This morning, SEI Partners and Sponsored Individuals received the letter, below, from Dr. Paul Nielsen, Director & CEO of SEI.

THIS IS A GOOD THING.
Watch the video for my explanation why it is.

******
To All Partners and Sponsored Individuals:

The following important announcement is sent on behalf of Dr. Paul Nielsen, Director and CEO.

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) have mutually decided to move the CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) and the PCMM (People Capability Maturity Model ) out of the SEI and into an independent business unit of CMU. We believe this new unit may also be a natural transition path for other SEI developed technologies, methods and practices as they mature.

The SEI is a Federally Funded Research & Development Center (FFRDC) established in 1984 to provide technical leadership and innovation through research and development to advance the practice of software engineering and technology in support of DoD needs. DoD acknowledges the significant contributions that CMMI has made to Defense programs and the software engineering community, in general. Recognizing the maturity of CMMI and PCMM, SEI and DoD have agreed that the maturity of these technologies make this an appropriate time for the SEI, as a science and technology based FFRDC, to concentrate on newer research.

Carnegie Mellon University is excited about establishing this new business unit to serve the global software engineering community even better–to make adoption, evolution and maintenance of the models more flexible for government and commercial organizations, to be more creative with our partners and other organizations in creating business relationships, and to face the market more proactively.

As we plan and implement this transition, one key objective is to cause as little disruption to our licensees and partners as possible; therefore, we expect the transition to be seamless, with continuity among key participants. You can expect:

• A renewed, single-minded commitment to the product
• A transition that underscores the central role of our licensees and partners
• Continuing investments to expand the scope and evolution of the models

We intend to transition these technologies and evolve the business model in conjunction with our partners and the Partner Advisory Board. Current details of the transition can be found at http://www.sei.cmu.edu/partners/CMMI-Transition-2012.

Additionally, we will be hosting interactive webcasts on 25 May at 9:00-10:00am EDT and 30 May at 5:00-6:00pm EDT. To register for the webcasts Friday, May 25: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/649898953 or Register Here and Wednesday, May 30: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/690424856 or Register Here. Look for more face to face information sessions at SEPG-EU.

Best regards,
Paul

I’m speaking @ the Lean Software and Systems Conference 2011.

The program is amazing!

I highly encourage attendance.

There’s an entire day in cooperation with the SEI with 3 unique tracks on it including a track on CMMI and Multi-Modal Processes (which I’m chairing).

Take a look at my talk… it’s from my upcoming book: High Performance Operations.

Register quickly and make your hotel reservations! Block rooms are nearly gone!

Regardless of venue, country, time of year, or language, SEPG Europe continues to demonstrate itself as a valuable event for exchanging ideas and making  progress in the field of performance excellence.  It’s a clear indicator of the value of SEPG Europe that attendance at this year’s event both doubled from last year’s event and exceded all headcount-based logistics planned for the event.  This, despite the sputtering global economy, in particular Portugal’s current banking challenges.

Conference-related activities for SEPG Europe 2010 began with pre-conference activities and tutorials on Monday, official tutorials on Tuesday, then keynotes, mini-tutorials and sessions on Wednesday.  This entry comes on the morning of the last formal conference day, Thursday, after experiencing Wednesday’s keynotes, a full day of sessions and mini-tutorials, and the event’s gala dinner.

In particular, I want to focus on common threads heard throughout the week, what they mean to those of us in the field, and why it’s only at SEPG events where these ideas can reach critical mass.

The common threads

CMMI, appraisals, and the focus on “process” are, together, insufficient to meet the needs of today’s businesses and still relevant.

Insufficient because, alone, they can miss attributes important to business, and can inadvertently place too little emphasis on performance and results.  Still relevant because, without them there would be no robust, complete product set of performance improvement tools in the marketplace.

What these threads tie into is the experience that the market for performance excellence is ready for the “next evolution” of CMMI and SCAMPI and other process-oriented models and tools.  The market is ready for a way of looking at performance excellence that is appropriately applied in ultra-large systems as well as small and/or agile systems/organizations.   An approach that emphasises results rather than compliance, and an approach that looks at the entire business, including its market, culture, social economics, leadership, management, customers, relationships and other behavioral sciences.

