The CMMI journey
I have received several emails inquiring about the use of CMMI for process improvement. I have written many articles in this website, so please review them. When people think of process improvement, they must consider the three components: process, people, and tools. These three components play an important in determining how successful the process improvement results will be. Company needs a well-defined processes to develop software. Company needs tools to support their process and make the development activities more efficient. However, company must realize that it is their people that do the work by following the process, and use the tools. Therefore, if you want to improve, the best is to focus on your employees because they are responsible for the success or failure of your improvement effort.
Many people keep ask me about the CMMI levels and the appraisal. As I mentioned in previous blogs, a level is meaningless if it does not bring real result. An appraisal is only a review of a company’s capability against a standard such as the CMMI. It is important to understand that real improvement comes with the employees. Most issues in low level CMMI are really about the lack of knowledge and skills so you can do well by paying attention to these areas. The major problems in CMMI lower levels are NOT technical but bad behavior, bad habit, due to lack of knowledge. A developer skips design and hurry to write code is one example of bad habit. A manager orders the team to skip testing is another example of bad behavior. A project manager estimates project schedule by select an arbitrary date based on his own intuition or customer request is an example of lack of knowledge. Software work is NOT technological work but social work because nobody works alone. Teamwork is so important in software development but personal conflicts, internal jealousy, not sharing information, provide wrong data are all bad behavior that must change.
In higher CMMI levels, developers always work in team, they have fun and perform at their best because teamwork is everything. That is why they are at higher levels. That is why these developers work together to overcome obstacles. That is why there is no individual hero but only “the team”. If your company already had a CMMI appraisal, you probably know that unless your company was appraised at CMMI level 4 or 5, many problems that you encountered were people issues. You must deal with these issues as they are foundations for all the improvement work. For example, If your developers must complete projects based on “unrealistic schedules” or work in an environment that allows so many personal conflicts, so many arguments, so many personal issues then do you think that they could improve the process and develop quality products?
If you cannot help your employees solve these problems. If you cannot convince them that you can help them solve these problems, your improvement effort will fail. If you do not care about real improvement but only want to have a certificate than you are paying too much for a piece of paper. Many owners dream of having a certificate so they can display in their offices and websites, many believe that customers will see that then immediately want to do business with them. Some consultants will probably advise them something like that. Some people believe the certificate is the ticket to get more business. Please remember that no customer would believe you, no one would give you a contract because you have a paper “certify” that your company is a CMMI level 5. Global companies only do business and sign contracts after they thoroughly review your company. They will conduct their own assessment to determine whether you have the skills and the domain expertise that match their needs. If you claim a CMMI level 5 but their review find that your company is nothing but a CMMI level 1 but “pretend ” to be a CMMI level 5 then it means that you are NOT honest and cannot be trusted. In that case, do you think they will sign a contract with you?
Process improvement must start with the vision, the commitment and the knowledge. It is a long and difficult journey. It will take several years to get to the destination. However a company owner that invests in their own employees will not travel alone. He will have an entire team that share his vision, his commitment and willing work hard to get to the destination. Together they will travel and over time, they will get to the destination.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
