Archive for the ‘artifacts’ Category

CMMI On One Leg

Tuesday, December 18th, 2012

I’m not sure, but I’m told some famous guy back in Biblical liturgy was once asked to explain the point of the Pentateuch (aka, the Torah, aka, The Five Books of Moses) while "standing on one leg".  

I now undertake a task, possibly no less daunting, regarding CMMI.  And, if there ever were anyone more appropriate to try it, I doubt I’ve met them.

Seriously though, much has been written here and many other places (not to mention eons of conference and user group content) about a number of "universal truths" about CMMI.  Let’s get these out there first, but without dwelling on them:

  • There are no "processes" in CMMI, only practices, and there’s a difference.
  • The practices in CMMI are "what" but not "how".
  • These practices are use to improve your processes, not to define them.
  • The CMMI does not require the SCAMPI appraisal to be effective.  You can use CMMI to improve your operation without ever using the SCAMPI to appraise your use of CMMI.
  • 42.  OK.  Not really.

However, not a single one of these "truths" explain the point of CMMI, or,  how to actually use CMMI.  So, here it goes:

Each one of the practices in CMMI improves some aspect of your organization’s performance resulting from how you do your work.  It doesn’t matter whether it’s providing a service or developing a product.  And, it doesn’t matter whether you do so using so-called traditional development methods or Agile approaches.  If you have performance issues in an area of your operation (called, "Process Areas" in CMMI), Check each of the practices in that area for activities in your operation that might be causing those performance issues. 

It’s assumed, then, if you don’t have any issues covered by a practice then you don’t need to do anything about a practice, because you’re already doing it.  This says nothing of how well you do it, why you do it, how you do it, whether you recognize that you do it, or whether the fact that you do it is a complete coincidental freak of nature, but, if you read a practice, understand the risk it avoids, and you don’t encounter that risk, you’re somehow performing that practice.  Pretty simple.

I’ll repeat and summarize that two-step thought experiment:

  1. Look in the process areas for practices that address performance issues you’re experiencing with the operation of your work.  When you encounter a practice (or more than one), the absence of which can explain why you’re seeing those issues, make appropriate changes to your operation so that you incorporate that/those practice(s) into your operation.  Rinse and repeat.
  2. Practices that don’t represent risks or issues you’re not seeing are (pretty much, by definition) practices you’re somehow managing to accomplish.  Don’t bother with them — unless you notice that you don’t like something about how you do it, but that’s a different priority/matter.

Keep in mind, this says nothing of

  • whether what you do/don’t do will suffice as "evidence" for an appraisal
  • how well you perform the practices (regardless of whether or not you perform them or believe you can use them to improve),
  • what it takes to incorporate practices or make change, in general, happen in your operation,
  • whether an appraisal team will concur with whether you do/don’t perform practices, or
  • you interpret practices in constructive ways.

Nonetheless, if you internalize the significance of the above 2 steps, you can (I dare say, "will") save yourselves a lot of time and grief when using CMMI.  This approach can certainly help you prioritize the practices for which to focus on, appraisal or not.  And, if you do take this approach towards preparation for an appraisal, keep in mind the bulleted caveats and don’t try this alone.

Posted in Agile, Agile+CMMI, Appraisal, Business Benefit, Improvement, LCPBC, Level-Chasing, Performance, Process Improvement, SCAMPI, artifact, artifacts, operation, practices, process area, ratings, value, waste, work, work practices | Comments Off

Process In the Fabric

Monday, November 21st, 2011

Say you’re in a truly disciplined, lean and agile operation and your processes are so deeply ingrained in what you do that putting your finger on tangible evidence is a challenge, and not for lack of process.  Just lack of being able to step back far enough from the canvas to see the whole picture.  What do you when it comes to demonstrating your practices for a CMMI appraisal, for example?

Well… the best advice I can give companies in such situations is to work early and closely with a consultant and/or lead appraiser to elicit the best evidence for the appraisal long before the appraisal event itself is planned or carried out.  It’s important to be clear about what the evidence is, and, you want the appraiser and the appraisal team on board with how the evidence will “show up”.  This is not something you want to surprise anyone with come appraisal time.

Working early and closely with a lead appraiser will not only help everyone understand the context, and not only will it provide an opportunity to strengthen practices and identify operational risks, but it will give you a good idea about whether or not the lead appraiser has the wherewithal to think broadly about practices and to assemble the contextual picture for how practices would “show up” in the context of your operation.

Sadly, not all appraisers have this skill set.  In fact, in my experience, the great majority do not have the skills to make contextually relevant model interpretation such that actual, naturally-occurring evidence from an operation can take its most natural form and still be recognized as implementation of CMMI practices.  In my experience, most lead appraisers expect evidence to come in very specific shapes, sizes, and colors and they don’t recognize the evidence when it doesn’t meet their pre-conceived notions of what particular evidence should look like. 

That being said, this does not give carte blanche for not having evidence.  I’m not saying that the evidence isn’t there, I’m just saying that the evidence may not be what’s traditionally thought-of as evidence from larger or more traditional development operations.

Process evidence from operations whose processes are deeply ingrained can often show up as very clear, obvious artifacts.  Especially from traditional development operations.  However, in small, lean, and agile operations, the evidence can be much less obvious.  It is a special skill set to be able to recognize the outputs of such operations as evidence of CMMI practices and organizations are served well to work with the lead appraiser early to determine whether or not their operation produces evidence as well as whether or not the appraiser can see more broadly than the evidence they’re used to seeing from traditional operations.

Since few organizations know how to pick a lead appraiser, perhaps this “litmus test” for a lead appraiser can serve to help them through the process.  The alternative could be a disastrous paper-chase to create evidence on top of the evidence that’s already there.

Posted in Evidence, SCAMPI, agile SCAMPI, artifacts, lead appraiser | Comments Off