Capability Maturity Model Integration(CMMI)

Reply needed 1 CMMI stands for Capability Maturity Model Integration, which is a model designed specifically to helps organizations improve their processes across a number of domains. While CMMI in this context will focus on using the model for best practices in software development, however, data as recent as 2018 highlights that CMMI is used in 18 different industries by at least one internal organizational unit (but often more than one) (CMMI Institute, 2018). It originated as a working framework for the U.S. Department of Defense in their software initiatives, but other organizations quickly realized that the CMMI models can help control complex development activities for all kinds of products and services alike. CMMI came to be as an improvement to having to use multiple CMMs by taking selected models of importance and combining them into a single framework (CMMI Product Team, 2010). CMMI has gone through various versions all adapting upon the previous to improve organizational processes in a meaningful and practical way.

At both my previous and current place of employment, the standard for development relied on the use of Scrum as the agile model of choice. Scrum, being a well-known agile framework for product and software teams, focuses on helping generate greater collaboration among self-organizing teams and efficient ways to manage their work. As indicated in The Scrum Guide, “Scrum employs an iterative, incremental approach to optimize predictability and control risk” (Schwaber & Sutherland, 2017). This is achieved through designated Scrum Teams with various roles and specific events incorporated into what is known as a Sprint. The sprint is the focal point of Scrum workflows, incorporating what is usually a time-box of one month or less to see a project to completion. The scope of the sprint is defined during the planning phase at the beginning with no changes being made that will jeopardize the sprint goal. As one sprint is completed the next immediately begins targeting items identified in the product backlog as items to tackle on the upcoming sprint (Schwaber & Sutherland, 2017). While this is not a comprehensive overview of the Scrum model it does outline the primary working principles, it incorporates transparency, inspection, and adaptation (Agile Alliance, n.d.). It is open and flexible enough to allow teams to incorporate practices from other models should the situation call for it.

Furthermore, when it comes to how Scrum aligns with CMMI process areas, there are a few areas where the model would be lacking in terms of addressing a specific practice therein. While it can be argued that the model does not lack an entire process area (of the 22 in total), there are certain goals within each that would not be satisfied. Therefore, without satisfying all the necessary goals one could argue the overall process area remains unsatisfied. To address a few of those process areas, one can begin by looking at the Project Planning area. The purpose of this area is identified as establishing and maintaining plans for project activities (CMMI Product Team, 2010). One of the specific goals within this area is SP 2.3: Plan Data Management, which would be considered missing in regard to Scrum. Data management is an integral component of any project as these become supporting items for areas of a project. It can come in the form of a deliverable and non-deliverable items and should establish specific requirements and procedures for not only the project but also the data as well. Despite the Scrum model promoting greater collaboration and communication the planning for data management is limited. There is no formal procedure to determine what should be recorded, how to consolidate, and how best to publish for stakeholders. Additionally, most interaction between team members is done through daily standup meetings, which are often broken up by teams and likely not officially recorded in any way. Therefore, important project data can be left out or not openly accessible to all the necessary parties. Without a concrete plan to manage the data and provide the availability to all stakeholders, it could result in communication breakdowns and project disruption.

Additionally, in terms of quality assurance, risk management is a key process area for any software project. As put by the CMMI Product Team, “The purpose of Risk Management (RSKM) is to identify potential problems before they occur so that risk handling activities can be planned and invoked as needed across the life of the product or project to mitigate adverse impacts on achieving objectives” (2010). The activity of risk management is a continuous process that should be evaluated over the span of the entire project life cycle. Risk can stem from both technical and non-technical sources and should address risks that are both internal to the organization and external. While some of the specific goals under the Risk Management process area can be considered satisfied or partially satisfied when using Scrum, as a whole it is largely unsatisfied. In an article by Ana Marcal and the team they write, “As previously mentioned, in SCRUM, risks are identified, but it doesn’t mention practices to define sources, parameters or categories to analyze and control the risk management effort” (2007). This is a substantial process area to account for because any methodology falling under Agile has an increase for risk as requirements change frequently throughout and new pieces are constantly introduced. Likewise, if you consider the lack of data management presented before, this could increase the likelihood of risks with various mitigation plans not properly recorded or stored. Regardless, any risk associated with a development project could spell disaster for the completion of sprint goals.

