But based on your question, you may not as far down the road as you think you are. You are correct that the SCAMPI B assessment does not result in a rating  – but it is not a "tune-up."  Tuning up your existing processes is something you do continuously before and after you go through the SCAMPI B or SCAMPI A process. Like giving your car a tune-up at the 5,000 mile mark, tuning up your processes prepares your company to keep its quality and performance improvements rolling in the right direction. But on its own it doesn’t assure that your journey will be successful.

So, before you even get started, there are some key questions to ask yourself:

What could we learn about ourselves from a SCAMPI C (Gap Analysis)? The SCAMPI C is one way to find out how well your company learns about itself.  How aligned (or misaligned) are behaviors with the CMMI framework? It may be a long road ahead, but it's well worth the journey - and you want to understand the baseline before you start.

How could we benefit from training? Multiple training courses are available to assist you in your journey to becoming a great company. Since this is apparently your first experience with the CMMI, start with the introduction to CMMI training course, followed by training on how to become expert process engineers. Broadsword offers courses and workshops that teach you how to execute our AgileCMMI methodology, and how to design and develop the processes you will need to become a great company.  While you're at it, consider some methodology training like Scrum, Measurement, and Process Quality.

What is really involved in the "tune-up?" After the SCAMPI C, and often concurrently with the training, you'll need to develop a plan that identifies all the opportunities to improve that you will need to execute with company.  This plan could be months, or even years, in duration and includes everything you need to do in the context of the methods and working teams you will be using, as well as all of the releases and iterations that must take place between now and when you reach your desired state - perhaps as tested by your SCAMPI B Appraisal.

The SCAMPI B is a semi-formal appraisal that serves as a tool to give you the information you need to completely understand your current state in relation to the CMMI.  It gives you the information you need to help you determine whether you should move forward with a formal SCAMPI A.

Some companies consider skipping the SCAMPI B in order to save money.  This may seem prudent, given that it is not specifically required, but keep in mind that this discussion is not about money, but about Risk Management.  It would be expensive (and demoralizing for your team) to have an unsuccessful SCAMPI A.  My own personal rule-of-thumb is, if the SCAMPI B is better than 75% "in the green," that's a pretty good indicator to start thinking about when you want to conduct your SCAMPI A appraisal.  Of course, it depends......

And if you are successful with your SCAMPI A  … WOO-HOO! You’re done, right?

Uhhh, not so fast.  But you do have an awesome start!  Achieving a CMMI Maturity Level doesn’t make you a great company. It just means you are sufficiently equipped with the infrastructure and tools you need to become a great company.

As we say in the aviation world . . . you'll have a "license to learn."  It's time to remind your CFO that this ain’t no paper chase. Making structural changes in your company – and making the commitment to long-term improvement as an organization – that’s your real adventure.

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.

Where can the "CMMI lady" learn more?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser, I enjoyed your presentation at the PMI Forum in Detroit this week. I'm the CMMI lady whose boss wanted me to take on a Scrum-based project, so I could expand my repertoire as a project manager. Going in, I really thought Agile was too unstructured for us. Are you going to be giving that presentation again any time soon? I feel like I still have a lot to learn. ~ Julia W.

Hey, Julia – It was great to meet you at the Project Management Institute Forum for my CMMI+Scrum: Power Partners in Product Development” presentation on Monday. It's cool that you're still thirsty for more knowledge. Like the old saying goes …

But you knew that. There's a reason project management is one of the top skill sets demanded by organizations around the world today. You never stop learning.

I'm curious. What caused you to change your opinion about Agile? Don't tell me -- all my funny jokes, right?

But seriously, for a lot of project managers and executives, the great thing about CMMI is that it can (and should) be used to improve the performance of teams that are using Scrum (or any other technique). Scrum is a lightweight approach to managing the process for developing products in an iterative and incremental way. It's different than the "command and control" approach you're used to, and that’s probably why it felt “unstructured” to you. In Scrum, teams focus much more on "self-organization" and personal responsibility.  That's not to say that "waterfall" project team members are not responsible, only that the methodology does not address it.  The scope of Scrum does not include everything required to drive enterprise-wide performance, and fortunately, as I said, many such best-practices exist within the CMMI.  Just keep it light!

