Our company achieved Maturity Level 3 (ML 3) this year. Now we want to go for Maturity Level 4 (ML 4). Would you please give us some suggestions on what we have to do for ML 4?
I can give you a list of items and practices that you need to have in place, but that is not enough. I highly recommend that you and your company hire a High Maturity Lead Appraiser and/or consultant and have them work with you to implement OPP and QPM. I also suggest that you take the SEI’s Understanding CMMI High Maturity Concepts or equivalent. This class will greatly help your understanding of ML 4 and ML 5. You will need to have someone on your staff that has a good understanding of statistics and statistical methods to help you build your Process Performance Baselines (PPBs) and Process Performance Models (PPMs) that support your Quality and Process Performance Objectives (QPPOs). In addition, in order for all this to work, your processes have to be stable so you can perform meaningful statistical analyses. This also means having a repository of historical data from the stable processes. So not only do you need expert help, you also need a sufficient amount of historical data, which could range from months to years in order to achieve ML 4.
Showing posts with label Maturity Level. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Maturity Level. Show all posts
Monday, March 9, 2009
Monday, December 1, 2008
List of Appraised Companies
How can I see a list of CMMI appraised companies across the globe for all levels and years?
With the release of CMMI v1.2 in August 2006, the SEI instituted a new policy regarding the expiration of appraisal results. All appraisal results expire three years from the anniversary date of the appraisal. The list of published appraisal results is available from the SEI at http://sas.sei.cmu.edu/pars/pars.aspx. Once the appraisal results reach their third anniversary date, they are automatically removed from this list. For example you could check the list today and find the results for an appraisal conducted December 2, 2005. Wait a day or so and you will no longer find the record. You can sort this list based on year, organization name, Maturity Level, etc.
Keep in mind that once the appraisal results have expired, they are no longer valid and the organization should have been re-appraised in order to continue to claim a particular Capability or Maturity Level.
With the release of CMMI v1.2 in August 2006, the SEI instituted a new policy regarding the expiration of appraisal results. All appraisal results expire three years from the anniversary date of the appraisal. The list of published appraisal results is available from the SEI at http://sas.sei.cmu.edu/pars/pars.aspx. Once the appraisal results reach their third anniversary date, they are automatically removed from this list. For example you could check the list today and find the results for an appraisal conducted December 2, 2005. Wait a day or so and you will no longer find the record. You can sort this list based on year, organization name, Maturity Level, etc.
Keep in mind that once the appraisal results have expired, they are no longer valid and the organization should have been re-appraised in order to continue to claim a particular Capability or Maturity Level.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Can organizations still claim CMM?
If I remember correctly SEI retired the CMM and that organizations can no longer advertize their CMM maturity level. If an organization continues to claim on their web site that they are CMM level 4 - even today - and in addition it is claiming that it will be assessed shortly for CMMi Level 5 for more than a year and half - should we ignore it or bring it to the notice of SEI?If you suggest that we should bring such instances to SEI notice please give me the email id.
The short answer is that any claim of a CMM Maturity Level is no longer valid. As for the ML 5 notice, that is fine as long as the web site states that the organization is working towards ML 5, but I don't see how that is a marketing point. It is similar to a graduate student stating that he or she is in the Doctoral Program and have everything completed except for his or her thesis.
The SEI is not in the business of investigating false claims. Buyer Beware: The only official location to verify an organization's Capability or Maturity Level is the SEI's Published Appraisal Results site http://sas.sei.cmu.edu/pars/pars.aspx. Since the appraisal results are only good for three years, the results are automatically removed on the anniversary date. Just check this site daily for a week or two and you will be able to verify this for yourself. The best approach is to contact the offending organization to inform them of their mistaken claims as they may be unaware of the changes to the SEI's appraisal program. And if you still feel that the SEI should be notified, I would suggest that you contact Jill Diorio who is the SEI Ethics person at jdiorio@sei.cmu.edu.
The short answer is that any claim of a CMM Maturity Level is no longer valid. As for the ML 5 notice, that is fine as long as the web site states that the organization is working towards ML 5, but I don't see how that is a marketing point. It is similar to a graduate student stating that he or she is in the Doctoral Program and have everything completed except for his or her thesis.
The SEI is not in the business of investigating false claims. Buyer Beware: The only official location to verify an organization's Capability or Maturity Level is the SEI's Published Appraisal Results site http://sas.sei.cmu.edu/pars/pars.aspx. Since the appraisal results are only good for three years, the results are automatically removed on the anniversary date. Just check this site daily for a week or two and you will be able to verify this for yourself. The best approach is to contact the offending organization to inform them of their mistaken claims as they may be unaware of the changes to the SEI's appraisal program. And if you still feel that the SEI should be notified, I would suggest that you contact Jill Diorio who is the SEI Ethics person at jdiorio@sei.cmu.edu.
Friday, May 2, 2008
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.
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.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Management Commitment
I am continually struck by the misunderstanding of management's role in process improvement in any size organization. Many times the all the senior manager feels that they have to do is give a directive to achieve a Maturity Level by some date. And that is the extent of their involvement, expecting that the Maturity Level will simply happen because they said so. And then to make matters worse, this same senior manager does not understand why the people they put in charge of implementing the process improvement program can't make things happen faster, especially when they are perceived as setting capricious and arbitrary deadlines without asking the process team if the new dates are achievable.
