Application of the CMMI for Services

I am in the process of preparing a "justification" presentation that talks about why the CMMI is important and how it can be applied. Though I have enough material and data to substantiate this, I don't have data that is contextual. I am looking for data, links, or any input that would point me to where the CMMI was applied to a Staff Augmentation organization or a comparison where I can see how each CMMI constellation (DEV, ACQ, and SVC) can be applied (Development Orgs, Support and Maintenance Org, Outsourcing Org, Staff Augmentation Org).

Though I could be wrong here, but I seriously doubt that the kind of information you seek exists at this point in time. Keep in mind that the CMMI for Services (CMMI-SVC) was only released in late February 2009 and the first appraisals to this constellation cannot occur at least for another 2 or 3 months. So there won’t be any anecdotal evidence or case studies available to provide the information you seek. I would imagine that the first opportunity to see any information of the type will be at the 2010 North American SEPG Conference. And since you are asking about applying the CMMI to a Staff Augmentation organization, the applicable CMMI constellation would the CMMI-SVC. There just isn’t a lot of information about its benefits right now, not enough time has elapsed since its release.

Is There a Difference Between Software and Firmware Development wrt the CMMI?

Would you kindly let me know the difference between the development of software and firmware and what CMMI practices are useful for firmware development? Is there a need to have Configuration plan for firmware development projects to control the code version?

Though the location of where the software or firmware resides is different as well as the code, there is no difference in the development practices and activities that occur. The CMMI for Development (CMMI-DEV) applies equally well to any type of product development. All projects have requirements, the work needs to be planned and managed, the work products and deliverables need to be managed, designs have to be developed, etc. The specifics in the processes most likely will vary from hardware development to software development to firmware development, but all of the Process Areas (Engineering, Support, Project Management, and Process Management) apply.

Product Planning and Configuration

It is common knowledge that Maturity Level 2 is project specific, and still I find at times Lead Appraisers asking funny questions during SCAMPI A appraisals. Quite recently, one of my friends told me that his Lead Appraiser is looking for planning at the product level, as well as Configuratuion Management at the product level. I was a bit amazed, thinking that Maturity Level 2 focuses on Project Planning, not product planning. What do you think about this situation? Have you been faced with this situation before? Is there a workaround for it?

From what you describe, it sounds like this Lead Appraiser could be misinterpreting the CMMI and possibly misleading the organization. The CMMI is quite clear that the Project Planning (PP) Process Area (PA) is for project planning purposes, not product planning.

"The purpose of PP is to establish and maintain plans that define project activities."

However, sometimes the difference between project and product can be blurred. By not knowing the context of the situation you described, the Lead Appraiser may have been trying a different approach to draw project planning information out in the interview sessions.

In one respect, it really doesn’t matter the line of questioning in a SCAMPI interview session. The Lead Appraiser could really ask about any topic. However, once he or she starts deviating from the CMMI, they are on shaky ground and could lose credibility. What does matter however, is the set of findings produced by the Lead Appraiser and the Appraisal Team. If there are findings associated with product planning that cannot be tied to the satisfaction of a CMMI Specific Goal or a Specific Practice, then these would be non-model findings and should have no impact on the resulting appraisal rating. However, if these non-model findings do impact the appraisal rating and the Lead Appraiser and Appraisal Team fail to demonstrate the linkage to Goal and Practice satisfaction/implementation, then the Lead Appraiser has not correctly performed his or her Lead Appraiser duties and the SEI should be informed about this issue so it can be investigated.

Why SAM is excluded ?

Why is SAM removed from CMMI L3?

Supplier Agreement Management (SAM) is not excluded from the CMMI-DEV or CMMI-SVC. When you say L3, I assume you mean Maturity Level 3 and SAM is definitely NOT excluded from ML 3. If, however, the Lead Appraiser in working with the organization determines that SAM is not applicable to the work performed by the organization, SAM will be considered Not Applicable to the scope of the appraisal. And that could be at any Maturity Level. Please read previous my posts regarding SAM for more information. http://ppqc.blogspot.com/2009/04/excluding-supplier-agreement-management.html and http://ppqc.blogspot.com/2009/07/cmmi-novice-question.html

Criteria For Selecting and Qualifying an Instructor

What are the important criteria that we should use to qualify and select internal and external instructors?

