Process Improvement: Questions to ask
I have received several emails regarding articles that I wrote about process improvement using the CMMI. It seems there are still different opinions about implementing it. Consultants advocate that the first thing to do is having an appraisal to determine the maturity level of the company. By knowing the level of the company, consultants can help develop improvement plan so the company can move to the next levels. Training companies disagree and claim that the first thing should be done is having CMMI training for developers so they can understand and implement improvement activities. Although both are necessary activities but they should not be done first. I believe that obtaining commitment from company owner should be the first and the most important. Any improvement without commitment from senior managers will never work.
The reason consultants emphasize on having an appraisal first because it is how they make money. Typical appraisal costs a lot of money ($20,000 USD to $ 40,000 USD) in order for the company to know where it is on the CMMI levels but that is only the first activity. Additional improvement planning requires additional fees. There are more consulting activities to follow where company must continue to pay before it can improve. Some training companies advocate CMMI training first because they make money that way too. A basic CMMI training class could cost $10,000 USD or more but it is only the first. There are more training needed afterward. By following those advices, company has to spend a lot of money before they can improve anything. Therefore, it is important that for company owner to understand all necessary steps about process improvement.
Before starting process improvement company owners need to answers following questions: “Why are you interested in using the CMMI? Why do you want to improve the process? What are reasons that you want to change the way your company develop software? Are you willing to invest in your own people? Are you committed to make things happen in your company? Do you know that process improvement is a long journey? Are you willing to commit many years in improvement activities to achieve the desire results? Unless you can answer these questions honestly, you should NOT start the process improvement. Of course, if all you want is a “CMMI certificate” paper then I have no more comment. There is no need to discuss any further.
Company owner must understand that “Real improvement” is a long journey. It has many obstacles, many problems, and without strong commitment to go all the way, it will not succeed. If your projects have many defects, if your projects do not meet schedule, if your company have high turnover of developers, if your company is losing money and losing customers then having process improvement is a good reason. If you want to expand your business from local to global, want to build a good reputation as a quality company, establish a “Brand name” for your company then process improvement is also a good reason. If you want your company to have the best developers with good project results then process improvement is a good reason. If you want to be profitable, make more money than before then process improvement is also a good reason. However, you must have patient and commit to make it happens, not in one year, not in two years, but continuously because improvement never stop.
The fundamental of improvement using the CMMI is the correlation between process, product, and business result. Good process must bring good products and good product must bring good business results. However, many people only focus on having “process” without the product and business results. This has surprised me that company owners let it happens that way. Why people only want to have a certificate without any real results? Why people want to “advertise” something that they do not even know? Do they know that “False advertising” could bring disaster results? When a company achieves a CMMI Level 5 certificate, does the owner see any changes from last year? How many projects have achieved high quality, meet costs and time objectives? What are the average defects in the company? What is the percentage of project that meet schedule? Does the business increase? Does company have more customers today than few years ago? Is revenue increase significantly in the past few years?
I do believe that a formal CMMI appraisal with its criteria for validity, accuracy, corroboration, consistency, and sufficiency is very good way to understand your company strengths and weaknesses. I also believe CMMI trainings are valuable to help developers know more about software process. However, without a strong commitment of company owner I wonder what would happen? What would happen to developers who believe that the company will improve then see nothing happen? What will happen when people see so many times improvement failed? They lose their faith in management then no matter what happen, the company will never be able to improve anything.
Before engage into something expensive and require a lot of efforts, you may need to answer these questions honestly before jumping into something that you may regret later.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
