CMMI Benchmark and Custom Appraisals

What is CMMI?
CMMI is a collection of best practices used by software, hardware, IT development, and service organizations to improve their cost, schedule and quality results. It is organized into a roadmap that can be implemented incrementally over time.

Useful links

• Changes in CMMI V3
• CMMI for Development Summary
• CMMI for Services Summary
• Formal and informal CMMI appraisals
• Custom appraisals using your criteria
• CMMI for Development resource page
• CMMI for Services resource page
• Integration with Agile/PMBOK

A process appraisal is an objective and practical method for evaluating and improving the processes of your organization. The purpose of an appraisal is to obtain consensus on the strengths and weaknesses of the engineering, service and management practices of an organization. It also provides an objective benchmark against the practices of the CMMI (see Development model summary, Services model summary). Appraisals can take between 2 and 10 days based on the size of the organization, the number of locations, and processes in scope.

Everyone has his or her own idea of how the organization can be improved. Because of this, there can be disagreement about how to proceed, and this in itself hinders progress. An appraisal provides focus on the strengths and any critical areas to improve.

The Process Group appraisals have the following features:

• Each appraisal is scoped to meet the needs of the organization.
• An appraisal team is formed and trained in the appraisal method. (The team comprises of typically 4-6 members selected from the client organization and a certified lead appraiser from The Process Group.)
• The Process Group provides briefings on the appraisal method to the appraisal participants.
• Senior management is involved in the appraisal process to ensure buy-in of the results.
• The findings of the appraisal are developed during the appraisal period with significant involvement of managers, practitioners, QA and project/team leaders of the organization.
• The findings are mapped to the business goals of the organization (optional step). This helps ensure that improvement priorities are in alignment with business needs.
• The final appraisal results are presented to the management team and appraisal participants on the last day of the appraisal.
• Our lead appraisers do not overly focus on rote CMMI compliance and excessive process documentation. Focus is placed on the organization obtaining the intended benefit from the CMMI practices.

After an appraisal, you will have:

• An organization-wide consensus on the strengths and most crucial problems.
• A common framework, for both managers and practitioners, to improve the results of the group.
• The foundation for a tailored improvement plan designed to raise the level of your organization’s performance.

If your organization could benefit from any of the above objectives, we can show you how easily and quickly they can be achieved.

“Neil Potter has been supporting the process improvement efforts of Lockheed Martin CDL Systems, a division of Lockheed Martin Canada, and its predecessor CDL Systems Ltd for past 8 years.

Twelve years ago we have adopted Agile software engineering principles for developing mission critical software. Neil provided very practical guidance and advice on our processes tailored to our type of business. His understanding of Agile software development principles and knowledge of CMMI process areas helped us in aligning our Agile practices with CMMI process areas. He was excellent in communicating with our team providing areas for improvement during the appraisals.”

Venkat Mantripragada, Lockheed Martin CDL Systems, a division of Lockheed Martin Canada.

“The Process Group’s Agile/Scrum class provided useful guidance on how to combine Agile/Scrum methodologies with software engineering lifecycle processes, creating a powerful combination of adaptability and predictability for software development.”

Margaret Bailey, Engineering Process Group Lead, Sonalysts, Inc., Waterford, CT.

THE PROCESS GROUP

The Process Group principals are trained and certified by The CMMI Institute to perform CMMI Service and Development appraisals. Since 1989, they have been appraising organizations using the appraisal process (previous SPA and CBA-IPI methods for CMM).

Neil and Mary have helped more than 470 organizations implement various CMMI (and previously CMM) levels and practices. Their appraisals have included a wide variety of industries, such as telecommunications, real-time embedded devices, services (sales, accounting), information systems, defense, hardware development, and web/mobile applications. (See testimonials.)

In addition to this, we also offer consultation services that are designed to provide your organization with tangible results, and speaking engagements that help you understand how your organization can improve its development and service process.

Process improvement planning

The Process Group can also provide assistance to help develop an improvement plan following an appraisal. This plan is based on the findings from the appraisal, the business goals of the organization and the criteria for the next maturity level (if desired).

Reference Materials:

The Process Group book: “Making Process Improvement Work“.