CMMI Survival Guide Just Enough Process Improvement

by Garcia, Suzanne; Turner, Richard

• ISBN13: 9780321510792
• ISBN10: 0321510798
• Edition: 1st
• Copyright: 2006-10-20
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional

Summary

The CMMI® Survival Guide is an effective resource for multiple readerships. If you are just now considering a process improvement program, with the CMMI among your options, the authors' discussion of relevant issues will enhance your business case right from the start. If you have already decided to implement the CMMI, the authors' practical knowledge will help you make the most of your efforts. Even if you are well into a CMMI implementation, but are lost, stuck, or going around in circles, the authors' valuable advice will help you regain your direction.

If you work in a smaller or resource-strapped organization, you will particularly benefit from the authors' description of alternative paths to process improvement–approaches that are more incremental or agile, and less intensive, than you might imagine for a CMMI implementation. The authors draw on their extensive experience working with diverse organizations, and on the CMMI tools, techniques, and templates developed for those organizations.

 

Whatever your background or need, the CMMI® Survival Guide will help you survey the CMMI territory, consult possible road maps, learn from other CMMI explorers, weigh the benefits of hiring a living guide, and even consider whether the trip is right for you.

Author Biography

Suzanne (SuZ) Garcia is a senior member of the technical staff at the Software Engineering Institute of Carnegie Mellon University. Since the early 1990's, Suz has led, authored, or reviewed a broad range of CMMs, covering all the topics contained in the latest CMMI. In addition, she has spent the past decade developing and applying techniques that support CMMI implementation in diverse settings, from adoptions by smaller organizations to adoptions in large, system-of-systems, contexts.

Richard Turner is a Fellow at the Systems and Software Consortium. For more than thirty years, he has worked with industry, government, and academia to improve the development and acquisition of complex, software-intensive systems. A member of the initial CMMI author team, he has led process improvement initiatives in information technology, system engineering, and software acquisition. He is a coauthor of Balancing Agility and Discipline: A Guide for the Perplexed (Addison-Wesley, 2004) and CMMI® Distilled, Second Edition (Addison-Wesley, 2004).

Table of Contents

List of Figures xiii

List of Tables xv

Foreword xvii

Preface xix

Acknowledgments xxiii

Part I Scouting the Territory 1

Chapter 1: Why We Think Process Is Important 3

1.1 A short history of process improvement 3

1.2 The role of processes in business 5

Chapter 2: Why Process Improvement Helps 9

2.1 Process improvement is about learning 10

2.2 Process improvement should be driven by business value 11

2.3 Process improvement can be valuable for organizations of all sizes 12

2.4 You have choices in your improvement approach 13

2.5 You have choices in the reference model 20

Chapter 3: Why Process Improvement Isn't Trivial 29

3.1 Building and sustaining sponsorship 30

3.2 Managing an appraisal life cycle 30

3.3 Developing and sustaining process improvement infrastructure 31

3.4 Deploying new and improved processes 32

3.5 Developing and measuring realistic goals 34

3.6 Advantages and disadvantages of different-size improvement efforts 35

3.7 Project management issues 38

3.8 Common pitfalls for PI initiatives 39

3.9 Summary of Part I 40

Part II Mapping the Route 43

Chapter 4: CMMI As Your Guide 45

4.1 Why CMMI? 45

4.2 CMMI primer 47

4.3 Some choices to think about in using CMMI 53

4.4 Using CMMI to guide your improvement 61

Chapter 5: A Decision-based Life Cycle for Improvement 65

5.1 Decide 71

5.2 Try initial (additional) model elements 80

5.3 Analyze 82

5.4 Commit 84

5.5 Reflect 86

5.6 Summary of Part II 88

Part III Surviving the Passage 91

Chapter 6: A PI Case Study 93

6.1 Decide (Cycle 1: To do or not to do) 93

6.2 Decide (Cycle 2: What to do, where, and when) 95

6.3 Try (Cycle 2: The first pilot) 96

6.4 Analyze (Cycle 2: The first pilot) 97

6.5 Commit (Cycle 2: The first pilot) 98

6.6 Reflect (Cycle 2: The first pilot) 99

6.7 Decide (Cycle 3: What's next) 100

Chapter 7: Survival and PI 103

7.1 Size up the situation 104

7.2 Undue haste makes waste 105

7.3 Remember where you are 106

7.4 Vanquish fear and panic 107

7.5 Improvise 109

7.6 Value living 110

7.7 Act like the natives 111

7.8 Live by your wits, learn basic skills 112

7.9 Summary of Part III 113

Part IV Experiencing the Journey 117

Chapter 8: Developing and Sustaining Sponsorship 119

8.1 Communicating with and sustaining sponsorship of organizational leadership 120

8.2 Seeking sponsors: Applying sales concepts to building and sustaining support 122

8.3 Being a sponsor: Welcome to the "foreign element" 127

Chapter 9: Setting and Measuring Against Realistic Goals 131

9.1 Setting goals and success criteria aligned with sponsor objectives 132

9.2 Understanding the current state of the organization:Readiness and Fit Analysis for CMMI 137

9.3 How do you tell if you've succeeded? 144

Chapter 10: Managing an Appraisal Life Cycle 151

10.1 To appraise or not to appraise: Is that really the question? 152

10.2 Different appraisal philosophies 153

10.3 Managing the resources needed to plan and conduct appraisal activities 156

Chapter 11: Developing Process Improvement Infrastructure 161

11.1 Developing and sustaining process improvement team members 162

11.2 Developing a team 164

11.3 Establishing improvement infrastructure to supportand sustain CMMI implementation 167

11.4 Staffing and organization 167

11.5 Creating and evolving a PAL (Process Asset Library) 170

11.6 Measurement system/repository 175

Chapter 12: Defining Processes 179

12.1 CMMI Business Analysis 180

12.2 Developing useful process guidance 181

12.3 Collecting/incorporating lessons learned from improvement activities 188

Chapter 13: Deploying Improved Processes 191

13.1 Finding/selecting pilots for CMMI implementation 191

13.2 Working with consultants 197

13.3 Deploying practices to the targeted organizational scope 199

13.4 Communication 207

Chapter 14: Looking Ahead 217

14.1 What's next for you? 217

14.2 What's next for PI? 219

14.3 Summary of Part IV 221

Part V Outfitting Your Expedition (PI Resources) 225

Chapter 15: Tools and Techniques 227

15.1 An example of setting SMART goals 228

15.2 Performing a CMMI Business Analysis 230

15.3 Performing a Readiness and Fit Analysis 235

15.4 One-Hour Process Description method 238

15.5 Infusion and diffusion measurement 245

15.6 CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) technique + Chaos Cocktail Party 262

15.7 Additional resources 265

Bibliography 273

Index 279