So whether your goals are to improve as a project manager, successfully deliver software, achieve a CMMI Maturity Level, or get on the path to becoming a great company, you can use the AgileCMMI approach to improve incrementally and in a lightweight, useful way, and reach your goals. AgileCMMI helps you get better at what you are already doing and increase the likelihood your project will be successful.

When will the CMMI Appraiser be back in Michigan? Not to worry. We're on location in Detroit all this week, conducting a CMMI appraisal with a great, agile engineering company ... and then I'm off to Madrid, Spain, for SEPG Europe on June 5, to teach an international audience about the benefits of AgileCMMI.  After that I'm off to Hong Kong.  The date of my return to Detroit will be announced this summer.

In the meantime, get your fill of timely, useful information right here.

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

Jeff Dalton is a Certified SCAMPILead Appraiser, CertifiedCMMI 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 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.

Does the CMMI require that we produce 400 documents?

Dear CMMI Appraiser, we’re a Michigan-based developer of musical equipment and devices for the hearing impaired. Our new CEO has announced that he wants “continuous improvement,” so we’ve engaged a CMMI Lead Appraiser who said that the “continuous improvement” means we need to produce documents – tons of them! Is it true that the CMMI requires over 400 documents on the average CMMI appraisal? ~ Arnold L.

Dear Arnold,

Your CMMI appraiser is clearly singing from a different sheet of CMMI music than the rest of us. There is no requirement in the CMMI that you produce 400 documents. Continuous improvement is all about changing behavior – not creating documents. How does that sound?

I must say, 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 me 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 risk by categorizing and listing them.
• 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.

No, there is no requirement in the CMMI that you have 400 documents in your project. That’s an average number that came out of the early adopters of CMMI who were - you guessed it - ALREADY doing that!. The average project in the CMMI Level 3 appraisal may produce 400 documents, but you should be able to do it with  about 70. The only “requirement” is that you exercise proactive thought about what you want to be and achieve.

“What do we want this company to be?” is a great question. It resonates with the very timbre of the company, and fires the imagination. This is where everything starts.

On the other hand, when you have a Lead Appraiser taking the position that you just need to "pass the appraisal," or “be CMMI Level 3” without any thought or aspirations for greatness, then that’s how you end up with 400-500 documents. We call that process debt. You incur all of this debt that people have to carry around with them, big stacks of paper, just to prove to your appraiser that you are performing at a certain level.  I missed the memo where this provides any value.

Remember what I said earlier. Adopting the CMMI is 100% about solving business problems. It’s not about documents. It’s not about pleasing your Lead Appraiser or even passing your appraisal. It is a model that's about how great companies perform.  IF you choose to have an appraisal, then these are the things you should be looking for in a Lead Appraiser.

That should be music to your ears.

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 progr

CMMI Appraiser presenting in Philly on CMMI+Scrum this Tuesday night!

Hey, CMMI Appraiser – I am an engineering executive and member of DC-SPIN, and I just wanted to say, I got a lot out of attending your CMMI+Scrum presentation last month. We are a Virginia-based engineering firm with a branch office doing Scrum projects in Philadelphia, and I feel that our whole company needs to understand that CMMI and Scrum are at their most powerful when they are used together. Will you be presenting in Philly any time soon? ~ Dalia H.

Hey, Dalia – great to hear from you. It’s always a pleasure to have such thoughtful participants at my CMMI+Scrum presentations, and I’m glad you found it so useful. That’s our goal: for engineering and software executives as well as project managers and developers to learn something about the CMMI and Scrum that they can take back to their companies and put immediately to use.

It just so happens that I will be ringing the bell in Philadelphia this Tuesday night! On second thought … I will give my CMMI+Scrum presentation tonight, but maybe I’d better not ring the bell.

Yes, tonight, Tuesday, May 8th at 6PM in Dresher, PA, I will be presenting "CMMI+Scrum: Power Partners in Product Development" for the Philadelphia Software Process Improvement Network (Philly SPIN).

Like the presentation you attended, tonight’s talk is designed to give engineering and software organizations new insights into addressing persistent problems, and to show them how to use CMMI and Scrum to improve upon what they are ALREADY doing. The program will focus on providing data, experiences, and lessons learned. As a certified ScrumMaster, I have a lot of real-life stories to share.

