CMMI and SDI
Had meeting again for CMMI. This is actually the continuation of the meeting last Thursday. Since we do have only less than a week for the presentation, the more intensive discussion is necessary with Mr. V. We met each other in Starbucks nearby my place (actually it is also nearby his place; we are neighbors). This is the place I met Mr. O last week and discussed Spiral Dynamics from the point of view of Community Development (See "Life Conditions"). Today I am here to discuss CMMI.
Together with ISO, both CMMI and SD are also the important frameworks to assess the organizational maturity. Somehow recently I have been involved with these kinds of assessment tools. It is an interesting coincidence. Of course we can say that there is no such thing as coincidence and everything and everyone are connected and have the reason to be happened, revealed and being there.
The main agenda for the meeting is how to modify our presentation materials. For, what is available right now is quite technical since it was prepared for the employees of each specific area and not seemingly appropriate for the management peoples who need more generic, whole perspective of the organization. Then, we tried to omit the detailed explanations and added the business cases to show how CMMI has contributed to the company that used this model. In doing so, the purpose of the presentation can be focused more on encouraging the management people to accept CMMI.
Here I just try to make a brief sketch of CMMI.
The complete name of CMMI is Capability Maturity Model Integration. As repeatedly said, it is the model to indicate the ideal direction for the organization -- particularly for IT related companies. It is also the tool to assess the maturity level of the organization. This name used be just CMM. The term, Integration is recently (in 2002) added for the intention to make a more integrated model to embrace the diverse IT related process areas. For example, CMM-SW was just for software development and CMM-SE was for system engineering. CMMI is actually the recent solution to omit those unnecessary categorizations and addressing to the more integral, generic perspective without losing the details. This is also to meet the recent demand to have the simpler assessment tool to see the company standard at once (See "Outsourcing")
The origin of CMM can be back to 1930s as the assessment tool for the product quality check especially for the weapons used for the Second World War. Especially for the warfare, the quality of the weapons is so critical. If the guns distributed to soldiers cannot work properly in the battlefield, then the military force has to lose not only the guns but also the life of soldiers, which is what they must absolutely avoid. In other words, the product quality check was developed basically to save the life of the users.
This history reminds me of the beginning of TÜV Rheinland, one of the worldly famous assessment companies. "At the end of the 19th century, steam and pressure vessels were a vital part of economic growth. Unfortunately, explosions of poorly maintained pressure vessels led to numerous severe accidents (See this page)." And due to this accident a number of people had also died. To avoid such accidents, one specific group was organized in Germany particularly to focus on the safe maintenance of the vessels. If the third party assesses the product quality and give the certification, then people can use the products without any unnecessary fear of accidents.
Such history or a kind of anecdotes are interesting to know how the product quality check has started and implemented, then sadly this fact also reminds us of the case of Mitsubishi Fuso. Despite the long history of the quality check, it seems that some companies are still far from the required level.
In the case of CMM it has been developed and refined in the field of airplane industries in the US and interestingly in NASA. Just like the weapons in the battlefields, the airplanes and the space rockets and satellites are the products in which any single mistake must never be allowed because any single mistake invites the death-related critical situation. This was the ideal environment for the further development of CMM. Usually people can maximize their potentials in such life-death situation.
Thus, CMM was first implemented in Boeing. According to some case study, because of CMM, the productivity of Boeing has achieved the 62% increase, while the cycle time of each project has shown the 36% improvement. And of course the customer and employee satisfaction has also increased at the same time. Such result was when Boeing was just at the maturity level 3.
Why is this kind of total improvement possible? It is because the CMM (and now CMMI) is focusing more on the whole integrated maturity in considering the organization as a kind of living system. This means that the levels are set up in the incremental, accumulative way. This is quite similar to the model of Spiral Dynamics (or Spiral Dynamics Integral). The higher the level is achieved, the more the organization can be integrated by embracing all the lower levels together. Using the word of Ken Wilber, it is the process of transcending and including.
While Spiral Dynamics Integral (SDI) has the nine levels (memes) from Beige to Purple to Red to Blue to Orange to Green to Yellow to Turquoise to Coral, at the same time contains both macro (socio-cultural) and micro (individual) perspectives, CMMI has only five levels, and yet each level contains a number of detailed clusters – these are called PA (Process Areas), GG (Generic Goals), GP (Generic Practices), SG (Specific Goals), SP (Specific Practices). All those areas, goals, and practices are presented as the 700 pages of numerous checklists. Thus, if the company can cover all the checklists, then it can be assessed as the maturity level 5.
