Can agile organizations get value from CMMI?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser, can agile organizations get any value from CMMI? ~ DC SPIN Attendee

Dear Readers,

Today’s episode of CMMI-TV was filmed ON LOCATION at a recent DC Software Process Improvement Network (DC SPIN) gathering in Fairfax, Virginia, where I presented on “Agile Resiliency.” An attendee asked about agile organizations getting value from the CMMI. Below is a video clip with my answer, followed by a synopsis of my response. Enjoy!

OVERVIEW

The CMMI is and important tool for helping agile scale and be resilient to change.

COMMON MISCONCEPTION ABOUT CMMI

• CMMI is a death march that zaps your powers and turns you into zombies

COMMON MISCONCEPTION ABOUT AGILE

• Agile methods are a free-for-all where self-organizing teams can do whatever they want, without writing anything down

A DIFFERENT WAY TO LOOK AT CMMI

Once I asked an audience what their experience was with the CMMI. A gentleman in back raised his hand and said: “Bad.”

The CMMI was never intended to be a burden for agile practitioners (or anyone else).  Rather, CMMI is essential to making agile successful.

 THE TRUTH ABOUT CMMI and AGILE

• Agile is here to stay
• The one thing that agile doesn’t do very well is scale and be resilient
• CMMI is THE tool that helps agile scale and be resilient

COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT WHY THE CMMI EXISTS

• CMMI exists so that you can get a nice certificate for the wall
• CMMI exists so that you can achieve CMMI Maturity Level 2 or Maturity Level 3 by Monday
• CMMI exists to create a bunch of documents that make your life miserable

CONCLUSION

• The reason the CMMI and agile work so well together is that they both exist for the same reason
• Both CMMI and agile are about solving your business problems 

 CMMI-TV is the free video series with the answers you’re looking for about Agile, CMMI and Performance Innovation. As a subscriber, you’ll be notified when we add new episodes to CMMI-TV and you’ll get links to other premium content, as well. Sign up here!

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.

Can the CMMI help position us for sale to an acquisition partner?

Dear CMMI Appraiser, in consideration of our long-term exit plans, we chose to adopt the CMMI last year, and are already seeing dramatic improvement, particularly with happier customers. Any advice on how we can demonstrate the value of our new CMMI-based process to potential acquisition partners? ~ Lou G.

Lou, this is something a lot of business owners struggle with. You’ve got a plan. You’ve got people identified. You’ve figured out the kind of company you want to be and the way you want to do your work. You put the plan in action, and now you want to be able to prove that it is working.

To demonstrate that your CMMI adoption is improving performance, first you need to ask yourself how YOU know it’s improving performance.

It’s amazing to me how many companies fail to do this. They deploy a process and then forget about it. They say, “OK, team, let’s start using this thing!” And then they just let it ride. Sometimes it works, and sometimes people are really suffering. And if the company has a particular focus on QA and auditing, then the auditors create all kinds of conflict with the project team because they don’t really have a good understanding whether the process works or not.

What a nightmare. That’s why being able to provide data about how well things are working is so important. Especially since you are contemplating exit strategies.

I once asked a friend of mine, who is a partner in a large M and A  firm, what constitutes the real value of a company. He said the real value of the company isn’t in its people, because people can come and go, and you can’t control that. And he said it isn’t in the products, because the products can be reproduced at any time, by anyone.

So what DOES make a company valuable?

According to my friend, who is a leader in his field, the real value of the company is the business model of that company: how you do your work, how you design software, how you write it, how you test it, and all of the intellectual property that goes into creating that product, which, by the way, is done by those very people who come and go.

Your business model is the one tool you have to compete with companies that are faster than you or more efficient than you. It’s the one part of your organization that potential acquisition partners will find more valuable than everything else.

This is actionable information.  You can (and should!) tweak your business model to demonstrate that the process working. There’s a practice in the CMMI that helps you do that, the eighth Generic Practice (also known as GP 2.8), which guides us to “Monitor and Control the Process.” With this practice, the CMMI is giving us the tools to understand how well our business process is working, and to modify it if it isn’t.