By no means is this to imply that CMMI and SCAMPI are wrong.  They are widely acknowledged and credited as a necessary step in the evolutionary path of performance excellence thinking.  And, some flavor of CMMI and SCAMPI will most certainly persist as a necessary component of a broader focus on improvements.  All this is actually saying is that the market has absorbed the lessons of CMMI and SCAMPI and they’re ready for more.  They’re ready for what’s coming next, and they want to be part of shaping it.

A lot of the hallway conversations I’ve had have been about just this.  They’re about “what’s next?”   What’s after version 1.3?  It’s not clear what’s coming after v1.3, but what is clear is that whatever v.NEXT looks like, the ideas for what will be in it (by any name or version) will have roots at events like SEPG-Europe.

People here are clearly thinking ahead.  They’re thirsty for making progress.

What the common threads mean to those of us in the field

Those of us who provide consulting, instruction and appraisals in CMMI and SCAMPI wares, or who are internal to companies implementing improvements will be impacted by these threads in a number of ways.  Including, a potential wholesale change in what will be a “model” for improvement and its related appraisal approach.  Another impact would be the possibly broader reach of areas of improvement into aspects of business currently unfamiliar to organizations or professionsals in the field.

Furthermore, the business impact of the v.NEXT model could be a body of work that raises the stakes and the perview of where the model seeks to have an impact.  In other words, it could be a model that’s much more business-oriented and “systemic” than it currently and would require skills and aptitudes for implementation not demanded by the current frameworks.  It could become a model for which it’s not enough to be a model subject-matter expert, but also requires that users be equally versed in business as they are in performance improvement.

The core concepts in CMMI today are not likely to disappear, rather, they’re more likely to be absorbed into a more broadly-minded view of causing performance excellence.

Why SEPG events are where the critical mass is reached

Unlike any other type of events, at SEPG events there are presentations, discussions, new ideas and the direct interaction among users, practitioners, business leaders, government, academia, many industries, and the SEI.  Face-to-face, high-bandwidth communication and incidental interactions made possible by SEPG events are unlike any other events because SEPGs are focused exclusively on improvement.  It’s a conversation at a higher level.  The ideas for such a higher level of thinking in v.NEXT will be where the SEI gets its ideas.  These are the types of conversations taking place at SEPG Europe which is why I attend.  I attend so I can return to my office and my clients with new ideas and a glimpse of where things are going.

Until v.NEXT is reality, we can muse philosophically over what will be in it over glasses of the fine Porto port wines.

So today started out with a bus ride from the hotel to the Savannah International Trade and Convention Center rather than the expected ferry ride over the river.  A container ship in the port managed to get damaged and leaked fuel into the Savannah River on Sunday immediately closing the river to non-clean-up traffic, including the otherwise convenient cross-river ferry.

Be that as it may, the bus ride gave me an opportunity to connect with Michele Moss from Booz-Allen, Hamilton.  A kindred spirit in things related to "the future of process".  She and I had plans to meet anyway some time today to discuss ideas about "bringing ‘younger people’ into the field" and a related topic, addressing modern-day issues such as cyber, agile and value as these concerns are manifested in processes and process improvement.

First order of the day after registration was to co-create what I perceived as a rather successful (and well-attended) tutorial with Judah Mogilensky on a tailoring for SCAMPI appraisals that increases efficiency, collaboration, and reduces time and cost, we called "One-Stop Shopping".  Immediately following, Michele and I met with Bob Rosenstein, the events and conferences manager at SEI.  David Anderson, just arriving to the venue, was a very beneficial addition to the discussion, conveying his experience with creating communities and conferences specific to a community such as his LSSC.  Dana Hanzlik and Danny Pipitone from SEI’s PR group also sat in on the conversation.  About the only definitive expectation to come out of this meeting (other than our commitment to come to the retrospective with with data from the Peer-to-Peer), was that SEI will be open to more closely tying into other gatherings.  Not bad since we had no expectations going in, and, even if we had, it wouldn’t have been reasonable to have expected any commitments.

