CMMI: A Guide for Small Organizations CMMI made Practical 2012 by Paul Boca Hornbill Technologies Andrew Brettle - Lamri V1.1
Agenda Hornbill Technologies The Hornbill CMMI Journey What Worked? What Didn t Work? Lessons Learned Next Steps Conclusions
Hornbill Produces IT Service Management software ITIL v3 compliant Pink Verification achieved for 11 processes Client software Windows 7 certified Company established in 1995 Global customer base 600+ customers Various different verticals Used for Olympic Games
Hornbill Technologies Produces the Supportworks ESP platform Regular software releases (maintenance and feature) Technology driven company Employees all techies es Research and Development activities New features New products New technologies
Hornbill Technologies And now trust.hornbill.net
Hornbill Technologies Organisation 25 Employees (but multiple hats) Hornbill Technologies 1 x Chief Technical Officer 1 x Architect Quality Engineering Platform Infrastructure Application Incubation 1 x Manager 3 x Quality Engineer 1 x Technical Author 1 x Manager 14 x Developer 2 x System Engineer 1 x Application Engineer
Why CMMI? Quality Improve quality throughout the product lifecycle Improve quality through process improvement Scalability to Enterprise Class Improvement Process for improving the process Popularity Industry recognised
The Hornbill CMMI Journey
The Hornbill CMMI Journey Decide where you re going Which organisational units? Continuous or staged? DEV, SVC or ACQ or a combo? When do you want to arrive? Where are you starting from? Some process Some relevant process Some good process Is it being used? The Baseline Appraisal Need accurate co-ordinates to know where to start Right size the improvement effort Prioritise improvement effort Provide focus for improvement effort
The Hornbill CMMI Journey Early 2010 Decide on CMMI-DEV Objective set as Maturity Level 2 by December 2010 February 2010 Engage Lamri to undertake SCAMPI C Baseline Appraisal Results are very red 4 practices satisfied with 121 to fix
The Hornbill CMMI Journey Initial Approach Two senior managers address the findings Every 3 months updated process would be reviewed by a lead appraiser Became known as the CMMI by a thousand cuts period. Outcome Slow progress Lack of an overall process improvement plan. Lack of an understanding of how to apply the model Difficulty in judging the balance between satisfying the model and a pragmatic solution. Resources lack of bandwidth s CMM M DEV ML2 Clo osed Practice 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 Initial Approach 125 125 4 0 Jan 2010 Jan 2011 Closed Practices 19 Target ML2 Practices
The Hornbill CMMI Journey Lamri PEP Approach Engaged Lamri consultant t for 3 months Lamri PEP (Process Establishment Process) implemented Improvement plan implemented with target t gap closure dates Assurance of evidence Weekly disciplined drumbeat reporting against targets Coaching & Mentoring support Outcome Rapid progress Expert and experienced help in understanding the model High focus on gap closure CMMI Wednesdays initiated! Sponsor fully engaged losed Practice es CMM M DEV ML2 Cl 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 Lamri Engaged 125 125 4 19 0 Jan 2010 Jan 2011 Closed Practices Target ML2 Practices 111
The Hornbill CMMI Journey Final Approach The Final Approach 140 Two senior managers continue to address gaps 125 120 Lamri Process Healthchecks 111 every 3 months 100 Outcome Slow progress on some key practices 40 Slow institutionalisation of the processes 20 4 Achieve CMMI-DEV Maturity Level 2 s CMM M DEV ML2 Clo osed Practice 80 60 19 0 Jan 2010 Jan 2011 Jan 201 Closed Practices Target ML2 Practices 87
The Hornbill CMMI Journey Come in Houston. I think we achieved CMMI Maturity Level 2
What Worked?
