CMMI Distilled: A Practical Introduction to Integrated Process Improvement [Paperback]

CMMI® (Capability Maturity Model® Integration) is an integrated, extensible framework for improving process capability and quality across an organization. It has become a cornerstone in the implementation of continuous improvement for both industry and governments around the world. Rich in both detail and guidance for a wide set of organizational domains, the CMMI Product Suite continues to evolve and expand.

Updated for CMMI Version 1.2, this third edition of CMMI® Distilled again provides a concise and readable introduction to the model, as well as straightforward, no-nonsense information on integrated, continuous process improvement. The book now also includes practical advice on how to use CMMI in tandem with other approaches, including Six Sigma and Lean, as well as new and expanded guidance on preparing for, managing, and using appraisals.

Written so that readers unfamiliar with model-based process improvement will understand how to get started with CMMI, the book offers insights for those more experienced as well. It can help battle-scarred process improvement veterans, and experienced suppliers and acquirers of both systems and services, perform more effectively. CMMI® Distilled is especially appropriate for executives and managers who need to understand why continuous improvement is valuable, why CMMI is a tool of choice, and how to maximize the return on their efforts and investments. Engineers of all kinds (systems, hardware, software, and quality, as well as acquisition personnel and service providers) will find ideas on how to perform better.

The three authors, all involved with CMMI since its inception, bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to this book. They highlight the pitfalls and shortcuts that are all too often learned by costly experience, and they provide a context for understanding why the use of CMMI continues to grow around the world.

Since the first edition of CMMI Distilled was published, there have been significant changes in the CMMI world. As promised, CMMI-SE/SW/IPPD/SS version 1.1 was released in 2002. Later that year, CMMI-SW was released. In just three years we have seen amazing worldwide adoption rates of the CMMI Product Suite, with implementation evenly divided between government suppliers and commercial sector organizations. The suite has become recognized as the cutting edge of process-improvement technology.

There has been considerable activity in the availability of CMMI-based material, as well. In February 2003, the SEI published its hardbound reference version of the complete model with practitioner information and guidance. The number of technical notes and other guidance published continues to increase. CMMI Transition Partners (licensed by SEI, and currently numbering over 100) have developed their own supplementary materials.

Given this explosion of material, along with the continuing ability to download from the Web the models and other components of the Product Suite, we felt a real need to bring out a second edition of CMMI Distilled. Here are some of the important reasons:

1. CMMI version 1.1 contains improvements over version 1.0 (which formed the basis for our first edition).
2. CMMI is now a recognized and widely adopted model, so that some of the material concerning the creation of CMMI and its relationship to the legacy models is less important to current readers.
3. The pioneer case studies are somewhat out of date.
4. Even with the publication of the CMMI reference book, the need continues for a broader, more succinct view of CMMI, one that is readily accessible to executives, managers, and practitioners, as well as to the simply curious.
5. The readers of the first edition of CMMI Distilled sent us thoughtful comments, suggestions, and requests.

Candidly, another major reason was that we were running out of copies of the last edition with which to impress friends and family members, and figured a new edition would be more fun than simply ordering more books.

Organization of the Book

The book is divided into four major parts.

Part I introduces integrated process improvement and provides a rationale for undertaking such an approach. This material is both a primer for the novice and ammunition to gain management support for the process improvement champion. It offers general guidance as well as specific hints on implementation, including pointers to support the migration from legacy process improvement activities and accomplishments. Part I also provides "Pearl of Wisdom" that are based on lessons learned from the pioneering organizations that blazed the trail toward integrated process improvement. If you wish to start your reading with the details of CMMI, you could save this first part for review at a later time.

Part II describes the work of the CMMI Team. The CMMI philosophy, architecture, and models are presented, and examples of the models are annotated in detail to provide a better understanding of their contents. This part also includes some of the rationale for specific CMMI decisions and help in navigating the rather daunting CMMI models.

Part III builds on the first two parts and offers the authors' practical guidance in the use of the CMMI products. It suggests heuristics for choosing models and representations appropriate for a specific organization. It also describes CMMI appraisals and explains how to tailor the CMMI products to fit an organization and enhance the probability of success in applying CMMI.

