| Clearly communicate the reason for undertaking this large
effort to the entire organization.
There are many
reasons organizations work toward SEI CMM Levels:
- Competition
-- others in the industry are doing it and the company needs to stay
competitive
- Contractual
requirement -- obligated by the customer
- Makes good business
sense -- the software development organization realizes processes
are needed to ensure productivity gains.
- Need to do more
with less -- the mantra of the current business climate
**Obtain
executive and senior management by-in.**
- Ensure that all executives
and senior management are properly educated in the work required for
this project and what their role will be.
- Only proceed if executive
or senior managers are committed and able / willing to communicate
this committment daily to their organizations.
Inform ALL of the organization
regarding the reasons for achieving SEI CMMI levels.
- Have a mandatory
Kick-off presentation
- Educate the
entire organization with an overview of the SEI CMM - what is it,
why it's needed, what's in it for them
- Make up visuals
and post them throughout the organization - vision, mission, goals
placards
- Have a mascot
-- select a character (frog, rabbit, dragon, etc.) that will represents
the project and use it in emails, presentations, web-sites, etc.
- Have a contest
to select the character and award the winner
- Have weekly
progress communciations delivered to the entire organization and post
progress charts
**Ensure
that the leaders of the SEI attainment project have done it before.**
- There are many
"consultants" who have read about and perhaps been peripherally
involved with an SEI CMMI Attainment effort. Peripheral exposure is
insufficient to lead this project.
- There are certified
SEI Lead Assesors who have never lead an organization through SEI
CMMI Levels. You don't want these Lead Assesors leading the project.
How to
identify those who have done it:
- Ask about organizational
change.
- Typical
feedback would be: identify change agents, train them, have them
communicate throughout the organization on a regular schedule
and make absolutely sure there is constant and visible executive
and senior management support.
- Ask about lessons
learned:
- Executive
and senior management needs to constantly demonstrate commitment
to the SEI CMMI. If they don't, the project will fail.
- Ensure those
training the organization in software development process understand
the SEI CMMI. This ensures linkages are made between the organizational
processes and the SEI CMMI.
- The entire
software development organization needs to understand that achieving
SEI CMMI levels is their responsibility and not just that of the
process core team.
- Make
sure the software development organization fully understands
and uses the processes.
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