References

Agile Alliance. (n.d.). Scrum. https://www.agilealliance.org/glossary/scrum/#q=~(infinite~false~filters~(postType~(~’page~’post~’aa_book~’aa_event_session~’aa_experience_report~’aa_glossary~’aa_research_paper~’aa_video)~tags~(~’scrum))~searchTerm~’~sort~false~sortDirection~’asc~page~1).

CMMI Product Team. (2010, November). CMMI for development, version 1.3). Software Engineering Institute. https://learn.umgc.edu/content/enforced/111374-022073-01-2158-GO1-9040/CMMIforDevelopment.pdf.

Marcal, A.S.C., Freitas, B.C.C., Soares, F., & Belchior, A.D. (2007). Mapping CMMI project management process areas to SCRUM practices. Proceedings – International Conference on Software Engineering. 13 – 22. 10.1109/SEW.2007.102. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.965.3329&rep=rep1&type=pdf#:~:text=Process%20areas%20can%20be%20grouped,Project%20Management%2C%20Engineering%20and%20Support.&text=Agile%20methods%20define%20how%20the,rapid%20development%20and%20changing%20requirements.

Schwaber, K., & Sutherland, J. (2017, November). The scrum guide. Scrum Guides. https://www.scrumguides.org/docs/scrumguide/v2017/2017-Scrum-Guide-US.pdf#zoom=100.

Reply 2 Needed:

The use of the agile model has grown up considerably in many software engineering. This is due to its values which emphasize on individual and interactions rather than processes ad tools, working software instead of comprehensive documentation, rather than focusing on contract negotiation, it focuses on customer collaboration, and lastly, more emphasis is on responding to change rather than following a strict laid out plan. The model defines how work should be carried out using the stated values to answer the development and changes in the requirements (Carnegie Mellon University., 2008). However, when it comes to longer and bigger software development project, the agile model cannot cover all the practices alone. This is when developers bring in the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) to be used alongside the agile development model. When combined with CMMI, they are compatible since when used on a project, CMMI will focus on the high-level abstraction of the function of the project while agile methods deal with how the project develops its products. When used with the agile model, CMMI enables elevation and benchmarking the performance of various capabilities such as product development, service excellence, workforce management, cybersecurity while on the project among others which may be a challenge to organizations not using it (Ou, 2020).

To improve the agile software methodology, CMMI makes use of various process areas that when implemented together, satisfy the goals that are considered important in making improvements to a project. The process areas are common to both continuous and staged representations. There are four categories of process areas that agile miss and they include project management, engineering, process management, and support. Under project management, there is a project planning process area. Agile needs the project planning process area as it is responsible for providing practices like estimation, preparation, and taking commitment which helps in  implementers in ensuring effective project planning. Agile needs the project planning process area to interact with relevant stakeholders appropriately as well as getting the commitment plan on the project. Under process management, there is the Organization Process Performance (OPP) process area. The agile model doesn’t have this process area and therefore misses its importance. The main purpose of OPP is to establish and maintain a quantitative understanding of the performance of the process chosen (TutorialsPoint, 2019). It is needed to support the achievement of quality and process performance goals. It also helps in providing process performance in data, baselines, and models that quantitatively manage the given project.

References

Ou, H. (2020). CMMI Institute – CMMI V2.0. Cmmiinstitute.com. Retrieved 25 August 2020, from https://cmmiinstitute.com/cmmi.

Carnegie Mellon University. (2008). CMMI® or Agile: Why Not Embrace Both!. SEI. Retrieved 25 August 2020, from https://resources.sei.cmu.edu/asset_files/TechnicalNote/2008_004_001_14924.pdf.

TutorialsPoint. (2019). CMMI Key Process Areas – Tutorialspoint. Tutorialspoint.com. Retrieved 25 August 2020, from https://www.tutorialspoint.com/cmmi/cmmi-process-areas.htm.