As you may know, we’ve been doing this presentation for several months now. After tonight, we’ll be taking our show back to the Midwest, talking to engineering and software companies in Detroit, followed by a jaunt to Madrid, Spain. It’s pretty cool how folks all over the world are learning how CMMI and Scrum can partner up to solve business problems and drive high performance engineering. Don’t you agree?

For your colleagues in Philadelphia, be sure to send them to the link to register: http://spin.asqphilly.org/nextmeeting.html

I hope to see them there tonight. I may even have something for them to win!

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.

Can we import risk management from CMMI into our Scrum Teams?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser,

It’s Daniel, from the CMMI certified engineering firm in Dayton Ohio again. Thanks for answering my questions. I get that CMMI can improve our Scrum Team’s Daily Standup meetings, but are you saying we can import aspects of the CMMI that don’t exist in Scrum, like risk management, to understand what’s being done? ~Daniel

Daniel, now you’re getting it! Here’s a better way to say it: when we combine CMMI and Scrum, we pick aspects of Scrum that we strengthen with the CMMI, based on the needs of your company. The goal is to make both frameworks stronger.

To stick with the Daily Standup example … every morning, for 15-20 minutes, the team stands together to discuss issues that are important to them. But there is no guidance around things that get talked about, and how things are going. As a result, the impact of the meeting, in terms of insight for management, is pretty weak. The format generally goes as follows:

“Here’s what I am doing.”
“Here’s what I plan to do.”
“Here are the kinds of problems I’m having.”

That’s fine, but it leads an opportunity for many things not being done – like paying attention to the risk.

This is common everywhere. If you asked your Scrum team, “How do you understand to risk?” they would say, “We do that in the Daily Standup. If somebody has a risk they bring it up.”

This won’t cut it for executives who need solid information about risk to make business decisions. The CMMI offers categories of risks that are important to us (like technical risk, financial risk, and business risk) and provides for brainstorming within these categories, recording them and sharing them with the appropriate stakeholder.

Does that mean ditch Scrum? No! Keep Scrum, and add that type of analysis in Daily stand-up maybe once or twice a week.

I’ll give you an example. Here at Broadsword we have clients who discuss risk once a week in their Daily Standup. They use the guided risk management within the CMMI to make their risk discussions more meaningful. And guess what? Management understands where they are with functional requirements. Sounds like a dream, right?

The trick to making this work is not to ditch Scrum or change how Scrum works, but to take the individual Scrum ceremonies involved (things like the Daily Standup or sprint retrospectives) and make them stronger.

We would never try to force a Scrum team to do BPUF, for example, or have status meetings simply because management wants information. That’s how it works in a waterfall world, but not in Scrum. Take the Daily Standup and leverage it back to improve the information that is being gathered. Use the guidance that the CMMI gives to the constructs of Scrum, instead of trying to change the construct.

What I hope you’ve gained from this conversation, Daniel, is that CMMI is fully compatible with Scrum, and can be used to improve agile methods, making your investment in agile both powerful and productive.  If I've left anything unanswered for you, please keep the questions coming!

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.

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.

Does process pilot testing create too much overhead?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser – we are a small Web and Mobile solutions company in Virginia that is pursuing CMMI Level 3 for the marketing benefits. Here’s the problem: our CMMI consultant wants us to include pilot testing in our Program Plan for every single process we create. We only have 20 people! Doesn’t pilot testing create too much overhead? ~ Larry M.

Hey, Larry – 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!

Larry, Broadsword works with all kinds of organizations, ranging from very small to very large. I can tell you, for all of them, regardless of size, pilot testing is an important factor in their success. They may not all like taking the time at first – but if they don’t do it, their results might be … disturbing.

So I agree with your CMMI consultant. Pilot testing the new processes you are developing within the CMMI is not too much overhead. On the contrary, it can save you money.

How? For one thing, pilot testing helps with ownership and acceptance of newly developed processes, no matter what they are. When you test a process with an audience before you deploy it, they are more likely to understand and embrace it. As a result, your CMMI adoption is more likely to succeed.

I know. It’s tempting to avoid pilot testing altogether. For the sake of expediency, you’d rather not even consult with process users. You just want your quality group to get to work designing processes. Then, as soon as they have developed large volumes of process assets, you want them to deploy the processes to all of your process users.

That’s great – but guess what? You may find that none of the new processes are being adopted, and the effort was a failure. What would that cost?

