Planning High Maturity Implementation
Scoping Implementation:
Do we need CMMI in every hook and corner of your Organization or the places where you feel you get better Return of Investment is possible, is your first Decision. As an user your organization can decide to implement CMMI practices on enterprise wide and may do appraisal within a particular scope (Organizational unit scope). At this moment Tata Consultancy Services has done enterprise wide appraisal, which is one of the largest Organizational unit with maximum number of people across multiple countries. But not every Organization need to follow that path and its free for the user organization to decide which parts of your enterprise may need CMMI with particular Maturity level. Within an Organization there can be two different Maturity Level the organization may want to achieve for certain reasons, are also possible. In such case the factors like Criticality of Business, Stability in Performance, Unit Size (smaller or Larger), Dependencies with Internal/external sources, Type of Business (Staffing/Owning service or Development), Cycle of delivery (Shorter/longer,etc), people Competency, Existing Lifecycles and Lenient Methods usage, Technology used etc can determine do you really need CMMI High Maturity Level 5. Sometimes it could be only the expectation of your client to show your process maturity, however you may confident that you are already performing at a maturity level 5 or in optimizing mode. So you may choose to implement/validate the CMMI practices for a particular scope using CMMI Material and CMMI Appraisal (SCAMPI A). What happens if you are a 25000 member organization, which decides to implement CMMI HM for a division which has only 1500 members is that fine? Can you perform an appraisal and say you are at ML 5? Yes, it is. CMMI Model is not developed for marketing purpose or for an enterprise wide appraisal purpose. It’s developed to improve your delivery through Process improvements, hence if you decide to use it in a small part of organization, its up to you. The scope in which CMMI is Implemented is “Organizational Unit”, which has its own definition of Type of work, Locations covered, people and functions involved, type of clients serviced, etc. This boundary definition is a must when it comes to appraisal scope, however the same definition when you use in implementation time will give greater focus to the Organization. The Organizational Unit can be of equivalent description of the Organization, if you choose the entire business units and functions within your Organization. However there are instances where the Organization claims its overall ML5 with smaller Organizational Unit (Less than Organization), which is not acceptable. The CMMI Institute has published appraisal results site, where the clients can see the Organizations’ real scope of Appraisal (implementation scope could be larger than this) and verify whether the business centre and practices of supplier are part of this scope.
From an Organization which implements CMMI High Maturity Practices, we may need to consider the business objectives and its criticality, where systematic changes are possible and measurable, where clients wants us to consider improvements, which are the activities we can control and where we can influence, where we feel improvements are possible and currently we observe failures and/or wastages.
Selection of HMLA and Consultants:
This is activity plays an important role in your CMMI ML5 Journey, after all there are many places in CMMI its subject to the interpretation of your HMLA and consultant. High Maturity Lead Appraiser (HMLA) are certified by CMMI Institute and only they can do an Appraisal and announce result of an Organization as Maturity Level 4 or 5. When you start your long journey which varies from 1.5 years to 3 years typically, your effort is going to be shaped most often by your HMLA and Consultant. Their presence with you should be beneficial in terms of improving your process there by achieving business results.
Hence when selecting your HMLA and Consultant, its important to check, how many organizations they have supported to successfully to achieve CMMI High Maturity in the last 2 years. Do they have experience in your type of business or they have earlier assisted/performed CMMI activities to a similar organization like yours. This will help you to get an idea on what you will be getting from them as guidance in future. Less experience is always a risk, as your team also might be needing some good guidance and review points to look. Check the geographic locations served by them and communication abilities in your native language also an important aspect, when your organizational presence is limited to a particular region and your people are not comfortable with foreign language. Also this will help in quick settling of consultant and HMLA to your culture.
There are HMLA’s who has never done any High Maturity Appraisals in the past, but have cleared the eligibility criteria of CMMI Institute and been certified many years ago. They have also been able to renew their certificates based on their work on research, active participation on formal forums/seminars of CMMI Institute and been able to collect their renewal points. However their experience and comfort to perform a SCAMPI A appraisal for you can’t be judged easily. This is a critical fact an organization has to consider. The same for a consultant who has worked in the past for many CMMI ML2 and ML3 consulting, but not in High Maturity Level (ML4 and ML5), its difficult to deliver many a times. Hence a special care to be given by your Organization in selecting your HMLA.
Similarly the working style of HMLAs differ and that has to be checked specific to your organizations. Some of them looks at overall intention of the Goals and guide your team in interpreting it in a better way and then pushes your team to achieve the target. However some of them looks at practice level aspects in details and always questions your ability to interpret and implement the practice. Such style of working may not really motivate your Organization and your team. Considering this a long journey with your HMLA and Consultant, its important to understand their working style quickly and decide. Some Organizations pay for Spot Checks/Reviews and then see their way of working before entering into final agreement.
