# Presentation: 001015

##  What’s RIGHT with the CMMI?!?  Pat O’Toole, PACTNovember 2005

## Agenda

**Required/Expected/Informative**
**Mapping Practices to Goals**
**Base/Advanced Practices**
**One Model – Two Representations**
**Equivalent Staging**
**Using the “Constagedeous” Approach**

## Required/Expected/Informative

**Required components**
**Specific and generic goals**
**Achieved by planned and implemented processes**
**Expected components**
**Specific and generic practices**
**Typical implementation to achieve a goal**
**Practices as described or acceptable alternatives**
**Informative components**
**Everything else**

**Notes:**
Required, Expected, and Informative Components
The components of a CMMI model are grouped into three categories that reflect how they are to be interpreted:

Required: Specific goals and generic goals are required model components. These components must be achieved by an organization’s planned and implemented processes. Required components are essential to rating the achievement of a process area. Goal achievement (or satisfaction) is used in appraisals as the basis upon which process area satisfaction and organizational maturity are determined. Only the statement of the specific or generic goal is a required model component. The title of a specific or generic goal and any notes associated with the goal are considered informative model components. 

Expected: Specific practices and generic practices are expected model components. Expected components describe what an organization will typically implement to achieve a required component. Expected components guide those implementing improvements or performing appraisals. Either the practices as described, or acceptable alternatives to them, are expected to be present in the planned and implemented processes of the organization before goals can be considered satisfied. Only the statement of the practice is an expected model component. The title of a practice and any notes associated with the practice are considered informative model components.

Informative: Subpractices, typical work products, discipline amplifications, generic practice elaborations, goal and practice titles, goal and practice notes, and references are informative model components that help model users understand the goals and practices and how they can be achieved. Informative components provide details that help model users get started in thinking about how to approach goals and practices.

When you use a CMMI model as a guide, you plan and implement processes that conform to the required and expected components of process areas. Conformance with a process area means that in the planned and implemented processes there is an associated process (or processes) that addresses either the specific and generic practices of the process area or alternatives that clearly and unequivocally accomplish a result that meets the goal associated with that specific or generic practice.

## Required/Expected/Informative

**Informative Components**
**Subpractices**
**Detailed descriptions guiding practice interpretation and implementation**
**Generic Practice Elaborations**
**Guidance on how the generic practice applies to the Process Area**
**Typical Work Products**
**Provide example outputs from a practice**

**Notes:**
Subpractices
Subpractices are detailed descriptions that provide guidance for interpreting specific or generic practices. Subpractices may be worded as if prescriptive, but are actually an informative component in CMMI models meant only to provide ideas that may be useful for process improvement.  

Generic Practice Elaborations
Generic practice elaborations are informative model components that appear in each process area to provide guidance on how the generic practices should uniquely be applied to the process area. For example, when the generic practice “Train the people performing or supporting the planned process as needed” is incorporated into the Configuration Management process area, the specific kinds of training for doing configuration management are described.  

Typical Work Products
Typical work products are an informative model component that provides example outputs from a specific or generic practice. These examples are called “typical work products” because there are often other work products that are just as effective, but are not listed.

## What’s (Not Quite) Right with the CMMI

**Are typical work products really “informative?”**

## Agenda

**Required/Expected/Informative**
**Mapping Practices to Goals**
**Base/Advanced Practices**
**One Model – Two Representations**
**Equivalent Staging**
**Using the “Constagedeous” Approach**

## Mapping Practices to Goals - CMM

## Mapping Practices to Goals - CMMI

## Agenda

**Required/Expected/Informative**
**Mapping Practices to Goals**
**Base/Advanced Practices**
**One Model – Two Representations**
**Equivalent Staging**
**Using the “Constagedeous” Approach**

## Base/Advanced Practices

**Base practices: associated with CL1**
**Advanced practices: associated with CL2 & CL3**
**Some advanced practices build on base practices, others do not.**
**There are no advanced practices at CL4 or CL5.**

**Notes:**
Base Practices
In the continuous representation, all the specific practices with a capability level of 1 are called “base practices.”

Advanced Practices
In the continuous representation, all the specific practices with a capability level of 2 or higher are called “advanced practices.”

For example, within the Requirements Management process area, “Develop an understanding with the requirements providers on the meaning of the requirements” is a capability level 1 specific practice, whereas “Obtain commitment to the requirements from the project participants” is a capability level 2 specific practice. 

Sometimes an advanced practice builds on a base practice. When this happens, the advanced practice is included in the staged representation as a specific practice, but the base practice is not. Rather, the base practice is presented as informative material after the specific practice. This informative material explains how the base and advanced practices appear in the continuous representation. Other times, an advanced practice does not build on a base practice. When this happens, the advanced practice is automatically included in the staged representation as a specific practice.

The specific practice numbering scheme identifies these conditions. In the continuous representation, specific practices are numbered so that the reader can identify to which specific goal the practice is mapped, its sequence number and its capability level. For example, in the Requirements Management case above, the first specific practice of the first specific goal will be numbered 1.1-1 and the second will be 1.2-2. In the case where a specific practice builds on another, the sequence number will be the same for both specific practices, that is, 1.1-1 and 1.1-3. In the staged representation, only the number 1.1 appears. 

