CMMI

CMMI for Development and CMMI for Services

What is CMMI for Development?

The CMMI for Development Model (CMMI-DEV) provides guidance for applying CMMI best practices in a development organization. Best practices in the model focus on activities for developing quality products and services to meet the needs of customers and end users.  CMMI-DEV contains practices that cover project management, process management, systems engineering, hardware engineering, software engineering, and other supporting processes used in development and maintenance.  Organizations from many industries, including aerospace, banking, computer hardware, software, defense, automobile manufacturing, and telecommunications, use CMMI for Development. 

What is CMMI FOR SERVICES?

This CMMI for Services Model (CMMI-SVC), provides a comprehensive integrated set of guidelines for providing superior services.  The CMMI-SVC model provides guidance for applying CMMI best practices in a service provider organization. Best practices in the model focus on activities for providing quality services to customers and end users.  CMMI-SVC contains practices that cover service delivery, service transition, strategic service design, work management, process management, and other supporting processes used in development and maintenance.  CMMI-SVC integrates bodies of knowledge that are essential for a service provider. 

What is path to CMMI Certification?

Many organizations new to CMMI assume that there is a CMMI Certification similar to ISO 9001 or similar standards.  There is no such CMMI Certification.  Organizations receiver a maturity rating that demonstrates their ability to meet the prescribed practices and goals of the model.  Organizations, especially those new to CMMI, begin by aligning their internal processes to the CMMI process areas.  The result is inefficient system that forces the business to do unnecessary and resource consuming tasks.  CMMI is not a set of requirements, it's a model containing practices that can be met in a multitude of ways.  Often organizations are currently executing many of the practices, but they are not either recognizing it (because it's called something different) or it's simply not documented.  Our approach focuses on leveraging all the things that make your business successful and that you already do regularly and builds on it to help your achieve your desired maturity rating.  In some cases, you may have missing processes or process documentation, other times you may just need to wrap measures around a particular function to focus and improve performance.  In the end, we help you build, implement, and measure a robust and efficient set of business and technical processes that are uniquely you, but can be mapped during the appraisal process to meet the expectations of CMMI. 

To implement CMMI, we use a structured approach  for defining project plans, specific responsibilities and verification of results. The result is a development and implementation strategy that is more efficient and provides for first time success in meeting your maturity rating goals.

i3 Design and Consulting uses a five step approach:

1. System Scope and Project Planning.  In this phase we validate of the current scope, review of all currently developed documentation and data, interview key stakeholders, and develop a PMI/PMBOK-based project plan.
2. Documentation Development and Tools Implementation.  The objective is to instantiate the process, plan, and tool infrastructure for the management system. The key document for the implementation is the System Framework. The document lays out the scope of the system and maps the process infrastructure and associated relationships. Concurrent to the Framework, we develop and tailor the required policies, processes, procedures, work instructions, plans, forms, and templates.  To support the process implementation, we utilize your existing IT infrastructure to implement simple and easy to use tools.  For most organizations, we configure an existing Microsoft SharePoint portal environment or ServiceNow platform to implement a process asset library, change-tracking tool, incident and problem management tool, corrective action tool, process improvement request tool, and risk management tool.  For CMMI for Development we provide expertise on configuration of agile tools such as: Jira, Visual Studio Online, and VersionOne.  
3. Training and System Implementation. The objective of this phase is to train your functional staff on the activities and artifacts/records needed to support the system and substantiate the system for the audit and appraisal.  We offer Microsoft PowerPoint or SCORM-compliant Computer Based Training (CBT) process training options.  After completing the training, we work with you to implement the processes and plans.  As execution proceeds, we collect and monitor process and performance data to incrementally improve your system.
4. Internal Assessment and Recovery. The objective of this phase is to objectively evaluate the system, engage management, and recover for a CMMI SCAMPI B event.  We purports the use of process based internal audits versus a simple auditing against the standard.  While both will achieve meeting the CMMI requirements, the process-based approach will provide more useful information on how well the processes are working and improving your organization.  We offer multiple options to complete an internal audit.  For many organizations, we lead the initial internal audit with a customer team.  This provides an opportunity to learn hands-on from an industry expert.  For others, we simply provide training and the audit is done internally by the customer.  We support you to plan and hold a successful management review meeting.  As part of that meeting, executive management reviews the implementation of the system focusing on internal audit results, resources, customer feedback, and the analysis of measurement data.  The results of the meeting are to communicate the status of the system and engage executive management in the improvement of the system.  Last, we actively support you in the planning, execution, and recovery of a CMMI SCAMPI B (or similar) event.  As appropriate, we recommendations on qualified registrar, actively participate in the appraisal team, and develop of the Practice Implementation Indicator Descriptions. 
5. 3rd Party SCAMPI Appraisal.  The objective of this phase is to prepare you for the 3rd party SCAMPI A appraisal.  We work with the appraiser to develop the appraisal plan and coordinate the appraisal events.  We prepare your appraisal team and most likely interviewees to increase the comfort level with typical appraisal questions.  i3 does not serve as the consultant AND lead appraiser for SCAMPI A or B appraisals. We are on board to support your organization and conducting the lead appraiser role on work we helped design represents a conflict of interest.  However, i3 can recommend high quality approved CMMI appraisers with a proven track record for exceptional support.