Part IV presents some musings on the future of CMMI. These informed speculations reflect some of the discussions held formally and informally during and since CMMI development. The ideas included are intended to invite discussion and spark innovation, but not, as the sportswriters say, "as the basis for any actual cash wager."

Like their predecessors, the CMMI models are by necessity large and complex products. This book, while not duplicating all their information, will help you understand the CMMI models and auxiliary materials. It provides a rationale for integrating process improvement, a guide to the structure and contents of the CMMI models, and some practical ideas for using the models effectively in your organization.The authors have strived to provide information that is both timely and of lasting value, but understand the reality of the CMMI environment.We've added material on the realized return on investment of process-improvement initiatives. For those who would like a 30,000-foot view, there is a new overview of the model that links the components to business practices and outcomes. Chapter 10 has been totally revised, presenting a more practical discussion based on experience with the latest version of SCAMPI.

Of course our discussion of CMMI evolution has been updated to reflect our latest understanding of how the model will continue to adapt and remain relevant for a long time to come. Most importantly, the previous edition's well-deserved paean to the author team has been replaced by a new poem, celebrating the model and its potential to provide guidance for a new generation of improving organizations.

Acknowledgments

Numerous people helped with the development of the second edition, and we are indebted to them for all their good efforts. First were the readers who gave us suggestions for improvement and identified errata, with special thanks going to Ron Radice, Suzanne Garcia, and Mike Phillips. Second were those who shared their experiences with us to bring you better examples and clearer exposition, especially Kathleen Dangle. Third, and certainly not least, were our amazing wives (Pam, Debbi, and Jo) who, in addition to providing occasional relief from family obligations, read various draft versions of our revised text, offering valuable improvement suggestions. We love you all even more.

Our hope for you, our readers, is that you will find benefit in this new edition and improvements that are informative, useful, and appropriate to your needs.

—Dennis, Aaron, and Rich
Baltimore, Dallas, and Washington, D.C.
July 2003

0321186133P09122003 --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Capability Maturity Model IntegrationSM (CMMI) has rapidly become a preferred means of improving organizational processes in industry and government. Building on a decade of work with process improvement models, including the Capability Maturity Model® (CMM®) for Software and the Systems Engineering Capability Model, a team of over two hundred engineering and process improvement experts worked for three years to create this broader, more agile instrument for guiding, integrating, and appraising improvement activities. CMMI provides a single, integrated framework for improving processes throughout an organization, enhancing the quality and efficiency of the organization as a whole.

The CMMI Product Suite is rich in detail and guidance, but correspondingly large and somewhat complex. The sheer volume of information it presents can seem overwhelming. CMMI Distilled reduced that complexity with a fresh and approachable introduction to the key elements of CMMI and integrated process improvement.

This new edition of CMMI Distilled, updated for CMMI version 1.1, includes more material in layman's language to meet a wider variety of reader's needs, but has not lost any of the technical content that made the first edition so successful. Written for those new to model-based process improvement, it also offers insights that can help even battle-scarred process improvement veterans and experienced systems, software and quality engineers perform better. CMMI® Distilled, Second Edition is especially appropriate for executives and managers who need to understand why process improvement is valuable, why CMMI is a tool of choice, and how to maximize the return on their efforts and investments.

The three authors have been involved with CMMI since its inception, and they bring a wealth of their own experience and knowledge to this book. They highlight the pitfalls and short cuts that are all too often learned by costly experience. Above all, they provide a context for understanding why CMMI is the fastest growing process improvement framework in the world.

0321186133B06272003 --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Dennis M. Ahern is an advisory engineer at Northrop Grumman Corporation. Previously, he taught at Yale University and the University of Maryland. He was the deputy project manager of the CMMI Development Team, a co-leader of the CMMI Editor Team, and an author of CMMI. He is also a coauthor of CMMI® SCAMPI Distilled (Addison-Wesley, 2005).