“Monitor and control” might be one of the hardest things to do, but you have to conquer this if you want to demonstrate that you are a great company.

Fortunately, this is something you can start doing right now. Just ask yourself the following questions:

How well is our team performing? How can we communicate that to leaders, especially non-agile leaders, in accounting, marketing, management and other parts of our company? How do we portray how well we are working to the people who don’t understand what we do?

I use that last question as a test, because if you have the appropriate data to tell non-technical people what you are doing, and how well you are performing, then you must have some pretty good data.

The CMMI helps you learn to tell the story of how well you are doing. It does this by first helping YOU understand how well you are doing, which keeps your company on the path of greatness. You’ll find this process of self-discovery to be a fascinating and worthwhile journey, Lou, whether you ultimately choose to take on an acquisition partner or not.

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.

Is there any software for CMMI implementation?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser, is there any software for rapid CMMI implementation? Our clients are requiring that we win a CMMI certificate within 6 months, and we are concerned about the risk of a failed implementation. Thank you in advance. ~ Rupal M.

Rupal, sorry, you can’t buy a tool for CMMI implementation because the CMMI is not something you implement, regardless of your time frame. There are some CMMI consultants who continue to advise companies that the CMMI Appraisal is a race that can be won in six months or less. But the truth is, a plaque or certificates isn't that important.  That’s not how you win the game.

So what is CMMI? The CMMI is a framework, a set of guidelines for helping you transform the culture of your company. It’s about improving and changing the way your company behaves, so that you create an environment in which the organization can manage its uniqueness in a structured way.

Make sense? That’s why you can’t bolt on a tool or devise to help you. There is no software, template, or checklist that will implement culture change, behavioral change, and embracing of continuous improvement across a large group of people. Yes, there are tools for tracking projects, or tracking improvements, but these are simply project management and measurement tools applied to process improvement.

By the same token, there is no tool that you can buy that guarantees that you can achieve any level of CMMI within any particular time frame. Tools on the market can help you manage your work, manage software, or manage requirements, and you might choose to employ them while also using the CMMI. But the CMMI is the equivalent to those tools. It does not take the place of those tools.

Try to focus on the bigger picture here, Rupal. The CMMI was intended to make your company a great company. If you focus on that perspective, on being great, doing the best you can do and being the best company you can be, external recognition like certificates and ratings and plaques and high fives will follow inevitably. Whatever Maturity Level you are achieving is simply a byproduct of being a great company.

It doesn’t work the other way around. You can’t say, “I’m going to get a certificate, and that certificate will make me a great company, whether I am or not.”

Which brings me to my final point. There is no such thing as “CMMI certificate” or “CMMI certification.” Though clients may refer to these phantom awards, the CMMI Institute does not recognize them, and – as I said above – that’s not what you want to focus on, anyway.

So I encourage you to forget about software, certificates and awards, and remember three things about the CMMI:

• The CMMI is a time-tested, industry-proven model for positive outcomes;
• The CMMI is a framework and set of guidelines for changing behaviors and changing culture;
• The CMMI allows you to do what you are already doing, better.

Employ the CMMI as a way to put your company on the path to greatness, Rupal. Success will surely follow.  And THAT's how you win the game!

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.

Is there a good book on CMMI?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser, in my former company I had a satisfying experience with the CMMI. I’ve recently joined a new organization that does not yet have the same level of clarity about the value of the CMMI for software process improvement. Is there a good book (or books) that I can share with them? ~ Fayad P.

Hey, Fayad! How cool that you’re interested in sharing what you’ve learned about the power of software process improvement and the CMMI. Here are a few of the books about CMMI that this CMMI Appraiser has put together for folks who need more clarity. Feel free to download and share!

Like you, Fayad, I find the CMMI to be highly engaging and rewarding, both personally and professionally. I’ve also found that there is no greater pleasure than to help new engineering and software professionals learn about using the CMMI as one of the tools that can help drive performance innovation, and put them on the path to greatness.