Much came up in just under an hour with Bob.  We’re planning to include bits of this topic in our end-of-conference committee retrospective on Thursday.  Part of what will feed into that retrospective will be a Peer-to-Peer session on Wednesday afternoon that Michele and I will be co-creating and was planned with David’s help.  Our Peer-to-Peer is being billed as, "Where do we go from here? Value, Agile, Cyber, and all things Future Processes."

The mind-map of the problem-space was really intriguing.  This will not be an easy matter.

After a conference lunch with David and Michele, we split up and I attended the invitation-only advanced overview of the changes to "high maturity" to CMMI v1.3.  Good stuff, really.  Way too geek for here.

After getting as much as I cared to get from the high maturity campfire (which coincided with the moment I sensed my lunch moved far enough down my digestive tract to make room (literally) for a run) I decided to go back to my hotel to squeeze a run in before the evening gorge-fest that includes the opening of the trade-show floor, a board meeting, and later, a surprise opportunity to attend a special reception, all of which were to include food (and in order of continually improving quality at that).

Before I could get back across the river, I nabbed an opportunity to comment on a frequent occurrence here, on the Savannah River:

Several lovely hours later of socializing (albeit, mostly work-related) I’m back at the room planning my day ahead.

I’ve created this (goofy?) promo at the request of the organizers for the 5th Central and Eastern European Software Engineering Conference in Russia.  It takes place the last week in October in Moscow.  I’ll be delivering a keynote and a workshop on AgileCMMI (of course, what else?).  In particular I’ll be pimping my idea that CMMI and Agile *need* each other.

As noted, the Webinar with the SEI will be on the same topic.  So far, nearly 400 people have signed up for that!  The direct registration link is: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/167857128.

Despite half the attendance from 2008, the sessions were of very high quality and the size of crowd really facilitated an intimate setting to network, eat more than one meal with old and new friends and to have serious conversations about process improvement and the direction of SEI and its Partner network.

While it’s not an entirely fresh thought, it really hit home for me the extent to which conferences — and other concentrated spans of time, in general — have the ability to shake loose new ideas. This conference, sometimes (I admit) unlike other events, I really spent an enormous amount of time and energy reflecting on all-things-process including my own work and company, collaborations, CMMI and other SEI products, and the SEI itself at a strategic level.

It’s clear that when you spend that much time on learning, studying and inspection of ideas, the constant barrage of collisions and connections, that all sorts of (typically good) things can come of it. Really, I suspect that these not-so-obvious benefits all-too-often go under-appreciated, and under-utilized as secondary and tertiary returns of getting the most from attending conferences and of sending people to conferences. For my time (and money), these events have the potential to be far more value than mere training and seminars. And, this year’s, SEPG-Europe really made me appreciate that.

The only event on Monday was a workshop on CMMI for Services which included several spirited discussions about model content and applications. An idea-generating session was conducted for how to address qualifications, continuing education, and related credentialing, for qualifying Partners to teach a new training class I’m helping develop in my role as an SEI Visiting Scientist. This discussion warmed up to even higher heart rates. (In a good way.)

Tuesday was the official tutorials day. My CMMI Crash Course could have gone better — I was dreadfully under the weather from something I ate the night before. I also had it confirmed for me that the European crowd of novices is very different on many levels than American, British and other cultures. I couldn’t get people to participate even with (mock) threats and jokes. They simply wouldn’t open up. While they would ask questions at times, if I asked a question, they’d wait for me to answer it — even when prompted them to answer. It came across as though one Danish student had more courage and better answers than the room full of working professionals.

While having the best of intentions to attend afternoon tutorials, I found myself back in bed, skipping lunch and dinner and only emerging once or twice to grab something to drink to stave off dehydration.

The exhibit area opened Tuesday evening, and I showed up with my shirt hanging out, no jacket or socks and looking very much like someone dragged me outside in the rain, hastily dried me off, then stuffed me into well-worn clothes. But, by the evening I was feeling better. Good enough to go down to the adjacent mall to buy 2 bottles of PowerAde. Once of which didn’t even survive to see me emerge back out from the mall.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were the main conference days. Each one filled with excellent content. (You can download highlights here.) A former client of mine, Kevin Williams started my Wednesday day off with superb content on his (former) company’s CMMI journey complete with metrics, examples, and lessons learned. It was a genuinely rich and rewarding example for how small and agile organizations can stay agile, use CMMI to benefit their work and get a desired rating. Kevin reported that despite having left the company and not having been replaced, the processes put in place under his leadership are still in use.

