Process Improvement and CMMI Maturity Level 3: In the Ultra-Small

March 13, 2009

JFR Consultingjfryskowski@yahoo.com

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Feeling Ancient? Ancient Egyptians realized the

need for middle-management when they buried 401 shabtis with their royalty; 365 to perform daily tasks, and 36 to manage those 365. How many shabtis should be buried if there were only 10 days in a year?

This is the story of a 12 person company that achieved maturity level 3.

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Table of Contents

The Organization (company) The Defined Process (OSP) The Appraisal

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the Organization (Company) 1

Physically 12 person company Geographically disparate personnel Incorporated 20 October 2000 Based in Mesa, Arizona Software Systems engineering company

Specializing in software architectures Bleeding edge technologies

Target Domains Government Commercial

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the Organization (Company) 2

Values Have fun Control our own time / control our own destiny Work with bleeding edge technologies Build good products from which others can

benefit Have fun Say what you’ll do, do what you say Make sure it makes sense Paid for every hour worked Insurance / Medical package 401k

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the Organization (Company) 3

Cultural Results Communicative, intimate Transparency- standing communication events

and associated tools Social amplification- no time or opportunity for

hidden agendas manipulating the system or hiding out

As well, if you are not of an open and cooperative spirit, and not a top performer, you will never work for this company to begin with

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Personnel conditions- keys to success Geographically distributed Working out of homes Primarily responsible for their own time Very limited face-to-face contact

Making Lemonade Personnel conditions detrimental to

success Geographically distributed Working out of homes Primarily responsible for their own time Very limited face-to-face contact

Lemons

Lemonade

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Communication- Virtual Office Use of Bridgit and Skype key tools

Asynchronous – sending files over Skype. Also standard external and secure internal email.

Semi-Asynchronous – Skype chat, notes pop up on your screen, like someone popping by your office. Even men can multi-task. Can see when people are on or off-line.

Synchronous Skype VTC, used occasionally for 1 on 1 meetings Skype telecom, a teleconference used extensively With the addition of Bridgit (where participants can view the

discussion leader’s desktop, and do whiteboarding), you are virtually in the conference room during the discussion.

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Extreme Tipping Point In typical organizations there can be various

levels of buy in, and still the entire organization is level 3.

In the ultra-small environment this is not possible. Either everyone is a liar, diluted, or actually doing it; there is no in between.

“try not; do, or do not, there is no try” - Yoda

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“Because you have personality”

Little Rascals- Darla to Alfalfa GM and CTO set the

tone of open and frank

They are the process leads, trash pickup

Tasks well outside the job description The task of giving employees reasons to love

working for the company is taken seriously

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Good Process Genes OR- “They cheated, they have good DNA”-

Process background of company principals Both are process wonks Both had significant roles in defining and

establishing software processes for a level 5 company

Both managed Quality Assurance/Design teams

Both are trained assessors (CMM / CMMI) Both participated in multiple assessments

(including Level 5)

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Table of Contents

The Organization (company) The Defined Process (OSP) The Appraisal

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OSP Approach Basic precepts

Maximize the work that can be accomplished by focusing people on the artifacts that need to be generated

Minimize the number of things that must be touched to perform an activity

The process is embedded in the templates, forms, and checklists

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OSP Architecture

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OSP Breakdown Policies

Provide the “authorization” 4 Manuals

Describe “what to do” Grouping of topics is based on the CMMI Builds on the millions invested in the SEI models

Handbooks Describe some of “what to do” Capture “how to do it”

Templates / forms / additional materials Provide the bulk of the “record” Facilitate execution (more of “how to do it”) Provide consistency and support deployment of

improvements Include instructions

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Reviews: Milestone Milestone Reviews

Project Kick-off (PK) Software Requirements Review (SRR) System Design Review (SDR) Integration Readiness Review (IRR) System Test Readiness Review (STRR) Release Readiness Review (RRR) Post Mortem

Characteristics May overlap customer reviews (in addition to OR pre-

empt) SRR, SDR, and IRR are not gating, but must be

completed successfully to exit the phase STRR or RRR must completed successfully prior to

delivery

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Reviews: Internal Most Engineering artifacts are reviewed

Requirements Use Cases DAR Vignettes Code Test Plan Test Cases Test report SVD

Activity record containing list of participants, review status, action items, decisions, and checklist

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Checklists Highlight / ensure

Participation Preparation Compliance to key elements of applicable processes

Associated with… Reviews (Internal / Milestone)

Checklists customized to the artifact or activity Meetings

Senior Staff Program Management Reviews CCBs

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Templates and Forms Majority of defined artifacts have

supporting templates, activities have associated templates or forms

Provide the bulk of the “record” Facilitate execution Provide consistency, support

deployment of improvements Normally contain guidance on how to

use them (limited training materials)

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Table of Contents

The Organization (company) The Defined Process (OSP) The Appraisal

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Institutionalization… … a moot point or instantaneous;

you be the judge The GM only allows process changes that are

common sense and truly help his company perform.

As such process updates are instantaneous, why wouldn’t the company want to adopt them?

Example: the GM agreed to a priority column for the risk list template; it was drafted, reviewed, updated, rolled out, and adopted by projects in one week.

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Quandary Becomes Reality This small, intimate setting poses some

challenges for some appraisal guidance topics. One of which is that no superior-subordinate

relationships can exists in the appraisal room within the team and during interviews.

This simply cannot be achieved; the appraisal team consisted of the lead, a process consultant, the GM and CTO (who are the process principals).

The QA lead/lead SE took care of the sponsor role, there are simply no other choices.

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Interesting Process Math

GP 2.3 = GP 3.1 FlySpray (CM tool) Manual describes the CM tool which

also contains some process definition.

OSP=PDP=GP 2.2 The organization’s standard process is the project’s

defined process, which also constitutes some of the planned activities that all projects must follow.

GP 2.8 = GP 2.10 The weekly senior staff meeting includes detailed

project status, it is a working meeting, not just a reporting meeting.

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Interesting Appraisal Algebra

Transitive Property of Equality

The following property: If a = b and b = c, then a = c.

Applying this property to services appraisals:

If CMMI = Manuals/Templates/Handbooks

and Manuals/Templates/Handbooks = Project Activities

then CMMI = Project Activities

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Interesting Appraisal Algebra

Interview PA TopicAll GP2.5 all Training ReceivedI&T TS SP2 - SVD for both projectsI&T VER Project Test PlanI&T VER Review Handbook (Milestone ~ IRR, STRR, RRR)I&T VER PI Project Test Case ResultsI&T VER Project Test ReportI&T PI Project IRR checklistI&T PI Make files and Installer filesPL CM GP2.6 PP Project Data PlanPL RskM Project Risk List

PL PP VER GP2.8 PMC IPM Project Schedules

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Thank You