That's why I wrote these books.  Our library contains useful information about CMMI for beginners as well as seasoned practitioners of the Model. Click through to our eBooks page (http://www.broadswordsolutions.com/books/) to read the titles and descriptions.

Hope your team enjoys these quick, informative reads, Fayad, and best of luck for a successful CMMI adoption!

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.

"A process area is not a process" - what does THAT mean?

[Dear Readers, our good friend Pat O’Toole, CMMI expert and seasoned consultant, is collaborating with us on a new monthly series of CMMI-related posts, "Just the FAQs." Our goal with these posts is to provide answers to the most frequently asked questions about the CMMI, SCAMPI, engineering strategy and software process improvement. Today, Pat addresses a commonly asked question about CMMI process areas - "A process area is not a process? What does THAT mean?" Take it away, Pat! ~ the CMMI Appraiser]

Thanks, Jeff! Perhaps a bit of historical background might give you a better understanding of what this statement is intended to convey. When the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) first decided to construct the “CMM for Software,” one of the CMMI-DEV’s three predecessor models, they elicited proposed content from high quality software development organizations by convening a meeting in Pittsburgh and inviting representatives from a select group of 15-20 companies. Each representative was instructed to come prepared to discuss those practices executed on the projects and within the organization that made them “world class.”

At this meeting, each of these good practices was written on an index card and pinned on the wall for all to see (the Post-It Note equivalent of the day). The group then went through an affinity diagramming exercise, clustering like practices together in related groups. After several rounds of segmentation, these groupings eventually became the 18 key process areas of the CMM for Software, and later evolved into the 22 process areas of the CMMI-DEV.

Had it been a different group of companies, or even different representatives from the same companies, these good practices may have been grouped differently. The key process areas were simply a way to organize the identified set of 316 practices, rather than a way to perform the work. So the CMMI is simply a taxonomy of good engineering, project management, and support practices. The process areas catalogue the model’s contents; the way the practices are actually performed may be quite different.

Take Measurement and Analysis, for example. The first practice, SP 1.1 – Establish Measurement Objectives, may be performed by senior and middle management through the annual strategic and tactical planning sessions. The other practices that support goal 1, SP 1.2 – SP 1.4 – which essentially establish an infrastructure for measuring things in a repeatable way – may be performed by some organizational Metrics Group that is responsible for generating Metric Specifications for standard measures. The actual capture and consumption of measures as suggested by the four practices that support specific goal 2, however, may be performed by various:

• Project teams (e.g., project size, effort, cost and scheduled measures)
• Product teams (e.g. customer satisfaction, defect density, and mean time to failure measures)
• Process teams (e.g., trying to understand the average time it takes for a submitted requirement change request to be analyzed and dispositioned by the Change Control Board), and
• Organizational groups (e.g. Human Resources focusing on annual turnover measures and interview-to-hire ratios)

These are perfectly legitimate ways to perform the practices suggested by the Measurement and Analysis process area, but the process steps that actually support the performance of the various CMMI MA practices within a given organization may be scattered throughout various organizational and project processes – and that’s OK!

For organizations that conduct small, low complexity projects, most of the practices associated with the project management process areas (PP, PMC, SAM, IPM and RSKM) may reside in a single Project Management Process. Alternatively for extremely large and complex projects, the project may execute several processes that, collectively, cover the first specific goal of the Project Planning process area.

So cataloguing practices for a process model like the CMMI, and organizing them to perform actual work may be significantly different. Remember that you only do appraisals every three years or so, but you work on projects every single day, so organize your processes to optimize the work performed on projects, and not that performed by appraisal teams!

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

“Just the FAQs” is written/edited by Pat O’Toole and Jeff Dalton. Patrick O'Toole is Principal Consultant at PACT and Owner, PACT. 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.

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

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

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

Do I Need CMMI Training?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser, do I need CMMI training? ~ software and engineering professionals everywhere I go

Dear Readers,

Join me in the studio for today’s episode of CMMI-TV as I respond to a question I get from software and engineering professionals just about everywhere I go: "Do I need CMMI training?" Below is a video clip with my answer, followed by a synopsis of my response. Enjoy!