Managers who are committed to correctly performing process improvement both "talk the talk" and "walk the walk". They understand the importance of:
Managers who are committed to correctly performing process improvement both "talk the talk" and "walk the walk". They understand the importance of:
- setting realistic process improvement goals
- providing the necessary support to the process team
- addressing process improvement challenges and removing obstacles
- instilling the process improvement mindset throughout the management structure
- encouraging process improvement suggestions
- being a process improvement advocate
Without being actively supportive of their process improvement goals and emphasizing this same expected behavior from the rest of the management, their process improvement goals are at serious risk. Management does have to become engaged and not simply expect that things will happen just because they spoke.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
CMMI for Acquisition Process Areas
There are 6 CMMI for Acquisition (CMMI-ACQ) Process Areas (PAs) unique to this new constellation: Agreement Management (AM), Acquisition Requirements Development (ARD), Acquisition Technical Management (ATM), Acquisition Validation (AVAL), Acquisition Verification (AVER), and Solicitation and Supplier Agreement Development (SSAD). AM, ARD, and SSAD are Maturity Level 2 PAs and ATM, AVAL, and AVER are Maturity Level 3 PAs.
In addition to these six new PAs, there are other changes at the Specific Practice level in Project Planning (PP), Project Monitoring and Control (PMC), Integrated Project Management (IPM), and Organizational Process Definition (OPD).
PP SP 1.1 - Establish and maintain the acquisition strategy
PP SP 2.7 - Plan transition to operations and support (the addition of this SP makes the old SP 2.7 now SP 2.8)
PMC SP 1.8 - Monitor transition to operations and support
OPD SP 1.7 - Establsh and maintain organizational rules and guidelines for the structure, formation, and operation of integrated teams
IPM SP 1.6 - Establish and maintain integrated teams
The difficult concept to understand if your background is in the CMMI for Development (CMMI-DEV)is that every core PA is interpreted in the context of the acquirer's processes.
When looking at the Continuous Representation for CMMI-ACQ the category Acqusition replaces the category Engineering from the CMMI-DEV constellation. And the other change is that Requirements Management (REQM) is now included in the Project Management category.
And on a final note, it is possible to perform a blended appraisal CMMI-DEV and CMMI-ACQ.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Setting Proper Goals and Objectives
On choosing a transition partner for process improvment... : Green & White
One of the underlying issues in the "doomsday scenario" discussed in this article is management commitment and the proper setting of Business Goals and Objectives, Process Goals and Objectives, Quality Goals and Objectives, Project Management Goals and Objectives, etc. Achieving a certification like ISO 9000 or a CMMI Maturity Level is NOT, and should NEVER be, one of these Goals and Objectives. Unfortunately, setting the achievement of ISO or a CMMI Matuity Level is often what I see as a Business Goal and Objective when I teach the CMMI class or pay the initial visit to a new client. When the organization has this view of why it is in business, then they display ALL of the dysfunctional behaviors you noted above.
In my experience, most managers do not know how to perform proper goal setting without some coaching and mentoring. Either the goals are too lofty (motherhood and apple pie) or they have nothing to do with their core business (achieve ISO 9000 etc.).
And if their customers are demanding ISO 9000 or CMMI in order for the company to win new business, then it is extremely difficult to get management's attention to set proper goals and objectives.
One of the underlying issues in the "doomsday scenario" discussed in this article is management commitment and the proper setting of Business Goals and Objectives, Process Goals and Objectives, Quality Goals and Objectives, Project Management Goals and Objectives, etc. Achieving a certification like ISO 9000 or a CMMI Maturity Level is NOT, and should NEVER be, one of these Goals and Objectives. Unfortunately, setting the achievement of ISO or a CMMI Matuity Level is often what I see as a Business Goal and Objective when I teach the CMMI class or pay the initial visit to a new client. When the organization has this view of why it is in business, then they display ALL of the dysfunctional behaviors you noted above.
In my experience, most managers do not know how to perform proper goal setting without some coaching and mentoring. Either the goals are too lofty (motherhood and apple pie) or they have nothing to do with their core business (achieve ISO 9000 etc.).
And if their customers are demanding ISO 9000 or CMMI in order for the company to win new business, then it is extremely difficult to get management's attention to set proper goals and objectives.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Mumbai's Dabbawalas
Mumbai's Dabbawalas - Amazing Management Success Story India
From: targetseo, 1 year ago
Mumbai's Dabbawalas - An Entrepreneurial Management Success Story of India - Presentaional Modified by Paavan Solanki, SEO Ahmedabad - One of the Fan of Dabbawals in India.
SlideShare Link
This presentation tells an impressive story. But as an SEI-certified High Maturity Lead Appraiser, I feel compelled to comment on some of the information contained in this presentation. Firstly, slide two makes a statement that this company is CMMI Level 6. This is a meaningless designation. The CMMI only has five Maturity Levels. I do not know what the author means be Level 6. In addition, none of the information provided is indicative of the company's Maturity Level. There is no information provided to indicate that the company has collected and analyzed project and process data to establish Process Performance Baselines and build Process Performance Models, the necessary elements for a High Maturity (Maturity Levels 4 & 5) organization. If you want to see if this company has been appraised and it's resulting Maturity or Capability Level, the official results are contained on the Software Engineering Institute's (SEI's) web site at http://sas.sei.cmu.edu/pars/.
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