Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Organizations have rhythm, too. To maintain your organization's rhythm, all
departments or team members must meet their commitments, or it can throw
off the overall organization rhythm. This is because other groups might be
dependent on your output to complete their commitment. At LACM, we saw
the trouble that was caused when the procurement department missed their
commitment and how it affected the overall rhythm of the project.
A Misunderstanding Between Agile and CMMI Communities
When I think of rhythm in my golf swing, the words
consistency
and
repeata-
bility
come to mind in a
positive
way. Some Agile proponents have viewed the
notion of a repeatable process in a negative way. Ken Schwaber, co-founder
of Scrum, has argued against the notion of
defined
process by stating that soft-
ware development is an
empirical
process in the sense that we are constantly
learning and feeding back improvements in the process. [3]
While this idea of continuous learning and feedback for improvements has
been used as an argument against the notion of defined process in the
CMMI, in reality this is what “defined” actually means in the CMMI. That is,
tailored from the organizational assets and
feedback
to both those executing
the immediate process to help them determine whatever adjustments are
called for, and feedback to the organizational assets to help others improve.
12
Where the real conflict comes is in the
frequency
of feedback and improve-
ment. With Agile, the cycles are short, and many believe this is counter to the
CMMI—another myth. It is only counter to how many have chosen to imple-
ment the model in the past.
MYTH
The short continual iterations encouraged by Agile approaches are
counter to the CMMI.
The fact is that the CMMI doesn't dictate any length of time, or exact fre-
quency for tailoring and improvement cycle feedback. It says you need to do
it. You decide the appropriate length of the cycle. Each organization has its
own rhythm. Each organization can define its own approved life cycles, and
these should be based on its business needs.
Ask yourself key questions to help decide what is right for your organization.
For example, how fast must you get product out the door in your organization?
12. Reference Generic Practice 2.8, Monitor and Control the Process, and Generic Practice 3.2, Collect
Improvement Information.
