1. Portugal
CMMI5 how to fail?
High Maturity pitfalls and
misconceptions
José Gonçalo Silva, M.Sc., PMP
Quality Manager
Critical Software, S.A.
2011-10-03

2. CMMI5 How to fail
High Maturity Pitfalls and Misconceptions
About CSW
• Founded in 1998 by three PhD students in Coimbra
• Provides innovative and reliable services and technologies
for mission and business critical processes
• Achieved several certificates – some of them for the 1st
time in Portugal (e.g. TickIT, EN9100, CMMI level 3 and
level 5)
• Headquarters in Coimbra, offices in Porto and Lisbon, and
also in USA, UK, Brazil, Mozambique and Romania.
• Several spin-offs
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3. CMMI5 How to fail
High Maturity Pitfalls and Misconceptions
Disclaimer
This presentation aims at raising awarness regarding the
major pitfalls and misconceptions
Considerations on ways of surpassing these issues may be
mentioned but are not the main objective of this presentation
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4. CMMI5 How to fail
High Maturity Pitfalls and Misconceptions
Rule #1 – Lack of Top Management support
• Executive Committee does not see profit/advantage in
CMMI 5 practices (time to market is more important than
quality)
• Project Managers feel that projects are under stress;
unwilling to change their practices, little less, learn about
new ones (fail to see advantages of, e.g., reporting effort
with more contextual information)
• Funtional Managers do not commit to resources allocation
• Top Managers do not lead by example
• Lack of a Measurement Policy
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5. CMMI5 How to fail
High Maturity Pitfalls and Misconceptions
Rule #2 – Lack of Stakeholders Involvement
• Stakeholders from various areas are not involved in
planning activities
• Decisions do not take into consideration the areas’
interests/objectives
• Process improvements are not done by those who use
them (lack of “buy-in” and accountability for process
compliance)
• Workers do not have a formal mechanism of providing
feedback
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6. CMMI5 How to fail
High Maturity Pitfalls and Misconceptions
Rule #3 – Bad Metrics Program definition
• Program defined according to existing indicators only
• Company’s strategy not taken into consideration
• QPPO are simply choosen (not derived from business
goals)
• Lack of organizational process focus
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7. CMMI5 How to fail
High Maturity Pitfalls and Misconceptions
Rule #4 – Small changes in Project Management
practices
• EVA is the only project monitoring and prediction tool
• QPM SG2 is done by excuting and monitoring of the
project plan
• PPB and PPM are only used by the “quality guys”
• Project meetings spend 80% looking backwards and only
20% performing forecasts
• QPPO is a strange word to Project Managers
• CAR is for organizational purposes only
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8. CMMI5 How to fail
High Maturity Pitfalls and Misconceptions
Rule #5 – Unchanged Quality routines
• PPB and PPM are defined and stored (e.g. in a VCS).
Little effort is given for its maintenance
• The Quality Department is mostly concerned with Quality
Assurance activities (not so much with Quality Control)
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9. CMMI5 How to fail
High Maturity Pitfalls and Misconceptions
Rule #6 – Poor Communication
• Poor internal marketing
• “Reactive” type of dissemination regarding changes and
improvements
• Little and/or optional internal training regarding major
changes and improvements
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10. CMMI5 How to fail
High Maturity Pitfalls and Misconceptions
Rule #7 – Difficult starting conditions
• Lack of HM knowledge (what exactly is it about?)
• Poor effort reporting framework (usually does not link effort
to contextual information)
• No metrics expert (coach)
• No data warehouse (existing DB are not integrated)
• Core PAs from Levels 2 and 3 (e.g. MA, PMC) may need
unexpected improvements
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11. CMMI5 How to fail
High Maturity Pitfalls and Misconceptions
Rule #8 – Failing to grasp the real depth of HM as per the Model
(examples)
• Training
• Six Sigma Green/Black Belt
• PSP/TSP training
• “Understanding CMMI High Maturity Practices”
• “Implementing Goal-Driven Measurement”
• Statistical training
• Books, Papers, etc
• Understanding Variation: the Key to Managing Chaos, Donald J.
Wheeler
• Software Metrics: Establishing a Company-wide Program
by Robert B. Grady
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12. CMMI5 How to fail
High Maturity Pitfalls and Misconceptions
Final comments
• CMMI5 implies
• Significant financial resources (it’s nearly impossible to do
it with low investiments)
• Belief in the process (getting there is like a leap of faith)
• Persistance, determination
• Strong communication
• “Program” Charter (CEO must empower the Program
Manager properly)
• Relevant stakeholders’ involvement
• Working with early adopters (this is a mind-shifting
process)
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13. CMMI5 How to fail
High Maturity Pitfalls and Misconceptions
Thank you! Q&As?
José Gonçalo Silva, M.Sc., PMP
Email: jsilva@criticalsoftware.com
Skype: jose.goncalo.silva
Quality Manager, Critical Software, S.A.
http://www.criticalsoftware.com
SEI Partner Advisory Board’s High Maturity Working Group Member
http://www.sei.cmu.edu/partners/advisoryboard/highmaturitycasestudies.cfm
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