Updates
Latest Tweet
What's New?
Check out for latest innovation, a computer based training video collection
Like this Page
CMMI(R): Guidelines for Process Integration and Product Improvement Review by JD
You have to know quite a bit to understand the material
I have been implementing high quality processes that have been made CMM/CMMI compliant to pass the appraisal process. But whenever I had to read the CMMI model as written in any of its forms, it was a challenge. There is a lot of material that causes quite a bit of confusion. The Software Engineering Institute admits that they redefine common words to suit their purposes, supposedly to make the model easier to understand but anytime you change the meaning of common words, it injects confusion. As it stands it is a bloated book with many examples provided but without any real additional explanation given. For example, each process area will list typical work products but there is nothing to explain what they really are, which is not very helpful when you are trying to implement the model. One might start chasing the goose that laid the golden egg to find that the typical example is no longer very typical and would not fit your environment or organizational culture. There are some good tidbits. For example, at the end of a case study it says don't create processes first, just do the work and worry about compliance last. That is very sound advice, but does one need to wade through 700 pages to find it? The book would benefit from making it more approachable to beginners.