|
|
|
|
Are you tired of your projects ending up severely “challenged” and missing their commitments for schedule, budget and scope? TenStep has the full solution of products and services to help your organization successfully execute projects. Contact them today at info@TenStep.com. They will work on the best package of projects and services to meet YOUR organization’s needs.
The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) describes a continuum of five stages that define how well a company or organization follows common and repeatable processes to get work done. The CMM was developed from 1984 to 1987 by Watts Humphrey and the Software Engineering Institute (SEI). The SEI is a part of Carnegie Mellon University. The work was funded, and continues to be funded, by the Department of Defense (DoD), which was originally looking for ways to compare and measure the various contractors that were developing software for the DoD.
The Five-Stage Capability Maturity Model (CMM)
There are some slightly different interpretations of the CMM. However, in general, there are five defined stages.
Ad-hoc / crises. Your organization has few common processes. The success of your projects depends on the strength and skills of your people. The organization provides little in a supporting environment to help make all projects successful. Most companies are at this level; although some companies say half-jokingly that they are at a 0 or even a -1 level.
Standard project management. Your organization has implemented standard project management processes, and you utilize these common processes on all projects. You are trying to establish a baseline foundation upon which to improve further in the future. Most companies that start down the CMM path are trying to reach this level.
Standard software development. You are trying to achieve standardization in your development process similar to what you did for project management in level 2. This includes common and repeatable software development processes, deliverables, tools, etc.
Managed feedback. You collect metrics on all aspects of your project management and development processes. You have a repository of metrics and key learnings on historical projects that can be leveraged by new projects.
Optimizing / continuous improvement. You have a closed loop of process execution, measurement and continuous improvement. You continuously use measurement, feedback and creativity to optimize your processes.
Is CMM Right for You?
Should your company start down the CMM road? Just as there are real benefits to reusing common software components, there is also value in reusing common processes. Why should every project manager in your company struggle to understand how to define a project and how detailed the workplan should be? Why should project managers struggle to understand how to effectively manage scope, risks and quality? These are not new concepts, even within your own company. These processes should all be defined once at an organizational level and then reused by all project managers.
You can use the CMM model as your guide as you try to implement common processes. You don’t have to start from level 1 and jump to level 5 in one year. Most companies only want to start by moving to level 2. However, even that short jump is not without pain. In many organizations, this is the first time people will be asked to follow a common set of processes and many won’t like it. If you can successfully get to level 2, then you should have already established the paradigm shift that will make the transition to level 3 a little easier.
Many companies are seeing that they can drive business value by implementing good, reusable processes throughout their organization. The Capability Maturity Model provides a framework that companies can use to measure themselves on a standard 1 - 5 scale. Most companies today are at level 1 and would love to get as high as level 2. However, there is definitely pain involved. There is pain involved with all culture change initiatives when you ask people to change how they do their jobs. However, the pain can definitely be worth the gain, if your company can stay focused for the time it will take for the culture change to take effect.
Each month, Tom Mochal presents a set of project management tips and techniques for handling various aspects of planning and managing a project. Tom is the recent winner of the 2005 PMI Distinguished Contribution Award. His company, TenStep, Inc. develops business methodologies, including a project management process called TenStep (www.TenStep.com) and a project lifecycle process called LifecycleStep (www.LifecycleStep.com).
