Praise for CMMI® Survival Guide
“Traveling down the CMMI road can be difficult and time-consuming. Garcia and Turner have given us a practical roadmap that addresses the key points to learn as well as the many potholes to avoid. Their Survival Guide is a most valuable resource for the journey. It will help immeasurably in achieving the process improvement that you seek.”
Dr. Howard Eisner, Distinguished Research Professor,
George Washington University
“Helps you get to the ‘red meat’ of the CMMI quickly and with minimum pain.”
Donald J. Reifer, President, Reifer Consultants, Inc.
“The best words I can offer potential readers is that you must have this book, not on your shelf, but with you for repeated reading to glean new ideas or reinforce old ones you gained from the past readings.… If you have ever been directly involved in a process improvement initiative or if you are starting one, this book can only help you to do a better job. And while [the authors] may not have written this book explicitly for experienced consultants, I found it a great reference even for those of us who helped start this industry, because it provides clear and useful answers to those tough questions we are asked all of the time.”
Tim Kasse, CEO and Principal Consultant,
Kasse Initiatives LLC
“This book contains practical (working) tips for the ‘getting started’ phase of process improvement, which is the hardest one in the road to improving one’s processes.”
Agapi Svolou, Principal of Alexanna, LLC, and
SEI CMMI Transition Partner
“The authors have done an outstanding job in providing guidance for process improvement from a practical perspective. Instead of focusing on a single technique or approach, they have provided a variety of methods for process improvement implementation and have framed their discussion with rich context from lessons learned. The concepts described in this book will be useful to both those starting CMMI implementations and to those who are well into their journey but are still looking for ways to lessen the pain and provide value-added improvements. Reading the book is like being in the audience during a live presentation by SuZ and Rich—they wrote the book as they would present the information to a live audience.”
Bill Craig, Director, Software Engineering Directorate,
AMRDEC, RDECOM
“I have been involved in process improvement since the early 90’s and many of the mistakes that I made could have been prevented if this book had been available then.“
Claude Y. Laporte, Professor, ETS Université du Québec
“Primarily, the book is practical. The guidance presented is geared toward someone who is not exactly sure why they need process improvement, but is presented with the fact that they must do it. Very often these are smaller organizations, with limited resources, and uncertain support from above. As I read the book, I thought almost immediately of a couple of organizations with which I am familiar who could use this kind of tutelage. There are real, and useful, techniques in this book that I believe can help these kinds of organizations prioritize and establish reasonable plans for improving the processes in the organization. I also like the sidebars and personal observations. Discussions of experience can really help organizations through the various pitfalls that are part of developing and deploying processes. It makes the book more of a ‘real life’ guide, and not a theoretical exercise. Finally, the book is an enjoyable read. The conversational style of the book (and the humor) make it much easier to read than many of the books I have read in the past.”
Alexander Stall, Principal Process Improvement Engineer,
Systems and Software Consortium
CMMI® Survival Guide
Just Enough Process Improvement
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Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and Addison-Wesley was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed with initial capital letters or in all capitals.
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ATAM; Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method; CMM Integration; COTS Usage-Risk Evaluation; CURE; EPIC; Evolutionary Process for Integrating COTS Based Systems; Framework for Software Product Line Practice; IDEAL; Interim Profile; OAR; OCTAVE; Operationally Critical Threat, Asset, and Vulnerability Evaluation; Options Analysis for Reengineering; Personal Software Process; PLTP; Product Line Technical Probe; PSP; SCAMPI; SCAMPI Lead Appraiser; SCAMPI Lead Assessor; SCE; SEI; SEPG; Team Software Process; and TSP are service marks of Carnegie Mellon University.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Garcia, Suzanne.
CMMI survival guide: just enough process improvement / Suzanne Garcia, Richard Turner.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-768-68514-1 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Production management. 2. Quality control. 3. Capability maturity model (Computer software) I. Turner, Richard, 1954– II. Title.
TS155.G23 2006
658.5'03—dc22 2006022109
Copyright © 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. This publication is protected by copyright, and permission must be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. For information regarding permissions, write to:
Pearson Education, Inc.
Rights and Contracts Department
75 Arlington Street, Suite 300
Boston, MA 02116
Fax: (617) 848-7047
ISBN: 0-321-42277-5
Text printed in the United States on recycled paper at R.R. Donnelley in Crawfordsville, Indiana.