His session would have been better attended (by more people who really needed the information) had it not been for a slight oversight that left the word “Agile” out of his presentation and abstract. As a result, Kevin’s 40-minute slot was opposite the start of a half-day tutorial on agile and CMMI from Tim Kasse who really put agile and CMMI under the engineering microscope — at least while I sat in on the 2nd half of it, so I assume the earlier half was as hard-hitting.

It was hard to tear myself away from the excellent networking to get back into sessions throughout the week. Then, once I got back inside, there were other obligations keeping me from staying. For example, to go “play expert” for an “Ask the Experts” break-out, I had to bail out half way through Michael West’s insightful work and thoughtful mini-tutorial (complete with hands-on exercises) on process design and communication.

The first keynote speakers started Thursday, but afterwards, the highlight of my Thursday sessions was John Hamilton’s talk on complex process concepts for absolute beginners. He was highly energetic, entertaining, and very crammed full of excellent advice. I’m “borrowing” several turns of phrase from him — which is only fair considering he borrowed a number of ideas (and words) from me. Fair trade. (Be flattered, John, I am!) ((John actually asked me about his use of the ideas at his company’s recent conference — where I also spoke.)) I believe it’s from John that I tweeted about where the real improvement begins.

Friday. Ah, Friday. The way Friday got started was surely a sign of good tidings. Tony Devlin’s keynote was simply inspiring. My tweets (also) from it don’t even tell the half of it. Talk about true maturity. Do they *get* this stuff or what?! I can’t even bring myself to write about it out of fear of not having time to sleep tonight once I start. I expressed my thanks afterwards and expressed a request for learning from them and extended an open offer to answer questions from my experience in return. He graciously provided me with his email address and said he’d bare all. Then to have had lunch with him was a real treat. I was already eating with 2 SEI personnel (including Mike Philips the program manager for CMMI), and with one open space, Tony asked to join in. After making a fool of myself over light banter — in which I forgot an actor’s name, thereby forgetting his nationality, and only remembering that he portrayed an Irishman in a movie, causing me to think he was Irish, only to be admonished for confusing Irishmen with Scots when someone recalled the actor for me — we got back to discussing his experience and solidified our intent to exchange information.

Friday was no where nearly done. A session on multi-model collaboration by Kobi Vider-Picker was incredibly well-researched and his audience was full and attentive. He basically laid-out how well the CMMI suite can handle dozens of standards, guides, regulations, etc. I understand he doesn’t need to sleep or eat much. It must be how he finds the time between all his work to do such thorough research. The next session was by Malte Foegen, the tweet from that session set off a chain-reaction of re-tweets. Probably my longest ever.

Lastly, my mini-tutorial based on the SEI Technical Note probably had about a third of the entire attendee roster. Of course, by 4pm on Friday, nearly the entire roster had already started out for the airport. By this point, people were more open to volunteering discussion. Nonetheless, I was struck by how deeply ingrained certain ideas about CMMI (and Agile) have been etched. Despite months of promoting the subject since the publication (years prior to that online); despite the availability of the Crash Course, and other sessions from other events, despite all the presentations throughout this and other SEPG events, and for many, having sat through the Crash Course just days before . . . some misperceptions about CMMI and Agile (such as how certain practices “must” be done, or what constitutes “evidence”, or that process definition is process “restriction”) just are almost too hard to give up.

There is work ahead still.

I’m on it.

The third technical note to get started in 2008 is finally published with a cushion of 50 days left in the year!

Yes, my friends, *the* paper we’ve all been waiting for has made it through the gauntlet of reviews and approvals at the SEI (which is, after all, still part of a major research university, CMU, so let’s cut them some slack), and has been released!

This is likely the most fanfare it will get.  It’s just not really their style, or mine, so it’s rather suiting.

