Target Audience:
Practitioners and managers who want a quick understanding of CMMI and how to jump start applying it in their organization with simple, collaborative work sessions.

Level: Just starting

What will you learn :

• The importance of focusing on the organization’s product flow and how CMMI and SPI provide guidance to evolve its processes
• The basic concepts of the CMMI, the components, the Process Areas of each Maturity Level and the role of the institutionalization practices
• How to use the CMMI in the Process Improvement Cycle
• Practical knowledge of the Maturity Level 2 Process Areas and the common problems they help address
• How to organize for SPI and the roles in SPI critical for success
• Through the brainstorms and exercises
  • The common problems and bottlenecks in delivering a quality product
  • How to translate key CMMI terms and concepts (e.g., stakeholders, interfaces, etc.) to your organization’s context
  • The most important solutions/guidance in CMMI for solving delivery problems
  • The barriers and enablers to your success in SPI

Description:
This CMMI Tutorial is triple-acting; it provides participants with an understanding of the CMMI, it’s fundamental concepts and use in the organization along with a description of the Maturity Level 2 Process Areas using the pictograms from A Guide to the CMMI by Ken Dymond; helps participants identify their organization’s common problems/ bottlenecks in delivering a quality product and the practical guidance of the CMMI in solving these problems; and provides process improvement practitioners with exercises and techniques that they can use in their organization to jump start the improvement program, identifying the areas of CMMI to focus on first.

Outline:

•  1. Process and cmms
  • a. Process: What Is It?
  • b. People-Process-Technology plus time
  • c. Why do Projects fail
  • d. Why focus on Process?
  • e. Process Evolves: Either without you or with you
  • f. Systematic Process Improvement Is Evolving the Product Flow
  • g. An evolutionary Process Model is a Guide and a Framework for How the Product Flow Evolves
  • h. The Goal is to improve the Bottom Line by Focusing on What Drives It
  • i. Brainstorm: What gets in the way of producing a quality product – first individually and then as group
  • j. Exercise: Diagram your high-level product flow and identify common bottlenecks
• 2. Basic Concepts of the CMMI®
  • a. What is the CMMI®
  • b. CMM History
  • c. Why was the CMMI Developed?
  • d. Exercise: What groups need to work together to produce your product? What are examples of difficulties with these interfaces?
  • e. CMMI Models and Disciplines
  • f. Process Areas
  • g. Categories of Process Areas within CMMI
  • h. CMMI Model Representations
  • i. CMMI Staged Representation
  • j. CMMI Maturity Levels
  • k. Maturity Level 1 
  • l. CMMI Maturity Level 2 Overview
  • m. CMMI Maturity Level 3 (1 of 2) Overview
  • n. CMMI Maturity Level 3 (2 of 2)
  • o. CMMI Maturity Level 4 Overview
  • p. CMMI Maturity Level 5 Overview
  • q. Institutionalization and the CMMI
• 3. How to Use CMMI
  • a. Implementing is the difference between models and your reality
  • b. The CMMI is always a component
  • c. The Process Improvement Cycle
  • d. CMMI and Systematic Process Improvement
  • e. Appraisal as a beginning
  • f. Role of Appraisal: SCAMPI
  • g. SCAMPI Life cycle
  • h. Results of CMMI Success
  • i. Common Pitfalls to Success in SPI
• 4. Maturity Level 2 Process Areas 
  • a. Requirements Management PA– purpose and discussion using Dymond
  • Diagrams, Generic Practice Discussion GP 2.7
  • b. Brainstorm: what is your product and what work products do you produce?
  • c. Project Planning PA – purpose and discussion using Dymond diagrams, Generic Practice discussion – GP 2.2
  • d. Project Monitoring & Control PA – purpose and discussion using Dymond Diagrams
  • e. Exercise: In table teams, discuss and capture – What solutions have they heard from REQM, PP, & PMC to the problems captured earlier in producing a quality product? Brainstorm as a group and write on flipcharts.
  • f. Supplier Agreement Management PA – purpose and discussion using Dymond diagrams 
  • g. Measurement and Analysis PA – purpose and discussion using Dymond diagrams
  • h. Process and Product Quality Assurance PA – purpose, discussion using Dymond diagrams, Generic Practice discussion – GP 2.4
  • i. Implementing QA Style and objectivity Dimensions
  • j. Configuration Management PA – purpose, discussion using Dymond Diagrams
  • k. Exercise: In table teams discuss and capture – What PAs (no more than 3) would be beneficial to address first and why? Brainstorm and tally results as a group.
• 5. Organizing for SPI
  • a. The PI team is another view of the regular organization
  • b. Roles in SPI: Sponsor
  • c. Roles in SPI: Middle Managers
  • d. Roles in SPI: EPG as Coordinator
  • e. Roles in SPI: User/Customer
  • f. Brainstorm: Barriers and Enablers to Process Improvement 
    Exercises are about 35-40% of the tutorial day. Results will be captured electronically and e-mailed to participants.

Prerequisites:
None.

Presenter:
Cynthia Wise
Process Transition International, Inc. 

Cynthia Wise has 23 years experience in software management/development and process improvement. She has been a process improvement consultant since 1990 and is co-founder of Process Transition International, Inc. (PTI). While a member of the SEI’s Process Program, she was Task Leader for developing the Capability Maturity Model (CMM). She is an SEI-authorized instructor of the Introduction to CMMI course. She has assisted numerous companies in their improvement efforts with facilitation, consulting, training, and appraisals.