Process Development Short focused disciplined improvements (The process establishment process) Process governance was very responsive as few people involved in decision making Process ownership and functional roles well aligned
Regular Checks SCAMPI B s Dry run for SCAMPI A. Ready or Not? Quarterly Healthchecks External scrutiny of process assets Checking to see whether we are adhering to our processes Pinpoint problems early and establish a plan to fix them
Effort and Cost Tracking effort through a simple timesheet system (excel based) Timesheet data used to produce Resource Plan Project budgets vs actual provided better visibility for Project budgets vs actual provided better visibility for the CFO and deeper engagement
Facilitating Change Able to roll out process changes to the entire team very quickly Team size was small, so training was easier to roll out Two approaches taken: Assemble everyone in a room for an hour and train them Send training material by email to be reviewed by the team
Communication An easy way to collaborate with the entire team Requirements, functional specs, test results all uploaded Review comments added to the talk pages Wikis already institutionalized within Hornbill
What didn t work
What Didn t Work Some of the processes are quite waterfall-centric Some processes are a little heavyweight Processes are very manual and therefore not scalable (with limited resources) Wiki good for developing a process but not ideal for Wiki good for developing a process but not ideal for running and maintaining processes
Cost of CMMI
External Consultancy Intensive period of consultancy from Lamri 45 days in total Engagement involved Coaching on CMMI Managing the closure of gaps Help with producing artefacts Two Managers from Hornbill Technologies developed the processes Approximately 1-2 days full time effort during the consultancy
SCAMPIs SCAMPI C The initial baseline (3 days) SCAMPI B dry run 1 week (2 Consultants and 2 HTL Managers) SCAMPI A the final appraisal 2 weeks (2 Consultants, 2 HTL Managers) Borrowed Mr NoteTaker for 1 week
Maintenance of CMMI ML2 Healthchecks 3 days Lamri Consulting per Quarter Maintenance/Improvements/Simplifications 1 day per week
Benefits of CMMI
Improved Fewer defects Quality
Professionalism On the Supplier Management Process: It made me feel more professional Gerry Sweeney, CTO HTL
Selected Comments from the SCAMPI A Improvements in the last 12 Months Finding more problems before they happen Calmness observed towards approaching-deadline Documentation and review has revealed many issues All documents in Wiki, so more transparency Continuous Reporting People have realised the importance of sequence; Requirements, Functional Spec
Greater Visibility Resource Plan Budget Monthly Utilisation reported to CFO for tracking CTO i i f h f h d CTO gains accurate picture of the state of the product and project
Enterprise Level Software Hornbill now has a presence on Gartner s Magic Quadrant Niche player Great achievement for an SME Hornbill s commitment to CMMI is one of the professional attributes that puts it in the company of giants such as HP, BMC, IBM and CA
Lessons Learned
Lessons Learned Before CMMI ML2
Lessons Learned If you think you understand CMMI, you probably don t
Lessons Learned Do not underestimate the effort required to achieve CMMI Maturity Level 2
Lessons Learned Maturity Level 2 is more than just documenting your processes
Lessons Learned Don t be afraid to ask for expert help
Lessons Learned Don t just try to get a tick in the box
Lessons Learned Some people will oppose change, failing to see the value of CMMI
Lessons Learned Involve your sponsor as much as possible
Lessons Learned Don t ask your team to do something you wouldn t be prepared to do yourself
Lessons Learned Things always take longer than you expect
Lessons Learned Put measures in place to make sure that you do not regress
Lessons Learned
Lessons Learned Before CMMI ML2 After CMMI ML2
Lessons Learned Don t take your eye off Don t take your eye off the ball
Lessons Learned Planning is central to everything Planning
Lessons Learned Do not gold-plate your processes CMMI
Lessons Learned If I Had More Time, I Would Have Written You a Shorter Letter process
Lessons Learned Process Healthchecks will keep you on the straight and narrow
Lessons Learned Do not underestimate the effort required ed to maintain CMMI ML2
Lessons Learned Do not be afraid to change your processes to be more Agile
Next Steps
From Waterfall to Agile Development processes used for the projects scoped for CMMI is Waterfall We want to move to a more Agile way of working (SCRUM in particular) This requires changing our current processes, simplifying them and adapting them to be Agile-friendly Process Simplification is key Initially we will focus on adapting PP and PMC Then align the other 5 CMMI ML2 processes to a more Agile way of working
ISO 27001 and 20000 ISO 27001 in preparation for Cloud Services ISO 20000 is the next target Looking at the possibility of achieving i ISO 20000 via CMMI for Services One additional process area (Service Delivery) to cover in addition to the 7 already covered by CMMI ML2
Beyond CMMI ML2 Perhaps, but it s not on our Process Improvement roadmap at the moment. We have enough challenges to deal with
Conclusions
Conclusions Hornbill Technologies achieved CMMI ML2 it took a while, but the slog was worth it We now have a foundation on which to build and improve Challenges ahead around transitioning to Agile Would I do things differently if I could start all over again?
Conclusions Hornbill Technologies achieved CMMI ML2 it took a while, but the slog was worth it We now have a foundation on which to build and improve Challenges ahead around transitioning to Agile Would I do things differently if I could start all over again?
Conclusions Think about the future direction of the project Automate from the outset Keep things simple
Q&A