Achieving a Maturity Level Without a Consultant or Training

I was wondering if it is possible to go it alone with CMMI Maturity Level 2. I have been told by many that attempting CMMI Maturity Level 2 without a consultant or highly trained staff would be somewhat challenging. What are your thoughts?

Also, having limited resources for process improvement being a strong possibility, do you have any recommendations for online sources that can help offset the costs?

Though it is entirely possible to implement the CMMI without hiring a CMMI consultant, that is a high risk approach. Though I don’t see how you could avoid taking the Introduction to CMMI training class. That, in my opinion, would be a huge mistake. There are some areas in the CMMI that are open to interpretation when trying to go it alone and you can end up doing things in the spirit of achieving Maturity Level 2 that have no business value to you. In addition, since your organization has to provide 4 to 8 appraisal team members, each appraisal team member must take the SEI’s Introduction to CMMI class.

These are all worthwhile expenditures of your process improvement budget. And when you compare these expenses to your internal costs for process improvement, these are usually negligible in comparison.

But if you are trying to do things as cheaply as possible, that begs the question, why are you even considering implementing the CMMI and trying to achieve Maturity Level 2? Basically you get what you pay for. Going the cheap route doesn’t demonstrate management commitment to process improvement and can result in wasted effort, wasted money, and an aborted process improvement initiative.

Shortened CMMI Explanation

I have just started CMMI in my organization. I am looking for the shortened explanation for each of the CMMI Process Areas. I then plan to preach CMMI in much simpler, easy to understand language which would be like bulleted points. I also intend to offer seminars in my organization with different departments to make them understand what exactly do they are required to do. If you can help me, I would be very thankful.

I applaud your initiative and your plans. The best advice that I can give you is to take the SEI’s 3-day Introduction to CMMI class. That class will provide you with the necessary information for you to craft a shortened version for your organization. As an alternative, you can read the CMMI. The introduction of each Process Area provides a short explanation of the intent of each Process Area. But if you do not have any background with the CMMI, hire a CMMI consultant and explain to him or her your needs and have them help you prepare the training material you desire. What you are asking for is not free. It takes time and effort to produce and is a consultant's intellectual property.

Covering SAM SP2.2 and SP2.3

I want to ask you about CMMI Supplier Agreement Management (SAM) SP 2.2 Monitor Selected Supplier Processes and SP 2.3 Evaluate Selected Supplier Work Products. I have difficulty in understanding these practices and how to apply them in my company. We have a project that needs to buy new hardware and deliver it to customer.

How can I select and monitor supplier processes in this case?

Can you please explain that to me and give me an example of a supplier process that is applicable in our situation?

The best way to answer this question is to attend the SEI’s Introduction to CMMI 3-day class. During the SAM topic the instructor will explain the difference between these two practices for you. I would also suggest that you read the informative material in the SAM Process Area, for not just these two practices, but all of the Process Areas. The informative material is extremely rich in information, hints, tips, etc. and it provides guidance for understanding the intent of each practice and goal. I would also recommend that you not use the goal and practice titles for anything other than labels. The titles are shortened statements and do not always communicate the correct meaning of the goal or practice.

If you read the informative material for SAM SP 2.2 and SP 2.3 it will be immediately clear to you the differences. And if you still have questions regarding your specific circumstances, I suggest that you ask your SEI-certified Lead Appraiser. Without having a good understanding of your company and how it conducts business, asking specific implementation questions will most likely not provide the correct advice to you.

However, here is a very brief description of the differences between these two practices.

SAM SP 2.2 “Select, monitor, and analyze processes used by the supplier.” You as the acquirer of the supplier’s products or services must define in the supplier’s contract or agreement those specific supplier processes that are critical to your success. You have to state how and when you will be monitoring these critical processes. This practice is done as a risk mitigation to avoid surprises at the end of the contract when the supplier delivers the end product or service. Think of this practice as the acquirer performing PPQA process audits of the supplier’s processes.

SAM SP 2.3 “Select and evaluate work products from the supplier of custom-made products.” If your supplier is only delivering off-the-shelf product to you without any customization, this practice does not apply. However, if your supplier is providing custom-made or modifications to your specifications, then you need to decide which of these products are critical to your success and define those in the supplier’s contract or agreement. You have to state how and when you will be evaluating the products. Think of this practice as the acquirer performing PPQA work product audits of the supplier’s work products.

Importance of the Sub-Practices

I am trying to explain to a organization that they need to look at the sub-practice areas and make sure that the artifacts for the SCAMPI A also answer the subpractice areas. I understand that the subpractice area are a detailed description that provides guidance.