First of all you need to specify what kind of instructor you want to select and qualify, as well as the topic(s) you wish this person to teach. Then you would need to identify the core competencies for instructors in your organization. Coincidentally, I just created a job description for a Trainer position at my client based on some core competencies I found by searching the Internet. Here is a list of candidate competencies for your consideration:

Establishes and maintains instructor credibility

• Demonstrates content expertise
• States the learning objectives
• Provides a model of professional and inter-personal behavior

Demonstrates effective communication skills

• Uses appropriate verbal and non-verbal language
• Uses frames of reference, language, and technical terms familiar to the students
• Demonstrates that students have understood the message

Demonstrates effective presentation skills

• Uses appropriate modulation of voice to keep students engaged and interested
• Makes eye contact with individual students in the class
• Uses appropriate gestures to communicate
• Make effective use of moving around the room while facilitating discussions
• Uses anecdotes, stories, analogies, real world examples, and humor effectively to illustrate key concepts
• Uses relevant and short “war stories”
• Encourages students to share their experiences

Demonstrates effective questioning skills

• Asks students open ended questions
• Appropriately directs questions to students
• Uses active listening techniques to draw information from students
• Paraphrases student questions to ensure that everyone understands

Responds appropriately to student’s need for clarification or feedback

• Identifies students with clarification and feedback needs
• Provides prompt, timely, and specific feedback focused on the performance, not the person
• Welcomes questions from the students

Provides positive reinforcement and motivational incentives

• Matches learning outcomes to student needs and goals
• Determines if the student has mastered the material by the end of the class
• Uses introductory activities to develop learning motivation
• Makes the learning experience relevant and fun
• Uses feedback and reinforcement during instruction

Uses instructional methods appropriately

• Demonstrates proficiency with a variety of teaching methods
• Limits the amount of lecture time
• Uses demonstrations
• Uses group and individual exercises
• Facilitates group discussions
• Uses instructional techniques that fit the situation
• Encourages group dynamics associated with the media selected
• Uses slides or other media as an outline for class discussion rather than lecture

Uses media effectively

• Demonstrates proficiency with the training equipment (projector, laptop, hardware, etc.)
• Troubleshoots problems associated with training equipment
• Makes effective use of flip charts, presentation slides, hardware, etc.
• Faces the audience when presenting and avoids reading the slides

Demonstrates understanding of the principles of adult learning

• Makes the training topics relevant to the student’s needs
• Makes the students partners in the learning experience

Need Some Clarification About Process Improvement

What types of activities should be considered process improvement? If we modify the templates (any major changes), do we categorize these changes as process improvement?

Merely modifying a template may or may not constitute process improvement. Your template may have changed because of external reasons (your customer wants you to use a different template) that have nothing to do with process improvement. You should explain the rationale for modification, then you would have a stronger case to demonstrate process improvement.

Process improvement suggestions can come from any number of sources:

1. Appraisal findings
2. PPQA audit findings
3. Lessons learned
4. Employee suggestions

If you couple the source of the process improvement suggestion with the actual change, usually spelled out in the Process Improvement Plan, then you have the information you need.

Process Improvement Measures

Do you have any suggestions for a size and quality measure for a Process Improvement organization?

There are other questions that need to be answered first in order to provide a proper response to your question. What does your Process Improvement process say? Examine your process to see what type of activities you have documented, where are the spots in the process you can collect data, and what data you can collect. You also have to consider your business goals and objectives for your Process Improvement organization. Then you will have some idea of the measures you can use for size and quality of your Process Improvement effort. Experts can offer you all different ideas, but if these ideas don’t support your goals and/or your process is written in such a way that it doesn’t support these measures, then you will have to consider something else.