Evaluating CMMI: When is it a Good Fit?
By ExecutiveBrief Staff
What's the best way to identify and implement process improvement for your business? Gain the knowledge you need to determine if CMMI will fit the bill.
Many enterprises fully appreciate the business value in assessing their progress through a program that delivers a measurable maturity or capability rating. In the improvement of business processes ranging from software development to project management, this effort can be accomplished by instituting the Capability Maturity Model Integration, or CMMI.
What Is CMMI?
Current CMMI best practices are published in documents called models, which each address a different area of business processes: 1) product and service development and 2) supply chain management, including acquisition and outsourcing. According to the Software Engineering Institute (SEI), in each case, CMMI contributes to the interaction of traditionally separate organizational functions as well as to set process improvement goals and generally guides the quality process. In software or product development, a business must ask itself, what's not working with our current way of developing wares? Decision makers must have a clear answer to this question in order to understand how the CMMI model can be applied.
Why CMMI?
The business model weighs in as a primary consideration. CMMI will be a must if your business is involved in product development for federal agencies, or if you are a subcontractor to a federal agency's primary contractor. If this is your customer base, CMMI may well come up in the request for proposal (RFP).
If this is not your principal customer base, you may need more justification for implementing a process improvement program. According to Bill Smith, president and principal consultant at Leading Edge Process Consultants of Vienna, Virginia, and veteran SEI-authorized CMMI instructor, "CMMI forces the business to think long and hard about business objectives. Organizations X, Y, and Z have differing business priorities," he says. If time to market, for example, is a priority, it will become one of the business objectives addressed in your CMMI-based improvement effort.
But clarifying business objectives isn't the only advantage of CMMI. As Smith notes, "When applied correctly, it helps the business to operate better, cheaper, and faster, and it reduces risk."
Software development is a process that may benefit from CMMI. The SEI reports that, on average, software businesses dedicate 65 percent or more of their engineering dollars to addressing quality issues. This means that only one-third of the organization is actually creating something. Through the application of CMMI, software organizations can reduce this cost of quality to 40 percent or less, ultimately freeing up funds to pursue actual product development.
CMMI is about process improvement. More specifically, it about improving processes involved with managing how organizations develop or acquire solution-based wares. So an important question to first consider is: Do you feel that you should be looking at improving your processes?
CMMI normally begins with an informal evaluation, also known as an appraisal or gap analysis. No ratings are associated with this evaluation; the results are used to set the approval priorities of the business. Other less formal appraisals may be done as well. Finally, there is a more formal "Class A" appraisal that compares the process or processes you wish to change with a CMMI model. This leads to a "maturity score" ranging from one through five, where the highest number signifies the greatest level of "maturity" for the organization. This evaluation does require investments of time, manpower, and financial resources, and it is the only one that can result in a level rating
These types of appraisals are typically conducted for one or more of the following reasons:
- To identify how well the organization's processes compare to CMMI best practices and identify areas for improvement.
- To inform external customers and suppliers (where necessary or desirable) about how well the processes of the business compare to CMMI's best practices.
- To meet contractual requirements that mandate CMMI (for one or more customers).
Smith advises that formal business appraisals using CMMI models must adhere to the requirements defined in the Appraisal Requirements for CMMI (ARC) document. The evaluations focus on identifying opportunities for improvement and comparing CMMI best practices to the processes being used by the organization. Evaluation teams use a CMMI model and ARC-conformant appraisal method to guide their evaluation of the business and report conclusions. The results of the appraisal are then used (e.g., by a process group) to plan process improvements.
Smith cautions, "If your goal is not a level rating, you can do without the formal appraisals, but you will still need to work with people who know what's in the model. And the model documents can run 700 pages or more," he points out. At the very least, there should be personnel available who have been through process improvements or organizational change activity. Without this experience in-house, a business may need to invest in an outside consultant and trainer in order to be able to use this tool for process refinements.
The CMMI Decision
So how do you decide if CMMI is the right approach for your organization? As Smith suggests, "That depends on what you're trying to accomplish." Of course, the decision is also dependent on the size and resources of the business.
Some feel that CMMI is unnecessary if the business is the master of its own specifications. While looking at CMMI could be an advantageous consideration for those in search of change management tools, those businesses that are not compelled to implement CMMI solutions through RFP or contractual obligation might benefit from a different approach.
There are some obstacles for those who need or want CMMI modeling for managing process improvements. The greatest obstacle can be a lack of knowledge as to what is in the model. The model is substantial, and stakeholders should have at least a core understanding prior to making the decision to embark on the journey. An important step is evangelizing CMMI to senior management, who would have to provide both policy input and necessary funds for the project. Selling executives on change and change management is a non-trivial task. An ROI presentation might be in order, even in cases where CMMI is mandated by contract.
There are some improper or ineffective ways to implement CMMI. Probably the least advised approach is mandating process improvement procedures in a vacuum. An example of such a situation might be where a business gathers a project group, which subsequently develops process documents and says, "Here is how we do project management...." Smith asserts, "If they don't consult those who actually do the work, it won't work well." Simply, the people who are using the processes must be included in the development.
The Internal Sell
Because CMMI requires investments of time, money, and manpower to implement and (even more important) to realize cost of quality advantages, the evangelist for CMMI must work to foster buy-in from the various stakeholders, especially senior management. Gaining executive support is not simply a matter of helping them to achieve a sophisticated understanding of CMMI. The lingua franca of business executives is money. Decision making is done in the context of money, and this is the appropriate context in which to sell the program.
For the small company, the greatest impediment to implementing CMMI is typically the upfront costs. The advantage for smaller organizations, on the other hand, is that there are fewer communications agents, and gaining support from the actual process users is not as complicated. Larger companies might find it easier to absorb the costs, but there are more layers of management and staff stakeholders to get on board.
When it comes to establishing buy-in. an ROI presentation may prove to be the most effective approach. In this context, ROI represents a comparison of the costs and benefits of a process improvement effort across a specific organizational scope and time span. Those presenting the case for the CMMI effort must understand the scope of the analysis, the appropriate time horizon for analysis, all relevant and related costs (e.g., training, materials, other soft costs), and the financially quantifiable benefits. The rules of engagement: present all cost and benefit information in dollars and cents.
Execute
ROI alone may be the selling point for senior management, but while it is a constituent that may be vitally important, it will not necessarily improve the results of a CMMI effort. You must execute. As with any process improvement effort, the implementation team should find ways to leverage best practices in organizational change in order to overcome resistance to the change. Ultimately, ROI should be determined and tracked not only for its own sake, but also because it keeps the focus squarely where CMMI belongs...on the material benefits to the business.
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