Highlights from Piloting CMMI with 2 Small Companies

1. Highlights from Piloting CMMI with 2 Small Companies SuZ Garcia channeled by Maggie Glover (with additions) Software Engineering Institute

2. Huntsville Pilot Project Overview (2003/2004) • A joint project performed by the partnership between the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) and Army Materiael Research Development and Engineering Command (AMRDEC) Software Engineering Division (SED) to establish the technical feasibility of developing guidance and other special-purpose transition mechanisms to support adoption of CMMI by small and medium enterprises (25 to 250 employees in Huntsville) • Selected 2 Pilot companies: Analytical Services, Inc. (ASI) and Cirrus Technology, Inc. (CTI) • Pilot artifacts available at the SEI website: • Toolkit (www.sei.cmu.edu/cmmi/publications/toolkit) (Sec 3 company profile, Sec 6 step by step process des) • Presentations on the Pilot

3. Huntsville (HSV) CMMI-SME Pilots:Selected Pilot Companies’ Characteristics • Both pilots are involved in product development for Government or engineering services to support product development • One pilot company has a manufacturing element • Both had recent experience with ISO 9000, but in different ways Companies selected via formal process administrated by HSV Chamber of Commerce, SEI, and AMRDEC SED

4. Summary of Materials Provided by Pilot Internalization Assumption Institutionalization Synergy Adoption Unintended Uses SCAMPI A Workshop Generic Practices Workshop SCAMPI A Appraisal Trial Use Possibilities Commitment Initial CMMI Gap Analysis Process Guidance Tutorial Measurement/Analysis Workshop Action Planning/Implementation Understanding Concepts Awareness Buzzwords Pilot Executive Brief Model-Based Improvement Overview Pilot Kickoff CMMI Education Pilot CMMI Business Analysis Contact Names Time Adapted from Patterson & Conner, “Building Commitment to Organizational Change”, 1982.

5. Sept ‘03 Oct ‘03 July ‘03 Aug ‘03 Nov ‘03 Dec ‘03 Feb ‘04 Mar ‘04 Apr ‘04 May ‘04 Jan ‘04 Pilot Executive Overview CMMI Overview Education CMMI Business Analysis Initial CMMI Gap Analysis Improvement Plan Preparation Meas & Analysis Workshop Process Guidance Tutorial Process (Re)Description Interim Progress Reviews SCAMPI A Workshop Generic Practices Workshop Appraisal Tool Training Appraisal Tool Guidelines • Appraisal Tool Population Quick Looks SCAMPI A Appraisal Conduct Lessons Learned Workshop Contact/Awareness Understanding Trial Use 9

6. ASI’s Experience of Benefits

7. ASI CMMI Pilot Summary • Initiated CMMI Pilot Project – Aug ’03 • Project Planning (PP) • Requirements Management (REQM) • Measurement and Analysis (M&A) • Completed Pilot in May ‘04 – Culminated with SCAMPI A Appraisal • Appraisal of 3process areas above with addition of: • Organizational Training (OT) • Organizational Process Focus (OPF) • Achieved Target Capability Level Profile • 2 projects across Engineering Services Business Unit • Database Upgrade—4 people • Logistics Deployment – 1 person managing external team

8. Initial Conclusions on Technical Feasibility of Using CMMI in Small Businesses • CMMI provides a set of best practices from which small businesses can benefit, when used appropriately • The continuous representation of CMMI allows small companies to focus on improvements that have the highest payoff for the company while learning about benefits of other elements of the model • Aligning improvement with business goals is particularly important for small businesses, and in this case was easily achieved • Simple CMMI-based improvements can have a significant impact in small organizations • “Changing” the practices within the model isn’t necessary in most cases; finding alternative practices and being creative in work products is often more relevant • Both CMMI and SCAMPI A (the CMMI appraisal method) scale down to fit small settings • The greatest challenge for small businesses is the affordability of Subject Matter Experts, and the infrastructure and appraisal costs

9. Establishingand MeasuringAgainst RealisticGoals EstablishingandSustainingProcessImprovementInfrastructure BuildingandSustainingSponsorship Defining andDescribingProcesses &Their Guidance Managingan appraisalLife Cycle DeployingNew orImprovedProcesses Process Improvement Competencies That Support Any Context, Including Small Settings From Garcia & Turner, CMMI Survival Guide: Just Enough Process Improvement, 2006.

10. Establishingand MeasuringAgainst RealisticGoals BuildingandSustainingSponsorship Applying the PI Competencies in Small Settings (1) • Take advantage of the fact that your sponsorship probably equals ownership! • Don’t take for granted that because you’re small, communication will automatically happen; agree on communication approaches and frequency with your sponsor • Make sure that your PI goals directly support your business’ goals. “Maturity Level 3” is rarely an appropriate PI goal!1 Pick the model/framework that aligns most closely with your business problems as your starting point • Collecting measures is often more difficult in small settings because basic business infrastructure like effort reporting systems are often missing. Try to find synergy between investments needed for PI progress measurement and other business needs. 1See CMMi Survival Guide pp.135-136 for my soapbox on this topic!

11. EstablishingandSustainingProcessImprovementInfrastructure Defining andDescribingProcesses &Their Guidance Applying the PI Competencies in Small Settings (2) • Don’t try to duplicate the infrastructure of the large organizations, but look for places where you can leverage elements of your business infrastructure for process improvement purposes • Decide whether you need to plan your infrastructure around staying small, or growing fast – it makes a huge difference in how much PI infrastructure you need to invest in • Keep it simple, both in content and representation! Processes in small settings should be simpler because of the small # of communication paths • Leverage process guidance documentation’s ability to provide “backup” for critical people in your project/organization who are probably performing multiple roles

12. Managingan AppraisalLife Cycle DeployingNew orImprovedProcesses Applying the PI Competencies in Small Settings (3) • Take advantage of the small # of people you have to deploy new processes/techniques to. If you leverage definition and deployment activities well, you can almost get “self-deploying” processes • Small settings often draw people who thrive on change – if this is the case, leverage that quality! • “Apprasial” here is not meant to imply CMMI-based appraisals – we just mean events that help you determine your progress in conforming to your chosen model/framework • If you look at this as a cycle, then you’re more likely to plan multiple interventions instead of just one; we all need progress measures to stay motivated when changing; so you’ll need multiple points where you perform these kinds of activities

13. ROI Meets the needs of the small business cost Applying the PI Competencies in Small Settings Summary: Conclusion • Total number of days for the ‘consultant’ was somewhere around 18 (workshops, SCAMPI, and 1 day a month, etc.) • Kept the cost down and affordable for small business. • 2 kinds of ROI you can get • One against established baselines • Have I solved the problem ? Was it worth the solving of the problem? Is your quality of work better?