Another characteristic of CMMI is that it focuses on the process. It is more process-oriented. If the main components of the organization are people, technologies and processes, then by making the process more matured, the organization can be more positively institutionalized, which is called the independence of the system. The organization is no longer depending on the exceptional talent of some individuals or technologies. For, the company has to provide the same quality of products all the time regardless of who are the employees and what kind of technology is emphasized. To meet this condition, the so-called independence of the system is indispensable. If the process is optimal, then the result and the products can be always ideal, not vice versa. It is not that we must do whatever we can do to meet the result, but rather that we must first optimize the process so as to meet the result.
Each level can be briefly described as follows.
The level 1 is called "Performed". In this stage it seems that everything is ad-hoc and unpredictable. People in this level are like the fire fighters to get things burned. They work hard. But this is one of the clear answers that "working hard" is not the solution at all for the organization. They can work hard and even harder, but feel like they are in the chaos and sooner or later they themselves will burn out. If I use the terms of Spiral Dynamics it is similar to the Beige meme. The concept of time is so primitive.
The level 2 is called "Managed". In this stage the true concept of "project" comes out. They are no loner the fire fighters but the sort of planners. In a certain time span they can decide what to do first and what to do next. The concept of prioritization is also important in this level; it is no longer that "everything is urgent and always urgent". However, the people in this level still focus on their own project alone. They do not have the broader perspective to see the interrelations among several projects that exit in the organization. Therefore, they can work hard as far as their own project is concerned, but they do not have the view to understand how their project can be related to the other projects in the organization. In the terminology of Spiral Dynamics, this is the Purple meme. The group of community is still small – around 150 members and has not yet institutionalized to maintain the whole society that contains the several Purple-scale, tribal groups.
The level 3 is called "Defined". In this stage the true sense of "process" finally emerges. This means that each process has already well-defined with its specific role and has harmonized with the larger entity that is the organization. Since each component has its definition, it is easy to see how each of them is related to the whole organization. For example, since the particular project has been well-defined in the process oriented conditions, the people in the project can see how their project can contribute to the whole organization and the other projects as well.
In other words, it is the positive institutionalization of the organization. The negative institutionalization creates the dead skeleton of the static hierarchy, whereas this positive institutionalization provides the live body of the dynamic holarchy (transcend/include form of hierarchy) where the blood actively flows as the substantial process. In the comparison with Spiral Dynamics, it is the Red to Blue meme. The institutionalized community can be functional due to either the supreme individual (Red) or the transcendental authority (Blue) – such supreme forces define the process and let it flow.
The level 4 is the called "Quantitatively Managed". It this stage the so-called quantitative measurement can be installed so as to evaluate the status of the whole organization together with the detailed processes. In the level 3, the people could realize the relation between the diverse projects and the whole organization with the true meaning of the process as the blood flow of the organizational body.
But then, what they need to do further is to know where they stand so far in comparison with its past and future. More specifically, people need to know where they stand in their project; and where they stand in their organization; and then where their organization stands in its maturity. To know such detailed "location" what they need is the measurement, a kind of yardstick. In other words, in this stage, for the first time, the company begins to require the external assessment to know where they are.
Of course the company of which level is less than level 1 or 2 can request the CMMI and/or ISO assessment. But in truth, we can say that if the company has achieved this level 4, then they can finally understand the true necessity of the external assessment – not because of the pressure, not because of getting the reputation, etc. but because of the true desire for the improvement. Compared to Spiral Dynamics, this is the stage of Yellow meme where you can see and evaluate each first tier meme and encourage the people in the first tier to leap into the second tier because you know the true importance of growth.
Finally, the level 5 is the stage of "Optimizing". In a sense, all the requirements for the process-focused organizational improvement have been achieved. Then, this final stage aims to optimize all the lower components for the further improvements. If I use the analogy of human body again, then the level 5 is the stage to check up your blood (process) -- its ingredients, pressure, and circulation, etc. In doing so, you can keep yourself healthy for your further growth. This is also the same as Spiral Dynamics; if you are in the Yellow and Turquoise memes of the second tier, what you need is to stay in this second tier and take care of each first tier meme or the people in the first tier. It is the maturity level that you can truly commit yourself to the growth of others and in so doing you can also continue to grow further and further.