How long does it take?

At i3 Design and Consulting we specialize in helping organizations achieve their process improvement goals in record times.  Most implementations do not need to take 12-18 months to implement, but they need more than a month.  If you are an organization that requires a CMMI appriasal, you should be planning to begin your implementation 4-6 months ahead of your deadlines.  The driving factors in scoping the timing include:

• Type of Required Appraisal. 
  • CMMI for Development and Services (Level 3 or higher) are longer implementations because there are simply more requirements to implement and your organization is going to have to generate the appropriate data artifacts to satisfy the appraisal requirements.  For planning purposes, you should allow 4-6 months for a CMMI implementation.  More complex implementations will add to that estimate. 
• Scheduling Auditors and Appraisers. 
  • CMMI uses independent appraisers to provide recommendations for a staged or capability-based rating.  It is not uncommon for the schedules of the better and more experienced appraisers to fill up 6-9 months in advance.  Finding an appropriate appraiser should be one of the first steps in your implementation plan. Otherwise, it will quickly become the key dependency on your critical path.
• CMMI Institute Quality Review. 
  • Once the audit or appraisal is complete, the results must be validated by the CMMI Institute before the organization officially can claim its qualification.  In particular, the CMMI Institute has strict rules around public release of declarations before final review approval that could result in invalidating your results and having to redo the appraisal process.  You should plan for 2-3 weeks for these reviews although they often are completed faster.

Why Use a Consultant?

You don't need a consultant to achieve a maturity rating in CMMI for Development or Services.  However, using an experienced consultant can significantly improve the implementation speed and the effectiveness of the system.  Our goal is to help your organization improve its business AND ensure you receive your certification.  Our approach focuses on improving your current business processes and functions while using the standards as checkpoints to validate your success.  For each project we identify measurable goals and return on investment expectations.  The intent is to make sure that any process changes brought forth by the introduction of the standards into your environment improve the business performance.

Scenarios to consider a consultant:

1. The implementation team has limited experience designing and implementing a new system.  To be clear, having worked under an CMMI system is not the same experience as designing and implementing a new system.
2. Your company plans to implement more than one standard (now or in the future).  If you plan to pursue other CMMI model ratings or add ISO standards, then you should consider implementing an integrated management system.  This is a complex system design and the use of a consultant is highly recommended.  Making appropriate design decisions on your initial system design can greatly reduce the cost and rework as you add new models and standards to your management system. 
3. Government contractor.  If you are a government contractor, the interaction of U.S. Government regulations can greatly increase the complexity of the implementation.  Using a consultant familiar with the regulatory aspects of your business can reduce redundancy in your compliance and quality management systems.  

How much does it cost?

We know that companies and budgets vary.  As such, we've created multiple consulting options based on our experiences from working with customers of all shapes, sizes, and situations.  Picking the right engagement strategy is often as important as the engagement itself.  Make an appointment to talk with us about choosing the best option for your company.