Has the organization been trained on the SEI’s 3-day Intro to CMMI class? The CMMI instructor should have explained and emphasized the role of the informative material (e. g., sub-practices). And in the words of Rusty Young, this material is “informative” NOT “ignorative.” Another way to look at the informative material is if it has no value to the model, there is no point in including it. Then the model would only consist of goal and practice statements, which would only take about 10 pages to document. The sub-practices are provided to help the reader understand the intent of the practice and goal statements.

HOWEVER, in a SCAMPI A appraisal the appraisal team will only be evaluating the required (goals) and expected (practices) components of the model, NOT the informative material (sub-practices et. al.) So you would be mistaken if you required the organization to provide evidence (Direct and Indirect) for the sub-practices. The organization only provides evidence for the goals and practices in a SCAMPI A.

Requesting Processes and Assets

I have read your CMMI blog. Can I have some draft CMMI process documentation? I would like to learn and implement the process.

There is no such thing as a set of documented CMMI processes that can be provided for a company, though some unscrupulous consultants will try to sell you a set. Rather, there are industry accepted standards for documenting processes, such as ETVX. These process documentation standards are easily available by searching on the internet. The actual processes for REQM , PP, PMC, SAM, MA, PPQA, CM, etc. are a function of the organization’s business and its practices, though there is some commonality across companies and organizations. However, this commonality exists at the CMMI level. The CMMI is a set of guidelines for process improvement. The implementation of these guidelines will differ from organization to organization. The best advice that I can give you is to document all of your current business practices using an industry accepted process documentation standard, avoiding the temptation to improve the process. By simply documenting your existing processes, you will discover opportunities for improvement, but don’t make them at this point. Just document the process as it is currently practiced. Once you have all of your processes documented, then compare the results to the CMMI, add the missing practices, and address any improvement opportunities. Then you will have a set of processes that your employees will have ownership of and will also comply with the CMMI.

And, if you are interested in learning more about the CMMI, take the SEI-licensed Introduction to CMMI class from an SEI-authorized instructor.

Upcoming Events of Interest

This Spring has a number of events of interest to readers of the PPQC Blog.

In March 2009, I will be presenting a paper titled Challenges with Implementing the CMMI in Small Settings at the 2009 SEPG North America Conference in San Jose, CA. http://www.sei.cmu.edu/sepgna/2009/

I will be presenting Session ID 2075 on Thursday morning, March 26, 2009. If you will be attending the Conference, please make plans to attend my presentation.


If you can't make it to San Jose in March, perhaps you will be able to attend the CMMI Made Practical conference in London April 28 - 29, 2009. I will be making a presentation titled A Practical Approach to Defining Useful Measures on April 29. http://www.cmminews.com/


And lastly, if all else fails, I will be teaching a public offering the SEI's Introduction to CMMI class, plus PPQC's Overview of Requirements Management in Stuttgart, Germany May 18 - 21, 2009. If you need to take the Introduction to CMMI class to help you implement the model in your organization or if you will be on an appraisal team, here is your opportunity to take the class in Germany's sixth largest city while enjoying its many hills, valleys, and parks in the evening. You can register for this class at PPQC's German partner KT-BITS' web site.

http://www.kt-bits.net/ If you attend one of these events, please be sure to introduce yourself. I certainly look forward to meeting you at one of these events.

Does anyone have an example of how everything flows together?

I'm looking for a work flow diagram or something of that nature that shows how all of the Level 2 and Level 3 Process areas and associated work products flow together. I'm talking about some sort of diagram or chart that shows a regular waterfall development lifecycle found in a software environment and where each Process area, and it's work products fit into that scenario.

Since the CMMI is a set of guidelines for process improvement, there is no single way of tying everything together. It is highly dependent on how you have implemented the model in your organization. Have you taken the SEI’s Intro to CMMI 3-day class? If so, then you have seen diagrams that sort of address your request. These diagrams also appear in Chapter 4 of the CMMI book. There is a whole series of these diagrams that illustrate how the Process Areas (PAs) are interconnected and the types of information that flow between the PAs. These figures only show possible interactions between the PAs and are not the only way to do things.

Achieving CMMI Level 2

I am a junior in the field of SQA. I need help about the implementation of CMMI. I want to implement CMMI in the organization Iam working for. I need to know the names of the documents needed to achieve CMMI level 2. And it will be very beneficial for me if I could find out the templates of the documents.

