Tuesday, June 5, 2012

After adopting the CMMI, did you experience an increase in quality or performance?

Welcome back to Ask the CMMI Appraiser for today’s installment of CMMI User Stories.

As described in my last post (What Do Companies THINK about the CMMI?), in response to the demand for information created by the SEI’s announcement about the CMMI (in a nutshell, the CMMI is being graduated from "research" status to “mature” status), we are sharing our study of what CMMI users really think about the CMMI.

The study consisted of calling CMMI users and asking them about their experiences with the CMMI, good and bad. Here’s our first question:

Did you experience an increase in quality or performance?

Why do we start with this question? Because different companies have different expectations of the CMMI. Some seek CMMI “levels” for the marketing advantages, or to satisfy customer requirements. Others strive for continuous process and performance improvement; they see the CMMI as the tool they use for guidance.

In both cases, the strength of the CMMI is that it provides organizations with guidelines for increasing performance and improving the quality of products and services. We wanted to know whether organizations actually achieved improvements in performance and quality.

81% of respondents said they improved in these areas.

 

What can we take away from this response? Of those who responded “I don’t know,” many told us that they weren’t tracking quality or performance increases. Many of those who said, “No,” indicated that they were already operating at a high level and the CMMI helped them standardize their excellence in performance and quality.

Most of CMMI Users experienced an increase in quality and performance if they were looking for it.

Be sure to check back regularly as we share results of the CMMI User Story study right here on Ask the CMMI Appraiser.

We’ve also made the information available in an eBook. If you would like to receive the complete set of user stories all at once, simply subscribe at the top of this page to receive eBooks. Provided that you are using a valid company email address (not a Yahoo, AOL or Gmail account), we will be happy to add you to the distribution list, and send you the eBook, along with others, in coming weeks.

Like this blog? Forward to your nearest engineering or software exec!

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

Visit www.broadswordsolutions.com for more information about running a successful CMMI program.

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