A better way is to think of the CMMI as a model for helping you go from being a good company to a great company. With this mindset, Broadsword recommends the following approach:

Commission small groups of employees to define processes that will improve their performance. Have these small groups design processes iteratively, so they will be “Just Enough, Not Too Much”. Before deploying the new processes, try them out on projects of varying sizes and types. Run a pilot, collect feedback and make changes before you deploy.

The cost savings of this approach far outweighs the expense, even for a small company like yours.

And yes, this goes for all of your processes. We recommend that you create a Program Plan that tells how often and how frequently you’re going to deploy processes. The Program Plan should definitely include some time for pilot testing. Plan to pilot all processes after you’ve developed them and before you’ve deployed them.

I’m glad you are adopting the CMMI, Larry, but keep this in mind. The CMMI is much more than a marketing tool. Used properly, it can serve as a framework for making your team more powerful and productive, and save you a ton of money. That’s why the CMMI Appraiser likes to call pilot testing “process underhead,” not process overhead.

Check back soon and I’ll go into more detail about pilot testing.

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.

Can Scrum give us the features we want?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser,

It’s me again, Daniel, from the CMMI certified engineering firm in Dayton Ohio. Thank you for answering my question about CMMI and Scrum, but I’m still in the dark about features. We know what to expect from the CMMI, but can Scrum give us the features we need or not?

Daniel, the connection between CMMI and Scrum remains a mystery to many executives – and that’s OK! The CMMI Appraiser is here to help.

The secret of CMMI and Scrum is that they are more alike than they are different.  A lot of folks see CMMI and Scrum as polar opposites. But there’s a reason these two things exists. CMMI and Scrum both exist to solve problems. CMMI and Scrum are allies, not adversaries. Like these cool kids:

Why shouldn't CMMI and Scrum be friends? As the leader of your company, you can make that happen.  Use the CMMI to improve the Scrum processes to produce better results.

Now, about those pesky features. As I think I said last time, the Scrum team is a nuclear team that does all of its work inside of the time box called “sprint” and spends most of their effort focusing on the task at hand.  This is part of the magic of a scrum team - not forcing them to focus on too much at once.  One of those things that goes on outside of them is the generation of the features (usually either derived from, or a replacement for, requirements). The quality of these features, or functional requirements, must be reasonable, implementable, and well thought-out so the Scrum Team can accept them and turm them in to something valuable.

Trying to get visibility of the features to the scrum team can be tough when you hear your Scrum team say, “We don’t need any process.” But if you sit down with them and buy them a drink, and really talk about quality of the features, they will all start laughing and say the quality is poor. They may even say, “We get a lot of junk for stuff that can’t be implemented.”  They may even start telling you how to improve that (without using the dreaded "p-word" of course!).

At this point, you should ask them: “Would you like to receive higher quality features that are easier to implement and are more implementable?”

Most likely, everyone will say, “Yes.”

Right then I would make the argument that CMMI can help make their live's easier.

For example, check back to my lasts post about Daily Stand-ups. By adopting some of the best practices that the CMMI provides, and applying them to the simple Daily Stand-up construct, you will know exactly what’s happening with the features – same as you do in true CMMI environments (guess what....they're the same thing...).  That's because both CMMI and Scrum are all about solving problems.  They are not so different as you think.

Learn to get the two to work together, and they will be your BFF.

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.

Can we get a Scrum reporting tool?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser – I’m CEO of a CMMI certified engineering firm using agile methods here in Dayton Ohio. I would like to put our Scrum Teams on larger projects because they consistently deliver on time and on budget. The problem is, they rarely deliver all of the features we need, and I rarely find out until too late. Is there a Scrum reporting system or tool we can use to get a tighter grip? ~ Daniel C.

Hey, Daniel,

The best tool you can employ for Scrum projects (or for any others) is the one between your ears.

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The beauty is that Scrum teams tend to be self-organizing, independent, process-light, and quick to change.  Like snowflakes, no two are ever exactly alike.   Each has it's own "velocity." But because they are so different, most companies have trouble imagining how they "fit in" and are using Scrum for only a small subset of their projects. You are not alone in experiencing a lack of visibility into what they are doing. For some, it’s a total white-out.