## Base/Advanced Practices

## Agenda

**Required/Expected/Informative**
**Mapping Practices to Goals**
**Base/Advanced Practices**
**One Model – Two Representations**
**Equivalent Staging**
**Using the “Constagedeous” Approach**

## One Model, Two Representations

**Staged Representation**
**Same as CMM for Software**
**Prescriptive ordering of improvement areas**
**Organizational Change Model**
**“****Maturity Levels” – group of process areas**
**Continuous Representation**
**Same as System Engineering CMM**
**Basic vs. advanced process areas**
**“****Capability Levels” – each process area individually**

## Slide 14

**Notes:**
Staged Representation 
Provides a pre-defined roadmap for improvement based on proven grouping and ordering of processes 

Continuous Representation
Provides flexibility for organizations to focus and measure improvement on their highest priority process areas

Both representations provide the same essential content  but organized in different ways

Legend:   PA = Process Area    ML= Maturity Level

Note:  Maturity Level refers to organizational maturity as measured in the staged representation
         Capability Level refers to process capability as measured in the continuous representation

## Equivalent Staging – ML2

**Notes:**
Equivalent staging is a target staging that is equivalent to the maturity levels of the staged representation.
The table above and on the next slide shows the target profiles that must be achieved when using the continuous representation to be equivalent to a maturity level 2 and 3 when using a staged representation.

The columns of the figure have the following meanings:
· “Name” is the full name of the process area.
· “Abbr” is the acronym corresponding to the “Name.”
· “ML” is the maturity level assignment of the process area in the staged representation.
· “CL1,” “CL2,” “CL3,” “CL4,” “CL5” are headings for the columns assigned to capability levels in the continuous representation.

The shaded areas in the capability level columns indicate target profiles that are equivalent to maturity levels in the staged representation.
· To achieve target profile 2 (and thereby be equivalent to maturity level 2), the process areas to the left of target profile 2 must have satisfied capability levels 1 and 2.
· To achieve target profile 3 (and thereby be equivalent to maturity level 3), the process areas to the left of target profiles 2 and 3 must have satisfied capability levels 1, 2, and 3.
· To achieve target profile 4 (and thereby be equivalent to maturity level 4), the process areas to the left of target profiles 2, 3 and 4 must have satisfied capability levels 1, 2, and 3.
· To achieve target profile 5 (and thereby be equivalent to maturity level 5), all of the process areas must have satisfied capability levels 1, 2, and 3.
CONT’d

## Equivalent Staging – ML3

**Notes:**
A general rule for equivalent staging:
· To achieve ML2, all process areas assigned to ML2 must achieve CL2 or above.
· To achieve ML3, all process areas assigned to MLs 2 and 3 must achieve CL 3 or above.
· To achieve ML4, all process areas assigned to MLs 2, 3, and 4 must achieve CL3 or above.
· To achieve ML5, all process areas must achieve CL3 or above.

The above rule and table for equivalent staging is complete, but a question that is often asked is “why don’t target profiles 4 and 5 extend into the CL4 and CL5 columns?” The maturity level 4 process areas describe a selection of the subprocesses to be stabilized based, in part, on the quality and process-performance objectives of the organization and projects. Not every process area will be addressed in the selection and the model does not presume in advance which process areas might be addressed in the selection. The achievement of capability level 4 for process areas cannot be predetermined because the choices will be dependent upon the selections made by the organization in its implementation of the maturity level 4 process areas. Thus, the table above does not show target profile 4 extending into the CL4 column although some process areas will have achieved capability level 4. The situation for maturity level 5 and target profile 5 is similar.

The existence of equivalent staging should not discourage users of the continuous representation from establishing target profiles that extend above capability level 3. That target profile would be determined in part by the selections made by the organization as described in the previous paragraph.  

## Staged Equivalence - 1

## Staged Equivalence - 2

## Staged Equivalence - 3

**Notes:**
Same setup as the previous Scenarios.

What is the equivalent maturity level of this organization?

## Staged Equivalence - 4

**Notes:**
Same setup as the previous Scenarios.

What is the equivalent maturity level of this organization?

- - - -

QUESTION: Could this organization be performing at Level 4?  That is, if the Process Areas staged at Maturity Level 4 were included in the assessment, but are going to be displayed on the next chart (or so we are pretending!), is it possible that this organization could be rated Maturity Level 4?

## Staged Equivalence - 5

## Staged Equivalence - 6

## Agenda

**Required/Expected/Informative**
**Mapping Practices to Goals**
**Base/Advanced Practices**
**One Model – Two Representations**
**Equivalent Staging**
**Using the “Constagedeous” Approach**

## Using the Constagedeous Approach

**Staged Representation**
**Management and customers love it: 1 simple number**
**Organizational Change Model**
**Continuous Representation**
**Different organizations have different needs/pains**
**Finer level of planning and tracking improvements**
**There are 14 process areas at maturity level 3!**
**Hybrid Approach**
**Use Staged to establish long range goal.**
**Used Continuous to plan, execute, and track.**

## Maturity Level 2 Example

**Maturity Level 2 Example**

## Maturity Level 3 Example

**Maturity Level 3 Example**

## Questions?

**Pat O’Toole**
**PACT.otoole@att.net**