WHAT IS CMMI-DEV TRAINING?

The CMMI for Development training course is a 3-day class that we teach in cities like San Diego, Chicago, Detroit, Washington, DC, Philadelphia and New York City. The class is recommended for software engineers, software developers, project managers, business analysts and line managers. It is an opportunity to learn how software process improvement works, and how to improve the performance of your software or engineering organization.

WHY CONSIDER CMMI TRAINING?

• You are interested in improving software and engineering performance 
• You want an approach to remedy consistently late or over-budget projects
• You need a way to make your work sustainable or scalable

WHO IS REQUIRED TO TAKE CMMI TRAINING?

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

WHY OUR CLASSES ARE DIFFERENT

Our classes are a little bit different from some of the other CMMI training classes, because we infuse agile concepts into our classes. For example, instead of some of the standard training exercises, we include:

• How to play Planning Poker
• How to use Fibonacci sequencing for your estimates
• How to do agile program planning
• How to perform retrospective
• And many other hands-on things that you’ll want to learn to participate in today’s programs using Scrum, Kanban or other methods

WHERE TO TAKE A CLASS

Our classes are presented quarterly, with our next course being presented in Washington DC in January.

INTRODUCTION TO CMMI TRAINING: CHANTILLY, VA
January 28-30, 2014
Register for "Introduction to CMMI" in Chantilly

INTRODUCTION TO CMMI TRAINING: TROY, MI
April 8-10, 2014
Register for "Introduction to CMMI" in Troy

CMMI-TV is the free video series with the answers you’re looking for about Agile, CMMI and Performance Innovation. As a subscriber, you’ll be notified when we add new episodes to CMMI-TV and you’ll get links to other premium content, as well. Sign up here!

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.

14 CMMI Predictions for 2014!

Dear Readers,

Happy New Year!

You know, based on the comments and questions we receive throughout the year at Ask the CMMI Appraiser, it's clear to me that many of our Readers are already embracing the CMMI for the right reasons.  If that's you, it doesn't take a sooth-sayer to predict that you will continue that trend.  You'll still look at the CMMI as a tool, not a rulebook, a framework that helps you continually learn about yourself and your company, and keeps you the path to greatness, so you can be the kind of company you've always dreamed of being.  The past is prologue to a wonderful future.

But exactly what does that look like in 2014?  What practical, useful outcomes will be achieved?  Let's gaze into the mysterious orb of engineering strategy and performance improvement and find out ...

It's time for 14 CMMI predictions for 2014! 

Yes ... I see a vision emerging.  The future is becoming clear.  I see that your company -- and anyone else who wisely adopts the CMMI for the right reasons -- will experience the following 14 useful, tangible benefits in 2014:

1. You will lead your team to think about the CMMI as set of guidelines for improving performance
2. You will improve requirements churn and volatility, so that you can spend less time and money on re-work
3. Your projects will be on-time and on-budget more often
4. You will inspire your teammates to get better at what they do
5. You will understand how to deal with risk, before it hurts you
6. You will avoid having too many meetings, unhappy customers and unpredictable projects
7. You will do what you are already doing, better
8. You will learn how to deploy processes that are useful, not overhead
9. You will be a champion to your CMMI sponsors in guiding their programs
10. You will support your leadership team in facilitating strategic decisions
11. You will take appropriate action that is not heavy-handed
12. You will create less "process debt"
13. You will pursue CMMI training and embrace useful process everywhere in your company
14. You will expand your understanding of what it is to be a great company!

These are the behaviors that can help you reach for greatness, any time of year. So let's resolve to take the right approach to adopting the CMMI, and make all of these positive outcomes predictable for 2014.

From our team to yours, have a happy and prosperous New Year!

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.

Who is your Secret CMMI Santa?

Dear Readers,

'Tis the season for giving the gift of higher quality, faster delivery, and predictable, repeatable results with the CMMI, but what’s this?  If you'll scroll down, you'll see ...  Oh, my goodness, it looks like your Secret CMMI Santa left you something!