The best advice that I can give you is to take the SEI’s 3-day Introduction to CMMI class. That class will provide you the basics for understanding what you need to do to achieve Maturity Level 2.

A very important concept to understand is that there ISN’T any canned set of documents or templates that you have to have in order to achieve Maturity Level 2. The specific processes you need to document and the associated process assets are a function of the work you perform and the methodology you use to produce your products. I would also suggest that you hire an SEI-authorized Lead Appraiser/consultant to help you understand how to implement the model and achieve Maturity Level 2.

An alternative is to read some of the many books that have been written on how to implement the CMMI. Just look at Amazon for some ideas.

ML 2/ML 3 Measurement Objectives

For a Maturity Level 3 organization , is it acceptable if the organization sets its process performance objectives qualitatively? For example reduce testing cycle time , improve productivity, etc. and in OPF SG1, one of sub-practices states that process performance objectives may be expressed either quantitatively or qualitatively. Also would you please explain this clarification linking to ML2- MA - SP 1.1 - Establish measurement objective?

These are good questions, but the best way to receive a decent understanding of the concepts it to attend the SEI’s Introduction to the CMMI class. Intro to CMMI course description Brief answers, such as mine in this blog, will probably only raise more questions that would be better addressed in a classroom setting.

1. Only for High Maturity organizations (ML 4 and 5) is there an expectation for quantitatively setting process performance objectives. It is acceptable at ML 3 for qualitative objectives. But to fully understand this distinction you really require a good discussion on the expectations for each Maturity Level, which you would receive in the Intro to CMMI class.
   
2. A measurement objective is different from a process performance objective. The measurement objectives are the purposes for which measurement and analysis is performed and also specify what kinds of actions may be taken as a result of data analyses. In order to determine the measurement objectives, you first have to describe the information needs. An information need is an insight necessary to manage objectives, goals, issues, risks, and problems. The measurement objective is derived from the information need and it is a statement about what should be measured in order to satisfy the information need. For example, the project manager or other decision maker concerned with allocating budget and associated resources to a task may believe that productivity is related to the type of task being performed. Increasing productivity is then the measurement objective that addresses the defined information need. Determining productivity then requires that entities such as the product and the process be measured. There are many ways that productivity can be computed, but the measurement objective is unaffected by the different methods.

To fully understand these concepts you should take a class on Measurement and Analysis or Practical Software Measurement. Trying to explain these concepts in a paragraph or two does not do the subject justice.

Query on ML 3 and ML 4

What is the significance of Maturity Level 3 and Maturity Level 4? And can you explain to me what is Integrated Project Management?

What broad questions! These questions really need a long in depth answer and are addressed very well in the Introduction to CMMI class. So first off I would suggest that you find an opportunity to take this class. Please visit http://www.ppqc.net/training/training.htm for more information about the class.

To briefly answer these two questions, the answer needs to address ML 2 as well. So I will start with some definitions from the CMMI book.
Process Area (PA) – a cluster of related practices in an area that, when implemented collectively, satisfy a set of goals considered important for making improvement in that area.
Maturity Level (ML) – degree of process improvement across a predefined set of process areas in which all goals in the set are attained. An ML is a defined evolutionary plateau for organization process improvement. Each ML matures an important subset of the organization’s processes, preparing it to move to the next ML.
Maturity Level 1: Initial – processes are usually ad hoc and chaotic. The organization usually does not provide a stable environment to support the process. Success in these organizations depends on the competence and heroics of the people in the organization and not on the use of proven processes.
Maturity Level 2: Managed – projects of the organization have ensured that processes are planned and executed in accordance with policy; the projects employ skilled people who have adequate resources to produce controlled outputs; involve relevant stakeholders; are monitored, controlled, and reviewed; and are evaluated for adherence to their process descriptions, The process discipline reflected by ML 2 helps to ensure that existing practices are retained during times of stress. When these practices are in place, projects are performed and managed according to their documented plans.
Maturity Level 3: Defined – processes are well characterized and understood, and are described in standards, procedures, tools, and methods. The organization’s set of standard processes, which is the basis for ML 3, is established and improved over time. These standard processes are used to establish consistency across the organization. Projects establish their defined process by tailoring the organization’s set of standard processes according to tailoring guidelines.
Maturity Level 4: Quantitatively Managed – the organization and projects establish quantitative objectives for quality and process performance and use them as criteria in managing processes. Quantitative objectives are based on the needs of the customer, end users, organization, and process implementers. Quality and process performance is understood in statistical terms and is managed throughout the life of the processes.
Maturity Level 5: Optimizing – an organization continually improves its processes based on a quantitative understanding of the common causes of variation inherent in processes.

