Thursday, October 27, 2011

Where can I find white papers about CMMI and Agile?


Dear Appraiser, in our engineering division, we’ve got a CMMI champion and an Agile champion.  I’ve been reading your blog for a long time, and I know you say it is possible to improve as a company by applying Agile methods to the CMMI model.  Is there a detailed CMMI white paper I can share with my team on this? ~ Za Niam

Dear Za,

Thank you for being a long-time reader.  As you know from reading "Ask the CMMI Appraiser" a lot of engineers mistakenly believe that Agile development methods (such as Scrum and XP) and the CMMI  are at odds with each other.  As you already know, they aren’t.

I can point you towards a CMMI white paper on this.  Three years ago, I teamed up with four other industry luminaries to write a report ("CMMI or Agile: Why not embrace both?") that clarifies why the discord between Agile and CMMI need not exist.  The report shows that CMMI and Agile champions can work together to achieve great benefit from using both, and exploit synergies that have the potential to dramatically improve business performance.

Amazingly, even though it was written three years ago, the report is still timely.  In fact, it continues to be the No.1 download from the SEI web site.  Check it out here.

You can also download it (and other white papers about CMMI) here.

Jeff Dalton is a Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, Certified CMMI Instructor, Candidate SCAMPI Appraiser Observer, author, and consultant with years of real-world experience with the CMMI in all types of organizations.  Jeff has taught thousands of students and has received an aggregate satisfaction score of 4.97 out of 5 from his students.

He has recently developed the "Scrum+CMMI Learning Experience" for Broadsword.

Learn more about CMMI Appraisals at www.broadswordsolutions.com

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