Yes, jolly Old Saint Nick must have stopped by while you were solving business problems, because there’s a red-and-green envelop here that wasn’t there before. Open it up! Let’s see what he gave you …

Tickets to the first 2 CMMI Webinars of 2014

Hey, good for you! Free admission to these two webinars is especially cool if your company is doing more with CMMI and/or Agile in 2014. Both Webinars help you learn to think about the CMMI as a set of guidelines you can use to create an environment in which your company can manage its uniqueness in a structured way, and bring about the transformation of the culture of your company.

How do I know so much? Oh, I’ll never tell. Let’s just say your Secret CMMI Santa strikes again!

WEBINAR #1 – January 17, 2014 – “Agile Resiliency: Scaling Agile so that It Thrives and Survives”

How the entire family of agile methods can be made resilient and strong through the application of the CMMI.

Register here for “Agile Resiliency: Scaling Agile so that It Thrives and Survives”!

WEBINAR #2 – February 14, 2014 – “CMMI: Everything You NEED to Know!”

How the CMMI works as an engineering strategy for addressing common business problems such as late projects, over budget projects, unhappy customers, etc.

Register here for “CMMI: Everything You NEED to Know!”

Merry Christmas!

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.

How can an extra-small company afford the CMMI?

Hey CMMI Appraiser, what advice would you give an engineering contractor in Northern Virginia with 12 FTEs that keeps losing bids on federal contracts because we don’t have a CMMI Maturity Level rating? Without the revenue from one of these contracts, we find it difficult to invest in the CMMI. Have you seen other micro companies overcome this catch-22 situation? ~ Bill R.

To read the answer, please visit www.cmmixs.com

13 unlucky ways to approach the CMMI … you have been warned!

Dear Readers,

Every year at this time, as days get shorter and nights grow longer, people all over the world light candles and string lights to make their spirits bright. But this year, as one especially dark day looms, we need more good cheer than ever. It’s Friday the 13th, 2013, double thirteens and twice the bad luck for the superstitious! Eeek!

If you’ve been following our blog for a while, you know that this CMMI Appraiser likes to keep things light. Never one to dwell on fear, I prefer to warn software and engineering professionals about things that could go wrong, so that they can be avoided. My goal is to help you stay on the brightly lit path to greatness, no matter what time of year.

Now, in my experience, there’s only one thing unluckier than Friday the 13th, and that’s trying to “implement” the CMMI. Why? Because the CMMI is not something you implement. The CMMI is better interpreted as a framework, a set of guidelines and a series of questions that help you learn more about your company and the way you do your work.

Taking an improper “implementation” approach to adopting the CMMI can be worse than having a black cat cross your path while walking under a ladder AND breaking a mirror, all at the same time! It ALWAYS leads to process failure.

Fear not. To help you spot the dangers and avoid the perils of an improper CMMI adoption, here’s a handy list of 13 extremely UNLUCKY ways to approach the CMMI:

1. Buying a tool that promises “CMMI compliance in six months or less”
2. Hiring a "CMMI Preparation" consultant who is helping you "create the evidence"
3. Having no idea why you’re “doing CMMI,” but you’re doing it anyway
4. Retaining a CMMI consultant to “do CMMI” to you
5. Thinking that the CMMI is about getting a CMMI certificate or achieving a CMMI Maturity Level, although that certainly can be an outcome
6. Listening to a so-called CMMI Consultant who says things like, “The CMMI makes you do it.” 
7. Listening to a so-called CMMI Consultant who says, “The CMMI Institute makes you do it.”
8. Two minutes after achieving Level Two, asking your team, “When is Level Three?”
9. Saying, “We need to go right to Level Five (or Four, or Three)”
10. Ordering your team to go “get a level” by Tuesday
11. Failing to capture data about whether or not your team is benefiting from the CMMI
12. Blindly following your parent company’s binder full of processes (we've got "binders full of 'em!")
13. Having no faith that new behaviors can be learned

The horrors! Now the good news. To avoid bad luck of an improper CMMI adoption, simply change the way you think about adopting the CMMI.