Don’t take this wrong, Daniel, but part of the problem with using Scrum is that management often doesn’t understand its iterative and incremental nature. They want a "Big Plan up Front" (a "BPUF"). Scrum a bottom-up, collaborative, and self-organizing system for getting work done.  It often starts when one or two teams come up to management and ask if they can implement Scrum. Management agrees to it because it sounds "quick and light", but they quickly realize they have no idea of what’s going on.  But it doesn't have to be this way.

But knowing this does little to solve your problem. You aren’t getting good information. And you can’t make good business decisions without good information.

Strictly speaking Scrum doesn't encourage things like weekly status reporting.   Its primary focus is on their Scrum team. They call it a self-organizing team. There isn’t even a project manager (oh no!).

So how do you get the information you need to run the business?

One solution is to combine Scrum and CMMI. At my company Broadsword, we strengthen scrum with the CMMI, based on the needs of the company.

Case in point, the Daily Stand-up. As you know, Scrum Teams opt for Daily Stand-ups as opposed to the traditional status meetings. We don't want to change that because it's a powerful construct for communications.  In a very light and agile way, we want to use the CMMI as a framework to make sure we are talking about things in the Daily Stand-up that are really important, and to help guide us through decisions.

This gives us two major advantages. By using the simple Daily Stand-up mechanism, we get a really crisp, robust view of the project, so we can understand what’s going on. We understand it early, and we understand it often. And by adopting some of the best practices that the CMMI provides, we get more value out of the Daily Stand-up, allowing us to make it even stronger than it already was.

It comes down to visibility, not reporting, Daniel. When agile and CMMI are aligned and working properly together, you get good information, which in turn allows you to make good business decisions – including whether or not to alocate your Scrum teams to larger projects (yes - you should do it!).

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 it possible to be CMMI Level 3 and not 'do' CMMI?

Hey, CMMI appraiser, we are a successful Virginia engineering company with an agile approach to software development. We want to be CMMI Level 3, to help us answer RFPs and win deals, but we don’t really want to do CMMI. Is that possible? ~ Lucas L. 

Hey, Lucas,

Absolutely. You should ALWAYS achieve CMMI Level 3 without “doing” CMMI. In fact, I’m never really sure what it means when people say they want to “do” CMMI. The CMMI is all about helping you improve upon whatever it is that you are already doing.  So, if you are currently attracting and retaining business, the CMMI helps you be an even more powerful customer magnet.

Let me give you a personal example. Even though I am the CMMI Appraiser, CMMI is not really what I am all about. Yes, I’m a certified CMMI Lead Appraiser and CMMI instructor. Yes, my company Broadsword has helped other companies achieve CMMI Levels through our CMMI consulting and CMMI training. Yes, I’m known as a CMMI expert and sought-after CMMI speaker. But this does not define who I am.

I define myself an airplane builder, pilot and musician. I’m a Scrum master and software developer. I also happen to be the chair of the SEI’s Partner Advisory Board, and President of the Great Lakes Software Process Improvement Network (GL-SPIN). In everything I do, I use the CMMI to help me do things better.

I’m happy to say that the airplane I am currently building is coming together very nicely, with very few defects, because I’ve used the CMMI to help make that process better.  But it's not a CMMI process.

I’ve been able to improve my performance as a musician, too, by using the CMMI to make that process better.  We use different words, and a different language, but it's all the same thing.

And I’ve used the CMMI to increase the quality of software on the Scrum teams I’ve led. The CMMI helps make me better at all these things I do. Kinda geeky, I know, but it’s true.

In terms of growing the business, Lucas, it goes far beyond merely achieving CMMI Level 3 so that you can check the box on RFPs.  You don't need to get better at checking boxes. You need to get better at delivering software, and attracting and retaining customers, and the CMMI helps you do that.

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.

Tax Day Question: Is a CMMI appraisal the same as an audit?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser, we’re a small engineering company in Michigan. Preparing our taxes reminded me of the SCAMPI audit we are going through. Our CMMI Consultant has our ATMs collecting artifacts for each sub-practice and memorizing everything in the CMMI book. He keeps them working 12-14 hours per day, every day. Are all CMMI appraisals as grueling as a tax audit? ~ Buster O.

Hey, Buster,

Nooooo! A SCAMPI appraisal is NOT an audit! A good Lead Appraiser is the OPPOSITE of an auditor. By treating the SCAMPI appraisal like an audit, your current CMMI Consultant is driving all the wrong behaviors, wasting money and making people hate the CMMI. He is acting like it's Tax Day for CMMI users.