I would, however, like to put in appropriate props for my co-authors, Jeff Dalton, David Anderson, Mike Konrad, and Sandy Shrum.  They were a pleasure to work and collaborate with the entire time.  Despite not appearing at the top of the list, Mike and Sandy must own stock in the only thing worth any thing these days: midnight oil.  Thanks to them this paper even got out while the year still reads "2008".

Thanks also goes out to everyone with whom I’ve discussed the content of the paper, reviewed sections, and to my friends in Mt. Crested Butte, CO who provided great ideas back in September 2007.

Writing this entry from Mar del Plata, Argentina, where I’ve finished teaching the Introduction to CMMI Services Supplement earlier today and where the SEPG-LA starts tomorrow, and where I’m keynoting (now) on Thursday, is rather poetic to the whole episode:  Just another tick in the clock of time where I find myself away from home.  Working, teaching, speaking, and again amazed that I’m experiencing all of it.

Today, in the lobby, I met Edward James Olmos.  I’m sure I’ll come up with some way to connect his latest hit to CMMI and Agile.  And, no, the SEI are not Cylons!  Nice try.  Read the paper.

Well, it’s well past my bed time out here.  Busy days coming.

Peace to you.

I’ll be delivering the CMMI Crash Course&trade: What the SEI Won’t Teach You at the SEPG-NA in Tampa this March.

It’s currently scheduled for Thursday the 20th at 1:30pm. Listed as a tutorial.

Hope to see you at SEPG regardless!

(Anyone looking to license the Crash Course so they can deliver it should consider attending so you see it being done. I’m also hoping to have it recorded.)

SEPG has come and gone. This year held in hip, happenin’ Austin, TX. Though, the weather only cooperated for maybe 1 of the 4 days, not including the Sunday on which I arrived.

Attendance was a few hundred lower than last year, but there are a number of possible explanations for this (purely conjecture on my part):

- The event was about a week later in the month than usual;

- The SEI hired an outside company to market, promote and handle much of the registration activities. By and large they did a decent job. However, one very noticeable difference was the increase in prices for everything from attending to showing at the exhibition area. Unless my memory fails me, as a speaker I don’t recall having to pay for attending last year at all. This year I did pay for all days but the one day of my presentation. If there’s one thing I can over-generalize about with little impunity it’s that the process improvement set are not the sort who part easily with their cash.

Regardless of the net number of attendees, there was no shortage of content. As for those subjects that interest me the most (and maybe you), I am happy to report that the volume of presentations dedicated to Small Settings and Agile has blossomed to require that these two tracks be separated into their own individual sections.

It was nice to see the two topics not be inseparable and to see/hear so much content that wasn’t necessarily assuming that all small settings use agile or vise-versa.
The proceedings (or some part thereof) will be available eventually from the SEI’s web site.

It was also nice to see and catch up with David Anderson whose SEPG trip report can be found here. (Terrible pic of me, by the way.)

David introduced me to Clementino Mendonca who expressed an interest in speaking with me some more about my experience with clients implementing MSF for CMMI Process Improvement and my "AgileCMMI" process architecture that might be able to be wrapped around it.

It is somehow fitting that the person coincidentally in the photo with Clementino (should you wander over to David’s blog) is a newer client of mine — showing keen interest in MSF.

Back on the subject of Agile + CMMI… Paul Nielsen, SEI’s CEO very clearly stated to me the desire for SEI to publish some sort of official "position statement" on where they stand with respect to agile methods. In particular, stating that the SEI is not opposed to agile methods nor do they advocate any sort of disparagement of agile or any expectation that agile methods be assumed incompatible with CMMI. (Or something to that extent.)

Mixed in with this discussion was a side comment by Dr. Nielsen to the effect of why the SEI has such a reputation — to which I immediately pointed out that the SEI’s marketing ability is far less powerful than the combined power of all those who walk the earth in their name. Specifically, all the appraisers and instructors. Most of whom (~90% ?) wouldn’t know agile if they saw it and if they did, wouldn’t know how to implement or appraise CMMI in an agile environment.

I’m really surprised I haven’t blogged (read: ranted) about that sooner… Maybe I have already in my FAQ. It’s gotta be somewhere.