Here are four PROPER approaches to adopting the CMMI that are sure to bring good luck:

1. Thinking of the CMMI as an organizational improvement model that can help your company be more powerful and productive
2. Thinking of the CMMI as an excellent tool to improve software and engineering product development, and one that is extremely useful in lighter, agile environments, as well as in larger, structured organizations
3. Thinking of the CMMI as a model that's about how great companies perform, regardless of their size or industry
4. Thinking of the CMMI as an ongoing celebration, a framework for being joyful in the quest for becoming a great company!

So you see, you don’t have to be lucky to get the benefit of the CMMI. You just need to understand that if you focus on CMMI certification, you end up losing all of the value of the CMMI. You end up chasing paper, not improvements.

Instead, I urge everyone to focus on the fact that the value of the CMMI comes from the transformation of the culture of your company. Understand that the CMMI is about changing the way we behave, so that we build products that are better than other companies that are building similar products.

That’s the best and brightest approach to adopting the CMMI … on this day, or any other.

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.

Do we need measures for every Process Area if we want to be Maturity Level Three?

Dear Appraiser,

When being appraised for CMMI Level 3 do we need to have one or more measures of EVERY PA or can we just measure the things we actually need to? ~Nabeel.

Nabeel,

Thank you for reading!  Interesting question.

Every-time some asks me this I brace myself for the many people who will write in to disagree with me!  This is a subject that people feel very strongly about, and I'm always afraid of starting a religious war….

So, let me go put on my armor, pick pick out my favorite sword, and I'll be right back….

….. OK, I'm back (albeit a little bit heavier)….

I think you're on to something when you say "things we actually need."  It's important that a company establish measures that reflect the information needs that are required to be a great company.  In fact, the CMMI explicitly states that you should "Develop and Sustain a Measurement Capability Used to Support Management Information Needs."

What does this mean?

It means that only you and your management can determine what your company can benefit from.  Not a consultant.  Not a model.  Not an instructor.  So, I'll agree *somewhat* with the statement implied by your question.

However…..

In order to fully grasp the intent of the CMMI, you need to understand that it was developed as a research project.  And that project examined the successful implementations of many projects at many companies, and came to some conclusions about patterns and practices.

In my experience, many companies (and their management), don't really have any idea WHAT their management information needs are.  As a CIO myself, I often learned about some new technique, measure, or process that I had not been using, only to say "Wow, that is something I REALLY need to do!"

So goes the CMMI.  It catalogues many of the attributes of a measurement "program" that were seen at other great companies, and makes suggestions for how you might use them.

Note that the CMMI doesn't tell you that you need to measure EVERYTHING.  It starts by asking the question, "what are your objectives?" (MA SP1.1).  This should drive everything.  Typical objectives are "projects need to be on time, on budget," "risks should be kept to a minimum," "growth should be at n%," recalls should be below n%," and so on.  The more you can quantify it, the better.

But the Process Areas also give you a hint into what you should measure.  Look at VER SP2.3 - which discusses analyzing the results of peer reviews.  That implies a measure.  Look at GP2.8, "Monitor and Control….", that implies one also (and appears in every process area).

Let's take that one on for a second.  You didn't say it, but I suspect GP2.8 is the one you are referring to when you asked your question. There are many Lead Appraisers who insist that this practice means you must have a measure for each process area.  This isn't exactly true.  The CMMI isn't a requirements document - it's supposed to be interpreted so that it provides the most value for the user. There was a time when this measurement requirement was the conventional approach (back in the SW-CMM days), and even early in the CMMI life-cycle it was carried over, but this was clarified in version 1.3 of the model to read:

"GP2.8 Monitor and Control the Process"

It goes on to say "…. can involve measuring appropriate attributes…."  Neither the  Goal (required) or the practice (expected) say "must."

The sub-practices provide additional data with phrases like "evaluate actual progress," "review accomplishments," "review activities," "identify problems," etc…

I would start by turning each instance of GP2.8 into a question: "How do I know our requirements change process is working well?"  "How do I know that our estimating process is effective?" And so on.