The truth, Buster, is that nothing about the CMMI is like an audit. CMMI is a model for continuous improvement. A Lead Appraiser is tasked with not only ensuring that you’re using the model properly, but that you are getting value out of it, and that your company is using it to become a great company. That’s the bottom line of CMMI.

If your Lead Appraiser is insisting on seeing “work product evidence,” or what are now called “artifacts” for every single sub-practice in the model, he’s acting like an auditor. The CMMI does NOT call for an audit of sub-practices! So you can throw away that old shoe-box full of receipts. It’s not necessary.  Sub-practices simply give us a glimpse into the mind of the authors to help us understand what they were thinking.

Why is your Lead Appraiser acting like this? Perhaps it makes him feel more important if he can force people to be terrified of him. I’ve heard that the IRS likes to intimidate people too. That’s why they wear those dark sunglasses and pound on doors after midnight.

If your Lead Appraiser is wearing dark sunglasses, pounding on doors and insisting that you memorize everything in the CMMI book, he is distorting the intention of the Model. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is no reason for anyone in your company to jump through these hoops.

The practices in the CMMI are meant to provide valuable guidance for you, Buster. They are not things to comply with, as written. They are not hoops to jump through or penalties to be incurred if you miss a step. They are suggestions of what to do to make your company incrementally and iteratively better.

There are few quick-fixes in the CMMI. I do have one suggestion, though. You can make your company instantly better by getting rid of your current Lead Appraiser and replacing him with a good Lead Appraiser.

A good Lead Appraiser won’t care if you know what the GPs are, by their numbers. A good Lead Appraiser won’t care about keeping your people chained to their desks. Here’s what a good Lead Appraiser will care about:

• Are you training people effectively?
• Do you have a way of doing work that is useful and that can be replicated?
• Do you have policies that clearly set expectations for how work gets done?
• Are you improving as an organization?
• Are you learning about yourselves?
• .... and stuff like that.

A good Lead Appraiser wants to know how he can help you get better. He doesn’t want to see you saddled you with “process debt,” busy-work and taxes. Rather, the approach of a good Lead Appraiser is not taxing at all.

Like the old marketing slogan, "it doesn't cost . . . it pays!"

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 we transform from Waterfall to Agile without disturbing our client's business?

Hey CMMI Appraiser, we are switching from a very mature, waterfall software development lifecycle to Scrum by June. How can we help our people make this big change without sacrificing our client satisfaction? ~ Lou M.

Hey, Lou – great question! Let me pass it along to Julie Calfin, a Senior CMMI Consultant with Broadsword, who does amazing work with companies who are undergoing large scale business transformation. ~ The CMMI Appraiser

Thank you, CMMI Appraiser!

Short answer, Lou: Organizational Change Management tactics can help your people change their behavior quickly with minimal disruption. Organizational Change Management (OCM) 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.

A key to your success will be to understand how to bring people systematically through the change, without disrupting the schedule and budget of their projects. I have just the thing for you.

Below is the depiction of how people move through a change, from having minimal contact with it to having it be rooted in the culture of their organization.

By defining each step along the Commitment Curve that people go through, this graph helps you focus on where people are in their transformation. Over time, we will employ OCM techniques to bring them systematically up the curve.

Think of it like climbing a mountain. Your level of commitment moves from generally understanding the change (“I will probably need hiking boots and time to train”), to acceptance of the change (“This is going to be hard, but it will make me a better person”), to full commitment to it (“My team and I will summit the peak together”).

But it’s not quite that easy. A key take-away here: at each step along the curve, people either progress to the next step, or they exit out of the process all together. In other words, they keep climbing, or they fall off the mountain.

Pretty harrowing, right? Don’t worry – I’m not trying to scare you. An unhappy ending can be avoided by using OCM techniques to bring everyone up the Commitment Curve without any casualties. I’ll go into more detail in my next post.

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.

On Friday the 13th, did the CMMI Appraiser from Virginia bring bad luck?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser,

I lead the CMMI effort for our engineering division in Maryland. Our whole reason for hiring this CMMI Appraiser from Virginia was to get our CMMI certificate and win new business. So far, no luck. What gives? ~ Bill D.