Together with ISO, both CMMI and SD are also the important frameworks to assess the organizational maturity. Somehow recently I have been involved with these kinds of assessment tools. It is an interesting coincidence. Of course we can say that there is no such thing as coincidence and everything and everyone are connected and have the reason to be happened, revealed and being there.
The main agenda for the meeting is how to modify our presentation materials. For, what is available right now is quite technical since it was prepared for the employees of each specific area and not seemingly appropriate for the management peoples who need more generic, whole perspective of the organization. Then, we tried to omit the detailed explanations and added the business cases to show how CMMI has contributed to the company that used this model. In doing so, the purpose of the presentation can be focused more on encouraging the management people to accept CMMI.
Here I just try to make a brief sketch of CMMI.
The complete name of CMMI is Capability Maturity Model Integration. As repeatedly said, it is the model to indicate the ideal direction for the organization -- particularly for IT related companies. It is also the tool to assess the maturity level of the organization. This name used be just CMM. The term, Integration is recently (in 2002) added for the intention to make a more integrated model to embrace the diverse IT related process areas. For example, CMM-SW was just for software development and CMM-SE was for system engineering. CMMI is actually the recent solution to omit those unnecessary categorizations and addressing to the more integral, generic perspective without losing the details. This is also to meet the recent demand to have the simpler assessment tool to see the company standard at once (See "Outsourcing")
The origin of CMM can be back to 1930s as the assessment tool for the product quality check especially for the weapons used for the Second World War. Especially for the warfare, the quality of the weapons is so critical. If the guns distributed to soldiers cannot work properly in the battlefield, then the military force has to lose not only the guns but also the life of soldiers, which is what they must absolutely avoid. In other words, the product quality check was developed basically to save the life of the users.
This history reminds me of the beginning of TÜV Rheinland, one of the worldly famous assessment companies. "At the end of the 19th century, steam and pressure vessels were a vital part of economic growth. Unfortunately, explosions of poorly maintained pressure vessels led to numerous severe accidents (See this page)." And due to this accident a number of people had also died. To avoid such accidents, one specific group was organized in Germany particularly to focus on the safe maintenance of the vessels. If the third party assesses the product quality and give the certification, then people can use the products without any unnecessary fear of accidents.
Such history or a kind of anecdotes are interesting to know how the product quality check has started and implemented, then sadly this fact also reminds us of the case of Mitsubishi Fuso. Despite the long history of the quality check, it seems that some companies are still far from the required level.
In the case of CMM it has been developed and refined in the field of airplane industries in the US and interestingly in NASA. Just like the weapons in the battlefields, the airplanes and the space rockets and satellites are the products in which any single mistake must never be allowed because any single mistake invites the death-related critical situation. This was the ideal environment for the further development of CMM. Usually people can maximize their potentials in such life-death situation.
Thus, CMM was first implemented in Boeing. According to some case study, because of CMM, the productivity of Boeing has achieved the 62% increase, while the cycle time of each project has shown the 36% improvement. And of course the customer and employee satisfaction has also increased at the same time. Such result was when Boeing was just at the maturity level 3.
Why is this kind of total improvement possible? It is because the CMM (and now CMMI) is focusing more on the whole integrated maturity in considering the organization as a kind of living system. This means that the levels are set up in the incremental, accumulative way. This is quite similar to the model of Spiral Dynamics (or Spiral Dynamics Integral). The higher the level is achieved, the more the organization can be integrated by embracing all the lower levels together. Using the word of Ken Wilber, it is the process of transcending and including.
While Spiral Dynamics Integral (SDI) has the nine levels (memes) from Beige to Purple to Red to Blue to Orange to Green to Yellow to Turquoise to Coral, at the same time contains both macro (socio-cultural) and micro (individual) perspectives, CMMI has only five levels, and yet each level contains a number of detailed clusters – these are called PA (Process Areas), GG (Generic Goals), GP (Generic Practices), SG (Specific Goals), SP (Specific Practices). All those areas, goals, and practices are presented as the 700 pages of numerous checklists. Thus, if the company can cover all the checklists, then it can be assessed as the maturity level 5.
