Just a few thoughts on some questions to pose as a sort of “guide” for whether or not you might expect benefits and value from using CMMI. These also have the benefit of helping CMMI be implemented in a more lean/agile approach.
When implementing CMMI, Are you seeking . . .
Improvement or Compliance?
Empowerment or Definition?
Clarity & Awareness or Constraints & Rigidity?
Bottom-up input or Top-down direction?
To understand whether what you’re doing is working? or Whether you’re doing what the process says?
In this case, we also value the things on the left more.
The things on the right are a longer road, with questionable benefits and many risks. The things on the left get you to benefits and value sooner with less carnage and baggage.
In this quote, CAPT Kirk wants Dr. Bones McCoy to do something he feels he’s not-qualified to do because he doesn’t know how to treat the species.
I’m using it to explain that organizations looking for a lead appraiser to work with them towards an appraisal and/or to perform an appraisal ought to think of what we do as they would think of a doctor, not a laborer or vendor.
Do you really want the lowest price doctor?
For that matter, is the highest price doctor necessarily the best in town?
When reaching out and interviewing for a lead appraiser or CMMI consultant, you:
Want the person who is the right person for the job.
Want someone who is qualified (definitely not under-, but preferably not over- either).
Not the lowest bid.
Seriously, whoever you hire for this effort has in their power the ability to make or break your future. They literally have the health and well-being of your organization in their hands. They can put you in the dump just as easily as they can take you to the next level.
They should see themselves that way as well.
Unfortunately I’ve got too many sad stories of appraisers/consultants who definitely see that they can make or break you, but they don’t feel like they personally own the responsibility for what happens to you when they’re done.
If it costs too much? So what? If you get no value? Not their problem. Didn’t see any benefit? Didn’t learn anything? Things take longer and cost more and you’re not seeing internal efficiencies improve? YOU must be doing something wrong, not them.
In an AgileCMMI approach, your CMMI consultant and/or lead appraiser would see themselves as and act like a coach, and would put lean processes and business value ahead of anything else. And, an AgileCMMI approach would know that when the processes work, they add value; when they add value people like them and use them; when people like and use them, the next “level” is a big no-brainer-nothing. You get it in your sleep.
Let me know if you want help finding the right lead appraiser or consultant.
Your people with prior CMM/CMMI experience are probably worse than worthless, they’ll probably cause you to fail.
Why?
Because what they (or you) think they (or you) know is probably wrong and the advice you’re getting, the expectations being generated are entirely off base.
Every time I meet with a new prospect I’m confronted with reams of inaccurate assumptions and assertions about what it will take to implement CMMI and how am I expected to “do all that” and still claim to be “agile”.
My simple answer: I’m not going to do all that. And, you shouldn’t be doing it either.
Seriously, you’ve got to wonder about executives who will force their company into doing stupid things for the sake of a rating instead of doing their homework to learn about CMMI before they head out on an implementation journey.
A recent client didn’t know any better. They hired a consultant and an appraiser to evaluate their work against CMMI and to help them prepare for a SCAMPI appraisal. Unfortunately, they got as far as the appraisal only to realize they weren’t going to get the target Maturity Level. (I won’t get into some of the inappropriate behavior of the firm they hired.)
However, when this client was confronted with:
Do something stupid, or
Find a better way to do something smart.
They took option B and found a consultant and an appraiser who understood their context and found how to both be on a disciplined improvement path while also remaining true to their own business.
Fortunately for them, this client had a strong engineering backbone and knew what they did worked and were confident in their processes. Many companies have a while before they can claim that much.
Next week:
Picking a Lead Appraiser: “Dammit, Jim! I’m a doctor not a bricklayer.”
The opinions expressed here are the authors' and contributors' and do not express a position on the subject from the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) or any company or SEI Partner affiliated with the SEI.
Your Host
Hillel Glazer Principal & CEO Entinex, Inc. Email me.