Given these definitions and explanations, one of the fundamental differences between ML 3 and ML 4 is that at ML 3 the organization is learning how to use a standard set of processes, tailoring them to the individual project needs, and collecting enough process data such that Process Performance Baselines and Process Performance Models can be built and used at ML 4 to quantitatively manage projects and statistically manage sub-processes to achieve the organization’s quality and process performance objectives.

To answer the second question, you first need to understand the Project Planning (PP), Project Monitoring and Control (PMC), and Integrated Project Management (IPM) PAs. PP and PMC are ML 2 PAs that address the basic project management practices of planning a project, creating a project plan, and using that project plan to track and monitor the project. At ML 2, the organization typically is learning how to create accurate and realistic estimates by building estimation models. It takes time to refine these estimation models, so an ML 2 organization is expected to frequently revise and re-baseline the project plan as the projects get smarter about estimation. At ML 3, one of the project management expectations is that the project estimates are now accurate and realistic. So, rather than constantly update the estimates to match the actuals as done at ML 2, the Project Manager now manages the project to the estimates, meaning that the PM can now fairly accurately predict early on in the lifecycle whether or not the project will hit its downstream targets and take appropriate corrective action to mitigate these risks. The other differences between IPM and PP/PMC include establishing the project’s defined process by applying appropriate tailoring criteria to the organization’s standard processes, establishing the project’s work environment, integrating the various plans that comprise the project plan, managing the project using the integrated plans, and managing the project’s relevant stakeholders. In other words, IPM builds on the project management foundation established by PP and PMC.

This a lengthy explanation but only a surface treatment on these subjects. Again I strongly recommend to anyone interested in this topic that you attend an offering of the Introduction to CMMI v1.2 class. You will go into these concepts in much greater detail and you will come out with a much better understanding of the model, PAs, and MLs than I can convey in this blog.

Changes to Intro to CMMI Training and Appraisals for CMMI-ACQ

When taking the CMMI-ACQ upgrade training class from the SEI on March 21, there were a number of important changes that will impact CMMI Instructors, Lead Appraisers, and organizations that I think should be made available. No doubt over the next few months more information will be communicated by the SEI.

The FERPA form has been a pain for instructors because you have to be sure to collect them from each student and submit them to the SEI. In the past the SEI has stated that the FERPA forms were required by Carnegie Melon. In addition, the FERPA form is required so the results can be input to SAS and then made available to the Lead Appraiser when planning an appraisal.

The SEI made some small incremental additions to the core 16 Process Areas to accommodate ACQ. These changes are to the informative material. The CMMI Constellation architecture allows the SEI the freedom to tailor the core PAs at the sub-practice level. The sub-practice changes are posted on the web.

There is no difference in SCAMPI appraisals for the CMMI-ACQ. The SAS is almost ready to use for CMMI-ACQ.

On-line training for CMMI-ACQ is being developed with blended learning and will be available in May at about the same cost. The intent is that students can take the class online and then the instructor will schedule an online meeting with the class to discuss the material.

The CMMI-ACQ contains a new feature in the Process Areas. Typical Supplier Deliverables. This new feature ≠ deliverable artifacts. The Typical Supplier Deliverables are there to remind the acquirer of typical work products the acquirer might produce

The core Process Areas have some differences and this is intentional. To quote Rusty Young “Informative NOT Ignorative!” so the changes are important to note.

The CMMI-ACQ class will be a one-day add on training class. The current plan is to deliver the three-day class ( a generalist course) followed by a single day supplemental class in either DEV, ACQ, or SVC. The three-day CMMI class is for most people and the one-day supplemental is intended for Appraisal Team Members. This new structure will be available in about a year from now, March 2009.

When conducting a SCAMPI for a combined DEV and ACQ appraisal use the Continuous Representation if the overlap of the two constellations becomes a strength. You should be able to enter CMMI-DEV plus some ACQ PAs that best fit in the OTHER category in SAS.

The SEI relabled the categories in the Continuous Representation for CMMI-ACQ. REQM is included in Project Management.

And, finally, comparisons of the CMMI-ACQ to CMMI-DEV are provided at http://www.sei.cmu.edu/cmmi/models/ACQ-v12-comparetoDEV.html . Go to the bottom of the page for chapter-by-chapter detailed comparisons and to download PDF copies.
There may be a CMMI v1.2a update released after all the CMMI constellations have been released, perhaps by the end of 2009. And it may be called v1.3 instead.