Another characteristic of CMMI is that it focuses on the process. It is more process-oriented. If the main components of the organization are people, technologies and processes, then by making the process more matured, the organization can be more positively institutionalized, which is called the independence of the system. The organization is no longer depending on the exceptional talent of some individuals or technologies. For, the company has to provide the same quality of products all the time regardless of who are the employees and what kind of technology is emphasized. To meet this condition, the so-called independence of the system is indispensable. If the process is optimal, then the result and the products can be always ideal, not vice versa. It is not that we must do whatever we can do to meet the result, but rather that we must first optimize the process so as to meet the result.
Each level can be briefly described as follows.
The level 1 is called "Performed". In this stage it seems that everything is ad-hoc and unpredictable. People in this level are like the fire fighters to get things burned. They work hard. But this is one of the clear answers that "working hard" is not the solution at all for the organization. They can work hard and even harder, but feel like they are in the chaos and sooner or later they themselves will burn out. If I use the terms of Spiral Dynamics it is similar to the Beige meme. The concept of time is so primitive.
The level 2 is called "Managed". In this stage the true concept of "project" comes out. They are no loner the fire fighters but the sort of planners. In a certain time span they can decide what to do first and what to do next. The concept of prioritization is also important in this level; it is no longer that "everything is urgent and always urgent". However, the people in this level still focus on their own project alone. They do not have the broader perspective to see the interrelations among several projects that exit in the organization. Therefore, they can work hard as far as their own project is concerned, but they do not have the view to understand how their project can be related to the other projects in the organization. In the terminology of Spiral Dynamics, this is the Purple meme. The group of community is still small – around 150 members and has not yet institutionalized to maintain the whole society that contains the several Purple-scale, tribal groups.
The level 3 is called "Defined". In this stage the true sense of "process" finally emerges. This means that each process has already well-defined with its specific role and has harmonized with the larger entity that is the organization. Since each component has its definition, it is easy to see how each of them is related to the whole organization. For example, since the particular project has been well-defined in the process oriented conditions, the people in the project can see how their project can contribute to the whole organization and the other projects as well.
In other words, it is the positive institutionalization of the organization. The negative institutionalization creates the dead skeleton of the static hierarchy, whereas this positive institutionalization provides the live body of the dynamic holarchy (transcend/include form of hierarchy) where the blood actively flows as the substantial process. In the comparison with Spiral Dynamics, it is the Red to Blue meme. The institutionalized community can be functional due to either the supreme individual (Red) or the transcendental authority (Blue) – such supreme forces define the process and let it flow.
The level 4 is the called "Quantitatively Managed". It this stage the so-called quantitative measurement can be installed so as to evaluate the status of the whole organization together with the detailed processes. In the level 3, the people could realize the relation between the diverse projects and the whole organization with the true meaning of the process as the blood flow of the organizational body.
But then, what they need to do further is to know where they stand so far in comparison with its past and future. More specifically, people need to know where they stand in their project; and where they stand in their organization; and then where their organization stands in its maturity. To know such detailed "location" what they need is the measurement, a kind of yardstick. In other words, in this stage, for the first time, the company begins to require the external assessment to know where they are.
Of course the company of which level is less than level 1 or 2 can request the CMMI and/or ISO assessment. But in truth, we can say that if the company has achieved this level 4, then they can finally understand the true necessity of the external assessment – not because of the pressure, not because of getting the reputation, etc. but because of the true desire for the improvement. Compared to Spiral Dynamics, this is the stage of Yellow meme where you can see and evaluate each first tier meme and encourage the people in the first tier to leap into the second tier because you know the true importance of growth.
Finally, the level 5 is the stage of "Optimizing". In a sense, all the requirements for the process-focused organizational improvement have been achieved. Then, this final stage aims to optimize all the lower components for the further improvements. If I use the analogy of human body again, then the level 5 is the stage to check up your blood (process) -- its ingredients, pressure, and circulation, etc. In doing so, you can keep yourself healthy for your further growth. This is also the same as Spiral Dynamics; if you are in the Yellow and Turquoise memes of the second tier, what you need is to stay in this second tier and take care of each first tier meme or the people in the first tier. It is the maturity level that you can truly commit yourself to the growth of others and in so doing you can also continue to grow further and further.
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