Picking a Lead Appraiser: "Dammit, Jim! I'm a doctor not a bricklayer."

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.

Worse than Worthless . . .

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.

It all goes back to the many ways in which CMMI can be done poorly and the few, simple, but hard work ways in which it can be done correctly.

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:

1. Do something stupid, or
2. 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."

Everything you thought you knew about CMMI is (probably) wrong.

What most people (80/20) seem to "know" about CMMI and the SCAMPI appraisal method comes from what people learned and how they used CMM and CMMI in the early adoption phase.

However, instead of innovating and using engineering to create appropriate processes, they just reused old and often poorly-fitting processes and approaches to situations they never dreamed of in the 1980s.

Even people with positive experiences with CMM/CMMI tell us that we challenge what they once believed to be “true” of CMMI … but that they’re relieved because many always felt that what they thought was “true” made little sense.

Recommend:

• Entinex CMMI Crash Course™ (Slides, Description)
• CMMI FAQ

Next week: 

Your people with prior CMM/CMMI experience are probably worse than worthless, they'll probably cause you to fail.