A starting point for a discussion on marrying Agile methods and CMMI.More Good Agile CMMI news…
Posted by Hillel on Nov 18, 2006 in Uncategorized | Comments Off
Check out this news from Brad Swanson’s blog.
As you read, please keep the following in mind:
The company was already very mature at using agile methods. It’s likely that their maturity in their own processes enabled their capability to affect process improvement (which, afterall, is what CMMI is really about). So, it’s not that agile ALONE facilitated their CMMI ML4 rating, it’s that they were good at what they did, had a culture of discipline to keep at it and that alone probably got them all the way through ML3. What ML4 provided was the ability to manage their projects and their processes statistically. Now *that* takes some doing!
Brad is right that many companies achieve high maturity levels (i.e., 4 & 5) using smoke and mirrors. And, the SEI is attempting to crack down on that (personally, I’m not sure their approach will entirely work).
Although… to get ML4 in two years is very very unusual. Readers should be warned that the SEI *is* likely to investigate that appraisal.
On the other hand, if it can be shown that mature agile methods allowed the company to get to ML4 in two years, you can bet it will open a flood of interest in agile from the “traditionalists”.
Way to go!
Hillel
My professional passion is to build high performance organizations out of companies motivated to be lean, agile, and achieve world-class results. My best clients are companies who have the courage, leadership, insight, foresight and discipline to be the best places to work, the best value to their customers and the best performing for their shareholders. I take a tough love approach and, frankly, have little patience for executives who *want* these things but expect to achieve them without putting in any effort or making any changes.
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