First printing, October 2006
Contents
List of Figures
Figure 1-1 A holistic view of the role of process |
Figure 2-1 IDEAL cycle |
Figure 2-2 Summary of Six Sigma DMAIC cycle |
Figure 2-3 Quality Improvement Paradigm |
Figure 2-4 A Decision-based Lifecycle for Improvement |
Figure 2-5 Interoperable process improvement with CMMI as the unifying reference |
Figure 3-1 Product versus process development phases |
Figure 4-1 The work areas of an organization supported by CMMI |
Figure 4-2 Notional CMMI Capability Profile |
Figure 4-3 Target Capability Profile |
Figure 5-1 Points-of-interest view |
Figure 5-2 Navigational routing |
Figure 5-3 Demographic view |
Figure 5-4 Decision/Implementation and Failure/Success modes |
Figure 5-5 DLI |
Figure 5-6 Adoption commitment curve |
Figure 5-7 Archetypal death of cartoons (adapted from Garcia and Presson, “Beyond Death by Slides” tutorial) |
Figure 7-1 SURVIVAL |
Figure 8-1 Solution Selling’s Pain-Impact-Vision Cycle |
Figure 8-2 Buyer’s Risk Cycle |
Figure 8-3 Graphical summary of the Satir Change Model |
Figure 9-1 RFA bar chart showing individual response variations |
Figure 9-2 Radar-chart summary of CMMI Readiness and Fit Analysis |
Figure 12-1 Product versus process development phases |
Figure 12-2 Example swim-lane diagram |
Figure 13-1 Consulting role grid |
Figure 13-2 Sample role questions |
Figure 13-3 Flow chart of Satir Change Model |
Figure 13-4 What Chaos is like |
Figure 13-5 Beginnings of a CMMI value network |
Figure 13-6 Adoption Commitment Curve |
Figure 13-7 Satir model plus Adoption Commitment Curve |
Figure 15-1 RFA form |
Figure 15-2 One-Hour Process Description summary diagram |
Figure 15-3 Process description cycles |
Figure 15-4 Conceptual view of infusion |
Figure 15-5 Example Level of Use profile |
Figure 15-6 Conceptual view of diffusion |
Figure 15-7 After the all-hands meeting |
Figure 15-8 Basic classes for key roles held |
Figure 15-9 Several pilots have started |
Figure 15-10 Widespread adoption has begun |
Figure 15-11 Starting to see Institutionalization |
Figure 15-12 Moving into widespread use |
Figure 15-13 Improvement is the new status quo! |
Figure 15-14 Example “body” for CSI exercise |
Figure 15-15 Archetypal death cartoons (adapted from Garcia and Presson’s “Beyond Death by Slides” tutorial) |
List of Tables
Table 3-1 Size-Based Advantages and Disadvantages |
Table 4-1 CMMI-DEV Process Areas |
Table 4-2 Task/CMMI Cross Reference |
Table 5-1 DLI Stages |
Table 5-2 CMMI Impacts on Business Goals |
Table 5-3 General Association of PAs with Product Life Cycle |
Table 9-1 CMMI Assumptions Table |
Table 10-1 Appraisal Approaches |
Table 11-1 Drexler-Sibbett Team Performance Model Summary |
Table 11-2 Critical Attributes of a Process Asset Library |
Table 12-1 Information Mapping Information Types |
Table 13-1 Rogers/Moore Adopter Categories and Characteristics |
Table 13-2 Example Communications Table |
Table 13-3 Typical Transition Mechanisms Categorized by Adoption Commitment Curve Category |
Table 15-1 Instruction for CBA Room Setup |
Table 15-2 Execution of a CBA |
Table 15-3 Procedure for Performing Readiness and Fit Analysis |
Table 15-4 Example Roles and Levels of Use |
Table 15-5 Diffusion Events Suggestions |
Table 15-6 Blank Diffusion Events Template |
Foreword
It is a delight for me to provide an introduction to this work. Despite our efforts to make the CMMI V1.2 documents complete, there is always great value in a guide like this. So although our release may not require a survival guide, you are in for a treat from these two. SuZ and Rich are two of the most creative folks in process improvement and have combined their talents to produce a wonderful, readable how-to approach to both the use of CMMI and the general conduct of process improvement.
In this book they provide a holistic, helpful, and humorous distillation of their experiences, tools, techniques, and observations. They step outside the traditional process improvement box and discuss the critical psychological, social, and management issues that must be overcome to be successful with CMMI in any environment, large or small. Their concept of survival is anchored in business value, practical strategies, and useful tools. For these reasons, the CMMI Survival Guide can be used by everyone from the executive suite to the delivery staff.
As I write this, I am conscious of the exceptional progress applying CMMI around the world. Currently 62 percent of more than 1,500 appraisals are conducted at development sites outside the United States. We have seen translations of all or parts of the CMMI model into Japanese, Chinese, French, Dutch, German, and Portuguese. This international expansion, crossing cultures and business environments, increases the need for the flexible, business-driven approach in the CMMI Survival Guide.
In addition to the international expansion, CMMI is expanding coverage of organizational needs for process discipline. Those who find they are providing services or acquiring technology rather than doing engineering development are finding that some adjustment in CMMI is needed to capture the best practices in their day-to-day environment. Two CMMI “constellations” are being developed to address these needs, and others likely will follow. Because this book focuses on the process improvement initiative and its successful outcome, it is equally valuable regardless of which constellation of CMMI is used.
We have just completed version 1.2 of CMMI based on well over 1,000 comments and suggestions. The three themes that drove this update were to
• Simplify the material
• Expand the coverage to include hardware elements, and provide basic coverage of key practices across the work environment
• Increase the confidence in appraisal results
We are extremely pleased that CMMI Survival Guide uses V1.2 as its basis.
For the last ten years it has been my pleasure to work with SuZ and Rich, both with improvement teams and at many conferences around the world. They have seen the challenges that change agents face within the organization and as advisors from afar. Change is never easy, but these two can help you prevent having “speed bumps” turn into “road closures” on your improvement journey!
Mike Phillips
CMMI V1.2 Program Manager
The Software Engineering Institute
July 2006