If the answer requires a metric, then so be it.  If you have another creative solution, then by all means use that too!

In other words, measurement should be PART of the toolset you use to monitor and control your process, and there is a very high likelihood that you will have a healthy collection of process performance measures, but it's not the only tool you can use.

In the end it's not important exactly what the mix of tools is - but I WILL ask you to answer that question when I appraise your organization, so be ready!

Good luck!

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.

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.

Do we need CMMI training prior to our CMMI Appraisal?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser – the company I work for is interested improving software and engineering performance as a way to add rigor and discipline to our work in 2014. To that end, management has decided to pursue a CMMI Maturity Level 2 rating, and I’ve been asked to be a team member on a CMMI Appraisal (SCAMPI Appraisal) in May. Do I need CMMI training first? ~ Juno K.

Hey, Juno, congratulations on being asked to join the Appraisal Team! Yes, you are required to participate in a CMMI training course before you can be a team member on a CMMI appraisal. Below are two upcoming CMMI training courses that we are offering in 2014. Additional courses are available through the CMMI Institute.

Before you sign up for anything, however, it will help you to get clear on WHY you’re doing this. The goal of adopting the CMMI – or any other performance innovation initiative – is not to add rigor or discipline, although that is an outcome. The goal is to learn as much as we can about improving and changing the way we behave as a company. Make the change, and rigor and discipline are sure to follow.

In my business, I’m fortunate to work with a team of Performance Improvement and CMMI consultants who are passionate about helping organizations like yours transform their company culture. We start by helping teams learn to approach the rigor and discipline of CMMI in a light and agile way that we call agileCMMI. This approach is based on three core facts about CMMI:

1. CMMI is a tool that can help solve business problems 
2. CMMI is a framework and set of guidelines for changing behaviors and changing culture
3. CMMI is a time-tested, industry-proven model for positive outcomes

As you can imagine, it’s not just Appraisal Team members who need to know this for your CMMI adoption to be successful. I’ve found that CMMI training courses are an ideal experience for any executive, project manager, engineer, software developer, line manager, analyst, tester, or process or quality professional who would benefit from learning how to use the CMMI to make software and engineering performance even better. So you may want to encourage your management to send others from the company to CMMI training, as well.

Here are two of our upcoming courses. Click the links below for more details and to register for CMMI training in 2014:

INTRODUCTION TO CMMI TRAINING: CHANTILLY, VA
January 28-30, 2014
Register for "Introduction to CMMI" in Chantilly

INTRODUCTION TO CMMI TRAINING: TROY, MI
April 8-10, 2014
Register for "Introduction to CMMI" in Troy

See you in 2014!

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.

Can you recommend a good conference on Software Process Improvement?

Hi, Jeff – we’re an IT services and software development company in Maryland. Traditionally, we have not been “conference types,” but we did attend SEPGNA in Pittsburgh in October, and got a lot out of it.  Can you recommend any other conferences on the East Coast that deal with new technologies and proven methods? ~ Susan W.

Susan,

Yes, here’s a conference that may be perfect for you. QUEST 2014 takes place in Baltimore in April. If you haven’t heard of QUEST, it is known throughout North America as a reliable source of information and inspiration for business leaders and engineers who are interested in Quality Engineered Software and Testing. The QUEST team is doing an awesome job at putting the show together. I’m honored that they’ve selected me to be this year’s Keynote Speaker.

What: QUEST 2014 Conference and Expo
When: April 7-11, 2014
Where: Baltimore, Maryland
How to register: http://www.qaiquest.org/2014/registration/pricing

On Thursday, April 10 from 1:00 PM – 1:45 PM, I will be sharing innovative engineering strategies for helping organizations learn to strengthen and reinforce agile values, methods and techniques, so that agile can scale. My Keynote Presentation is entitled, “Agile Resiliency: How CMMI Will Make Agile Thrive and Survive.” If you liked my talk in October, you’ll love this!

