The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 3 (of 5)

Capability Maturity Model

Hello. I work in an IS Shop (110 people) of a middle-sized company (550 people) - As you can tell by the ratio, we have a technology focus.

Our Software Developing arm is about 35 people - including managers. We are currently looking into both the Capability Maturity Model and Extreme Programming (XP)/Agile Methods.

A lot of people have expressed a "help us understand this" mentality, coupled with a "I don't have time to read a 700 page book" mentality.

Now, for XP, this is fine. CMM, on the other hand ... well, the 700 page book is just the START.

sigh.

So, does anyone know of any web-resources that cut to the chase of CMM quickly? (Like "CMM in a nutshell" or "CMM pocket reference"?) I've allready printout out some of the typical 1-to-5 page magazine-length articles; people want to go deep, but not to the length of 700 pages.

thanks!

Matt H.
Thursday, October 30, 2003

I've been operating under the assumptioin that the CMM isn't a methodology. Rather, it's a measuring tool.

At least that's what I remember from my SE class oh so many years ago.

Thursday, October 30, 2003

Is your final goal to be assessed at some CMM level, or you just want to develop good software?

azazello
Thursday, October 30, 2003

http://www.sei.cmu.edu/pub/documents/93.reports/pdf/tr24.93.pdf

This seems to be about 82 pages, which ain't bad.

azazello
Thursday, October 30, 2003

This being software, shouldn't that be Calamity Maturity Model

Thursday, October 30, 2003

"What is the specific problems you are trying to solve with your exisitng processes?"

Answer this to your employees and maybe they will be more willing to read a little.

Everybody has an opinion
Thursday, October 30, 2003

Be careful. The CMM's going to have a certain DoD development focus. OTOH, although it's metric-driven, it's a full methodology.

While I don't particularly like XP (I think it's mostly BS & vapor), there are some good, smaller methodologies out there. I mentioned this in another topic, Software Project Management by Royce is a very good book on this stuff.

H. Lally Singh
Thursday, October 30, 2003

I'd like to introduce you to the Alyosha` Software Design Methodology:

1. Hire competent people.
2. Give them a problem to solve.

There. Was that so hard?

Alyosha`
Thursday, October 30, 2003

The "Alyosha` Software Design" methodology will never make it unless it has some acronym behind it. Maybe try ASDM and you'll get tons of folks singing praises to your name. Somehow, an acronym seems to legitimize things. Kinda makes you feel warm and fuzzy...

Cletus
Thursday, October 30, 2003

How about the Alyosha Software System? :P

m
Thursday, October 30, 2003

1. Hire competent people

Only, not a few, not some, only. Otherwise you'll have the bad chasing out the good.

Me
Thursday, October 30, 2003

Might I suggest #3 being let each team choose the best way, from experience, to ensure quality, track bugs, etc., Alyosha`?

Flamebait Sr.
Thursday, October 30, 2003

To the first poster: Yes. CMM requires "what" must be covered.

XP, Agile, Scrum, Waterfall ... those are ciover "how."

That said, CMM sorta kinda implies waterfall and is hard to get around. We're looking to do it in an agile way.

Matt H.
Thursday, October 30, 2003

Flamebait: sure. What works well for one team may not work well for another. If the teams need to work together, though, they'll likely work out the best way to solve their differences at the point of contact anyways, perhaps by using the same tools ...

I think process is best grown and cultivated, solving problems as they arise, not imposed from above, solving problems that may never exist. You'll get more buy-in that way, too.

Alyosha`
Thursday, October 30, 2003

Matt:

This is a good one, 400 pages and more importantly lets you know how CMM was rolled out in Infosys.

BTW: infosys was one of the first companies to get the certification.

Also, the author was working there, and so it is a first hand observation.

Prakash S
Thursday, October 30, 2003

DUH!!, I didn't even post the link :

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0201616262/qid=1067563638/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-6769662-4927246?v=glance&s=books

Prakash S
Thursday, October 30, 2003

The real problem with CMM is that most companies do it not to actually improve their software, but to use their CMM level as a marketing tool. The result is reams of bureaucratic processes that satisfy the assessment board without bringing much benefit to the software itself.

T. Norman
Friday, October 31, 2003

Me> "Only, not a few, not some, only. Otherwise you'll have the bad chasing out the good."

Gresham's Law of Software Develpment?

Rob VH
Friday, October 31, 2003