Covers understanding CMMI, Picking a consultant/lead appraiser & what to do if you picked poorly, and, how to make yourself less at the mercy of your appraiser or the need for consultants.

1. CMMI Guide
to the Perplexed
With All Due Respect to Maimonides
3/25/2009

2. Many things about CMMI Can Be
Perplexing
 What perplexes you?
 What’s actually “required”?
 How to understand/use CMMI appropriately.
 How far can interpretation be stretched?
 OK already! Agile and CMMI can co-exist. But how?
 What about all the redundancies?
 How to choose a consultant or appraiser.
loser consultant/appraiser.
 How to avoid picking a
 If you already picked a loser, how to defend your
processes and artifacts.
 How to work with CMMI without the need to work
with a (loser) consultant.
2
3/25/2009
®2009 Entinex, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ***PROPRIETARY***

3. What perplexes you?
3
3/25/2009
®2009 Entinex, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ***PROPRIETARY***

4. What’s actually “required”?
 Process Areas
 Specific Goals
Required
 Specific Practices
 Generic Goals
 Generic Practices
Expected
4
3/25/2009
®2009 Entinex, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ***PROPRIETARY***

5. How to understand/use CMMI
appropriately. (1)
UNDERSTAND MODELS
5
3/25/2009
®2009 Entinex, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ***PROPRIETARY***

6. How to understand/use CMMI
appropriately. (2)
YOUR CMMI’s practices
for IMPROVING
activities to
MAKE stuff how you make
& DELIVER stuff & deliver
services. services.
Diagrams not to scale.
6
3/25/2009
®2009 Entinex, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ***PROPRIETARY***

7. … In Other Words and Therefore:
 You need to know what you’re doing before CMMI can
help.
 How you manage projects, develop products, & define your
standards are yours.
 Not all projects or processes are good candidates for
improvement with CMMI.
 Pursuit of Maturity Levels is likely to cause non-value-added
work to some of your projects and processes.
 That’s why CMMI emphasizes the business value of the
improvements.
 PAs are called Process Areas and not processes because
they are areas of process activities.
 Regardless of where & when they might appear on a
project.
7
3/25/2009
®2009 Entinex, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ***PROPRIETARY***

8. How far can interpretation be s-t-
r-e-t-c-h-e-d?
 Ask the question(s) backwards:
How do you Which of your
What are avoid the outputs do
you doing risks what you do
Does it
do
CMMI?
 What does the CMMI expect you to accomplish?
Read the informative material!
8
3/25/2009
®2009 Entinex, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ***PROPRIETARY***

9. OK already! Agile and CMMI can co-
exist. But how?
Extreme
Extreme
Optimized Optimized
Core
Agile
Core Core
Principles
Agile CMMI
Principles Principles
9
3/25/2009
®2009 Entinex, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ***PROPRIETARY***

10. CMMI & Agile
Manifesto and CMMI.
 Be honest with the
 Systems Engineering: Components of the system are
necessarily sub-optimized to optimize the system.
 Allow the “balance” to be fluid and dynamic.
systems engineering
 Process design is a
exercise, NOT a compliance drill!
 Optimization is context-driven. What’s the business
reason for the process / improvement?
both Agility and Discipline
 Being fully committed to
requires being a learning organization, not
pathologically box-checking one.
10
3/25/2009
®2009 Entinex, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ***PROPRIETARY***

11. What about all the redundancies?
 Redundancies were necessary to facilitate the organic
(continuous) growth.
 You are not required to be redundant.
improvement!
 That would be antithetical to
 Ex. There doesn’t have to be a difference between
how you validate requirements or work products for
your products and services compared to how it’s
done for work products of the project.
11
3/25/2009
®2009 Entinex, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ***PROPRIETARY***

12. How to choose a consultant or
appraiser.
 “Know your (CMMI) stuff”.
 Knowledge is power.
 Become (or get) an expert in CMMI/SCAMPI.
 Pilot your consultant/lead.
 Try before you buy.
 Don’t “buy” the entire “package” in the beginning.
 Like a doctor, seek a 2nd opinion.
 Hire a different consultant for a training component, or
for implementation, or for a SCAMPI C or B.
 Ask for and follow-up on references.
 Lurk on discussion boards and Google for
publications/work.
 PARS (http://sas.sei.cmu.edu/pars/)
12
3/25/2009
®2009 Entinex, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ***PROPRIETARY***

13. How to avoid picking a loser
consultant/appraiser.
 Define “loser”. Someone who …
 Is a pathological box-checker.
 Can’t relate to you.
 Can’t think “out of the box”.
 “One-trick pony.”
 Inflexible/Unreasonable (where the model and
methods would otherwise allow)
 Poor communication skills.
 Use your heart, not your head.
 Interview by what’s important, not shallow
cost/schedule.
 If cost/schedule are #1 priority, give up now.
13
3/25/2009
®2009 Entinex, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ***PROPRIETARY***

14. Avoiding losers
 Questions to ask:
 Explain to you what the generic practices do in a way
that you can use.
 Describe a typical engagement flow.
 Give them a real issue you’re facing and ask them
what they’d recommend you do about it.
 Provide some processes of yours which are troubling
you (and/or process areas) and to ask them how
they'd interpret and implement CMMI to address your
situation.
14
3/25/2009
®2009 Entinex, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ***PROPRIETARY***

15. More Loser Avoidance
 What to look/listen for:
 Talking more about you than themselves.
 Taking ownership of your needs and business.
 Trying to figure out what makes most business sense?
 Looking for ways to save you time, money, energy?
 Looking to ensure your effort goes smoothly and meets your
needs?
 Mindful of you/your staff’s limitations on resources.
 Talking business and value not compliance.
 Relates to your
situation, context, technology, market, customers and
approach.
 Seem to be “giving away” a lot of free help.
Using SEI as an excuse or scapegoat.
“Requiring” things not required by CMMI/SCAMPI.
SCAMPI C for ML2 takes 2 weeks.
15
3/25/2009
®2009 Entinex, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ***PROPRIETARY***

16. If you already picked a loser, how to
defend your processes and artifacts.
Required from your Expected.
 Know your
 Understand model intent.
 Understand and demonstrate your context.
 Start with known/defined processes.
 If you’re worried, throw a SCAMPI C or B
 Don't let your SCAMPI A be your first experience with a
disconcerting LA.
 Hire a trusted consultant/LA to prepare/participate on SCAMPI.
 Know and Tell your PIID story effectively
 Starts with ensuring you've properly interpreted the model.
 The model is predominantly common sense, if something
doesn't make sense you’re probably not interpreting it
correctly.
16
3/25/2009
®2009 Entinex, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ***PROPRIETARY***

17. How to work with CMMI without the
need to work with a (loser) consultant.
 Gain expertise/experience in:
 Project Management
 Process Improvement
 TQM
 Lean
 Engineering
 Understand and define the distinctions:
 Process areas, processes, and procedures,
 Standards,
 Project activities vs. Development/Service Activities
 Use CMMI to improve the above,
not define the above.
17
3/25/2009
®2009 Entinex, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ***PROPRIETARY***

18. Summary
 Understand Models, in general.
 Be honest with the core values of Agile and CMMI.
 Grow your expertise in TQM, Lean, and Change.
 Get a handle on how you manage projects, develop
products and services and use CMMI to improve
them, not define them.
 Interview for values and principles, not impersonal
traits.
18
3/25/2009
®2009 Entinex, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ***PROPRIETARY***

19. Questions/Discussion
19
3/25/2009
®2009 Entinex, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ***PROPRIETARY***

20. Contact
20
3/25/2009
®2009 Entinex, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ***PROPRIETARY***