But there are plenty of other reasons to go. You’ll meet thought leaders, evangelists, innovative practitioners, and IT professionals like you who are on a quest to learn more about building, testing and delivering quality software. And you’ll experience an action-packed week of classes, tutorials, educational sessions, hands-on workshops, discussions groups and networking events.

Here is more information about QUEST 2014:

Learning and Networking Opportunities:

• Thought-provoking presentations and workshops in five concurrent tracks plus EXPO Talks
• In-depth skills building classes and tutorials
• QAI’s exclusive Manager’s Solutions Workshop
• Discussion groups and expert chats on today’s hottest topics
• Fun and memorable networking events that are not to be missed

World Class EXPO

• Meet top product and service providers in the EXPO exhibition hall
• Attend short talks on the latest technologies, methods, and tools
• Win fantastic raffle prizes

Registration and Discounts

• Flexible registration packages
• Save with Group Registration and QAI Community Discounts
• Special room rates at the official conference hotel

I’m glad you got something out of my presentation at SEPGNA, Susan. Thanks to enthusiastic participants like you, I’ve been voted a "Top Ten Speaker" at multiple SEPG conferences, and was selected as the keynote speaker of the International Conference on CMMI in Lima, Peru in 2010 and again at the PMI Great Lakes 2013 Symposium. I’m really looking forward to resuming the conversation at QUEST 2014 with people like you who get it.

Hope to see you in April!

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.

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

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

Take it away Jeff!

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

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

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

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

Yikes!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How can CMMI give us more visibility into Scrum projects?

Hey, CMMI Appraiser – I run a CMMI Maturity Level 3 rated IT firm in Fairfax, Virginia. We recently made the shift to start using agile methods on certain projects, but it is very difficult for me to see what was going on. The teams all tell me "don't worry," and fortunately, Scrum seems to be working. But how can I get more visibility to make the results more sustainable and repeatable? ~ Ryan H.

Hey Ryan,

I feel your pain.  As a former CIO and VP of Engineering I suffered from the same problem when Scrum first started to come online.  I wish more executives of companies using traditional software development methods had your open mind to solving business problems. Your desire for more visibility is the right question to ask.

But first let’s understand what you’re up against. Like most obstacles in business, it comes down to the inability to get good information. You can’t make good business decisions without good information, and right now, it sounds like your Scrum teams are leaving you in the dark.

Why is this happening?  It's not that they are cruel and unusual -- well, maybe some are a BIT unusual.  But the real reason is that Scrum teams operate very differently from the rest of the company. They tend to be self-organizing, independent, process-light, and quick to adapt. They have an iterative and incremental way of getting work done, which typically does not include things like weekly status reporting and weekly meetings. Most of them don’t even have a project manager (Eeeek!).

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

Since you've already adopted the CMMI at your company, one solution is to integrate Scrum and CMMI. At my company, Broadsword, we do just that. We strengthen Scrum with the CMMI, based on the needs of our company.

For example, let’s take one popular aspect of Scrum, the Daily Stand-up. As you know, Scrum Teams opt for Daily Stand-ups as opposed to the traditional sit-down status meetings. We don't want to change that because it's a powerful construct for communications and risk management. Instead, we want to use the CMMI as a framework to make sure we are talking, in a very light and agile way, about things in the Daily Stand-up that are really important. And most importantly, that we are sharing that information with the right people in the company!

Applying the guidance of the CMMI to the Daily Stand-up gives us two major advantages. One, 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 in real-time. We understand it early, and we understand it often. And two, 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.

Let me be clear. If you like your daily stand-ups you can keep them. Period.

The CMMI doesn't change that. But it can make them a little better - and everyone wants that.

This is just a glimpse of all you can do with agile and CMMI, Ryan. For more information on getting CMMI and Scrum to work together, I encourage you to check out my article, "CMMI vs. Scrum? NO! CMMI + Scrum!" The article, originally published in the Cutter IT Journal last year. It is now available for download to all of our loyal readers.

Click HERE to access the article – and good have fun scaling agile!

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.