Hey, Bill,

It’s apt that your question comes on Friday the 13th, the unofficial holiday of bad luck. This calls for a special CMMI Appraiser’s rabbit’s foot. One for you, one for me, and one for your CMMI Appraiser from Virginia.

I kid because you're not alone, Bill.  We hear from companies all the time who call to say, “Hey, we need to look at CMMI certification because we’d like to bid on certain government contracts.”

I get that. I fully acknowledge many small and large engineering companies in Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, Michigan and elsewhere must achieve a CMMI Maturity Level in order to bid on work. In some cases, we’re talking about millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts. It's a business reality we all have to deal with.

But CMMI certification can’t be your CMMI Appraiser’s only goal – or you will not get the results you were hoping for.  As a matter of fact, CMMI Certification doesn't even exist!

To help make my point, let’s go back to the CMMI Appraiser you mentioned. If he or she was a good CMMI Appraiser, they might have asked you “Why are you doing this to yourself?” That might have led to discussion about the possibilities of adopting CMMI as model to be a great company - not a model to get a plaque (we call this "plaque buildup").  Was that your experience?

One technique I often employ is to try to talk the sponsor out of having an appraisal altogether - just to see how important it really is to them and to understand how much they have thought it through. Sometimes, as it turns out, it isn't that important.  Sometimes it's about greatness . . . as it should be.

See, a good CMMI Appraiser would know that learning about your company and how to make it better is the real goal – not achieving a level.

A good CMMI Appraiser would teach you to start to think like a great company.  He or she would help you use the CMMI as a strategic weapon to help you attract and retain new customers.

A good CMMI Appraiser would help you set the right goals and objectives, and ask the right questions that keep you on the path to continuous improvement, where the real deals are won.

Did any of that happen with your CMMI Appraiser from Virginia?  If so, then great!

Unfortunately, too many CMMI professionals don't get this. Some are only interested in helping companies get a so-called CMMI certificate or achieve  CMMI Maturity Level.   We call these companies "appraisal mills." They see no value in providing advice, strategy, and helping to ensure that you get the results you were hoping for.

And they don't even think about why you haven’t won new business.  Boooo!

That’s not bad luck. It’s bad practice.

The CMMI is so much more valuable and useful than that, Bill. It’s about things like how well you are running your engineering division in Maryland, Virginia, or elsewhere, how well you are delivering products, and how happy your customers are.

It’s all about KNOWLEDGE, and nothing to do with LUCK.

… even on Friday the 13th.

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.

We want to be ML3 but out consultant says we have to be ML2 first. Is this true?

Hey Jeff,


Our boss says we need to CMMI ML3 ASAP.  We went out and found a CMMI consultant who told us we first had to be CMMI Level Two or else the SEI would not approve our appraisal. That doesn't seem fair - we hire really smart people and we're probably already ML5.  Please help before my boss does something dumb! ~Ernie

Ernie,

If you've been following my posts, you know how I feel about a lot of "consultants."  It's just too easy to get a business card printed up and start selling yourself as an expert.  There is a lot of misinformation out in our industry about the CMMI, so let me try and help.

First of all, if that's what you were told your consultant is wrong.  That's it.  There's no more to be said about it.  They obviously have never been trained, or even been close to a SCAMPI Appraisal.  In the very first, most basic, "Introduction to CMMI" Training Class the material clearly states that "Maturity Levels Should Not Be Skipped" (emphasis on the word "should") and even this is in relation to a process improvement focus, not appraisals.

Lead Appraisers have conducted many CMMI appraisals where ML3 was the company's first appraisal - and yet the SEI accepted them.  I say "accepted" because the SEI doesn't usually approve the appraisal per se, instead they verify it was conducted properly based on the requirements of SCAMPI.

Maybe what your consultant was trying to tell you was that you SHOULD not skip a CMMI ML2 appraisals. If that was their advice, I completely agree with it.   Almost every client I work with that skipped wished they hadn't.  But it's not a requirement.

The SEI has done a pretty good job of defining the foundation - and it's in Level 2.  Going directly to ML3 sometimes forces you to make decisions that you won't want to make - resulting in Process Debt that will be difficult to unload for a long, long time.

So do it right, take your time, and please - work with someone who is qualified to help you save time, money, and frustration.

Oh, and if you were ML5 - you wouldn't say "probably."  You would KNOW.


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.