Aaron Clouse is a senior member of the technical staff at the Software Engineering Institute (SEI). He recently retired from Raytheon Company, where he worked on process improvement programs for more than seventeen years. He has a background in electronic engineering and systems engineering in digital signal processing systems. He was a member of the CMMI Product Team and is an author of CMMI.

Richard Turner, a distinguished service professor in the Stevens Institute School of Systems and Enterprises and a visiting scientist at the SEI, has worked in industry, government, and academia to improve the development and acquisition of software-intensive systems. A member of the original CMMI development team, he has coauthored Balancing Agility and Discipline with Barry Boehm (Addison-Wesley, 2004) and CMMI® Survival Guide with Suzanne Garcia (Addison-Wesley, 2007).

CMMI Distilled was originally conceived as a way to introduce the CMMI Product Suite and model-based continuous process improvement to a wide audience. Our goal was to offer a succinct, no-nonsense, minimal-jargon, wittily written, practical guide that was less than half the weight of the "official" CMMI book. We wanted to describe the origins of the model and give the readers some insight into how the 200plus CMMI authors worked (and fought) to produce it. The first edition had a good deal of "why" information, aimed at folks who had used one of the three source models and who wanted to understand how CMMI differed from earlier models. Of course, it also had the "what" and "how" information about CMMI Version 1.0.

The second edition coincided (roughly) with the release of CMMI Version 1.1, so it included significant changes to the original "what" and "how" sections. At that point CMMI was no longer new and people were beginning to move away from the source models, so we removed some of the "why" material. To reflect the broader reach of CMMI and the need to support practitioners in acquiring sponsors for their improvement initiatives, the second edition added material aimed at managers rather than practitioners.

CMMI content and usage continue to evolve, so now we have created a third edition, building on the legacy of the first two. CMMI began as a tool for managing improvements in engineering development organizations, with a focus on systems and software. In CMMI Version 1.2, this attention to engineering has been strengthened by including explicit hardware-related information. More intriguing, however, are two new members of the CMMI Product Suite: one for the acquirer of systems instead of the developer, and the other for service providers instead of product builders. With these two additions, the potential scope of application for CMMI within an organizational enterprise has broadened significantly. At the same time, CMMI is finding use outside the traditional engineering field. For example, it has been adopted by enterprises as varied as medical facilities seeking to improve their patient care and government entities trying to build and improve their infrastructure.

We had three primary reasons for writing the third edition of CMMI Distilled.

1. We wanted to update the book to include changes to the CMMI architecture, content, and presentation, as well as the ongoing domain extensions to the model. The full, updated model content for version 1.2 is covered in the same way as in our previous editions. We use the graphics from the CMMI training material and describe the model components clearly and simply.
2. We wanted to further reduce the amount of historical information relating to the origins of CMMI. For those who may be interested, this material is well covered in the previous editions of this book.
3. We wanted to update and expand upon the practical advice we offer for those using the model. In this edition, we more fully address CMMI usage in tandem with Six Sigma, lean engineering, and other continuous improvement approaches. We also discuss some of the changes to the appraisal methods; specifically, we provide additional guidance on preparing for and managing appraisals, and on using the appraisal results as a powerful input to improvement activities.

Those who have read the previous editions of this book will not be surprised to find that we have included yet another literary offering (three songs) addressing CMMI and the world of continuous improvement. In fact, for those of you who may have missed the first two editions, the earlier "literary gems" can be found on the Pearson Web site at informit.com/aw under either "literary gems" or "superfluous material"—for some reason, the editors were still discussing this as of publication.

And so, in recognition of the explosive growth of CMMI as a process improvement tool of choice around the world, and having incorporated the most recent developments in the evolution of the model suite, we are pleased and excited to present this third edition of CMMI Distilled. We hope that it will continue to help our readers understand the CMMI Product Suite and use it wisely for their continuous improvement initiatives.

As always, we couldn't have put this third edition together without the support, wisdom, and patience of our wonderful wives. Pam, Debbi, and Jo—we still love you the best of all!

Dennis, Aaron, and Rich

April 2008