Similarly it’s important to see how well your consultant (if you have one) and your HMLAs getting aligned. If they both work completely in isolation, that means there is more risk of final moment changes coming from HMLA. Its always recommended to have frequent checks by HMLA to get confirmation on the Process improvement path you have taken and its design. In the past we have seen Organizations do lot of rework simply because they failed to involve HMLA’s in the intermediate checks and left only to consultants. Also check if your Consultants at least have CMMI Associate Certification. In future there is a possibility that CMMI Institute might announce certification as CMMI Professional or Specific to consultants.
Scheduling CMMI HM Implementation:
Many organizations wants to achieve CMMI ML5 in 1.5 of years and there are few who understands the natural cycle of it and ready for 2 to 3 years implementation. We shall remember the Maturity is a state where we have industrialized practices and able to demonstrate capabilities, hence you need time to see whether your organization performs in this state for some time. In addition, most of the practices have interdependency with sequencing and not parallel activities. Above all, to achieve your Business Vision and Targets with Process Maturity needs time to understand and improve processes. Hence anyone implementing CMMI L4 and L5 in a period less than 1.5 year shall be studied for the best and worst.
The decision of timeline depends on factors like basic measurement structure, Process Culture, readiness for improvements/resistance for improvements, People and technical capabilities and frequency of visible outcomes and finally the time required to achieve Business Objectives (though it’s not mandatory to demonstrate complete achievement). We would typically need a time period of 2 years to achieve the High Maturity.
The Key Factors to be considered in making a Schedule for CMMI HM are,
*Number of Business Units/Delivery Teams are Involved
*Number of functions involved and Interdependencies ( Metrics, SEPG, SQA, IT Support, Logistics, Training, Sr Management Teams, etc)
*Number of Business Objectives, QPPOs and Process Performance Models Required
*Possible Frequency of Process Performance Baselines(PPB) and Number of PPBs
*Current Level of Competency with Project Team, Quality Assurance and other vital teams and training Requirements
*Level of Resistance to change and time required for change Management
*Intermediate Reviews by High Maturity Lead Appraiser
*Process Up gradation Time to meet HM Requirements
*Time between SCAMPI B/ Pre Appraisal to SCAMPI A
*Internal Appraisals by Organization
*Organizational Initiatives Cycle
*Client and supplier Dependencies, if any
*Time Needed for a core Team who possess the understanding of Business with CMMI and Statistical Knowledge
CMMI Implementation structure:
Every Organization has an existing structure to delivery products or services, so why do we need to discuss on this point, they just have to implement High Maturity Practices isn’t it? Its not that easy, because learning of the model, interpretation to the job we do and application new techniques (statistics & structured analysis) has to be demonstrated by these teams. Hence unless we have dedicated groups it would be difficult to bring knowledge and interpretations to real life conditions. Moreover, the client or neither we will be interested in making the Project managers and team to spend time and effort in the area where they are not really that strong. By setting up CMMI core team we can concentrate our efforts and bring the best and pass it to the Organization. The underlying needs in setting up CMMI Specific teams are a) Scheduling and monitoring of the CMMI High Maturity Program b) BO, QPPO finalization with Regular Monitoring of achievement and PCB preparation c) Process Performance Model development, usage in projects, Sub process monitoring checks in projects d) Causal analysis application guidance to projects e) Organizational Innovation/Improvement Initiatives running. These activities can be done by i) one central core group formed in the organization or existing QA organization can take care of it or ii) activities a, b, c is taken care by core group/QA group and d and e by a new group or there can be N number of combination like these can be formed in teams based on your organizations existing structure.
However typically you need people with good quantitative and statistical understanding to drive the activities relevant to Objectives fixing, PPM and PCB preparation, etc. Also people with good understanding in engineering and Project management can be involved in causal analysis and in Organizational Innovation activities to support the Performance of Organization to achieve Business Objectives.
It’s important to ensure that there is clarity with every team in terms of Roles and Responsibilities and their Interaction points. Also its important to ensure the project team has learnt High Maturity Practices and they are able to use it effectively without much handholding from Quality Assurance or any other teams.
Steering Committee
The High Maturity Program needs a big change in legacy and culture many a times. To achieve this a committee with clear driving abilities and authority should be available in the Organization. Steering Committee drives the program of High Maturity achievement by removing impediments and providing necessary support. Typically Delivery Heads of Business Units, functions and Operations would be part of it along with the CMMI Program Team. The Identified CMMI Program Manager can provide information on various activities their status. The SEPG and Other Important functions will be represented to make action plan to progress further. The Sponsor of the Program will be the chairperson for the meetings. These meetings can happen on monthly/bimonthly basis.
Typically the following aspects at High Maturity can be discussed,
*Planned Milestone dates and current achievement details
*Involvement Need of stakeholders
*Competency Needs of Project teams and functions
*Selection of High Maturity Lead Appraiser and Managing Activities
*Resource Needs to Drive the Program
*Technology and Lifecycle updates Required in context
*QMS Update and Purpose
*Approval for Improvements/Innovations to pilot and to deploy
*Scoping Implementation
*Interaction points with Other Units/Functions and Support Needed
*Challenges and Issues in Implementation
*Appraisal Planning
*Support Needed Area in Implementing CMMI High Maturity